Natural Resources committee  Thank you.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for that question. In fact in our forward-looking analysis and our long-range planning, we do put in a price for carbon. Part of it is the reality that, as Mr. Leach mentioned, in Alberta there actually is a price on carbon and we've already paid into the large emitter fund since it came into effect.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Mr. Leach obviously spends a lot of his time studying this, so his facts are quite correct. Back in the early part of this, in 2000, we did have an initiative to reduce our costs to $9.80 a barrel by 2003, and certainly our costs are at $35 a barrel. I think it's an important point that he's brought up.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of Jean Côté, thank you very much for having Suncor here today to chat about the benefits of the oil and gas economy. Energy touches every aspect of our lives. It heats our homes, fuels our transportation, and provides access to services within our communities and also outside of them.

Human Resources committee  In terms of some of the specific barriers we have experienced in the programs we've dealt with, I think the first would be, as you mentioned in your question, not having a grade 12 education, not completing the curriculum. The second would be that for the schools in some of the more remote communities, their equivalency is lower than we would expect.

Human Resources committee  Mary-Pat referenced a couple of specific programs. One program that's been very successful in Fort McMurray is RAP, which is the registered apprenticeship program. It's designed for students who get to high school and really find that the traditional academic stream is not for them.

Human Resources committee  I think Fort McMurray is in a unique position, and Suncor isn't alone in our values around addressing the needs of the local aboriginal communities, so we do benefit from that broader perspective. It also creates a challenge in that it can be very competitive. Any company would be here in front of you wanting to discuss some similar goals around making sure they optimize aboriginal employment and that type of thing.

Human Resources committee  I'd like to first add a little bit to Mary-Pat's response and then answer your question. Many of you may know that at Suncor, while we have 14,000 employees in Canada, we also have 10,000 to 15,000 contractors who are routinely and regularly hired as part of our operation. To help understand our influence in aboriginal employment in particular, and as it turns out, females in non-traditional roles, we've actually started recently to require all of our contractors to report on that, and we've started to set some targets, currently on apprentices, but we are considering whether we spread that.

Human Resources committee  At Suncor, 23% of our workforce is female. Considering the mining and resource nature of our business, that's pretty high. We target a lot of female employees. We offer child care at our head office in Calgary. We don't offer it at our various sites, but we do, through our community arm, support local child care.