Finance committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting us to appear and to share our proposals with respect to the next budget as it pertains to the oil and gas sector. I'm David Collyer. I am president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Produ

Finance committee  In our written submission to the committee this year we made three recommendations, and I'll speak to each of those in turn. The first recommendation was that the federal government help stimulate job creation in the oil and gas sector by implementing immediate tax deductibility

Finance committee  Let me just make a couple of observations in response to your question. The first is just to clarify the proposal that we've made. On the scientific research and experimental development program, it is to broaden the eligibility. So we're not asking for the introduction of a new

Finance committee  Perhaps I can refer specifically to greenhouse gas performance. This is Environment Canada data. Since 1990, we have improved the greenhouse gas intensity of the oilsands production by 33%. So there has been a very significant improvement in the overall greenhouse gas performance

Finance committee  And as I referred to in my earlier response, 33% improvement in greenhouse gas intensity is significant.

Finance committee  I'd be happy to. First of all, in terms of the economic contribution, there are just a couple of statistics that might be helpful. Indirect and direct employment from the oil and gas sector across the country is about half a million people, so there's a very significant contribu

Finance committee  Perhaps I can start by responding to that and I'll invite Don Herring to add his comments to it. As I said in my remarks, it's certainly not for us to judge how, across the country, you choose to make your decisions. We can only speak to our industry. Certainly in the last 12 t

Finance committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I'm Dave Collyer. I'm the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. I'm joined by Mr. Tom Huffaker, who is our vice-president of policy and environment. I recognize that you have our pre-budget sub

Finance committee  I'll take the first two and I'll let Eric take the third one. First of all, with respect to the U.S. tax treatment, what we're suggesting is not a direct stimulus or cash payment from government. What we're saying is that the Canadian tax treatment for natural gas development e

Finance committee  Well, there are a couple of comments I'd make, Mr. Cullen. First of all, on the profits, the money that gets made in this country gets reinvested in this country—

Finance committee  —in most cases with respect to the oil and gas sector. It is reinvested to create the kinds of jobs that the building trades talked about. So I think it's very important to look at this in the context of its being, yes, a request for incremental tax relief, but it is driven by co

Finance committee  I can tell you very specifically that if you take a natural gas well drilled in the United States and compare it with a natural gas well drilled in Canada, the same type of well, it is less competitive in Canada to drill it. Unless we get our cost structure and our tax system int

Finance committee  Well, my comment was specifically to natural gas. That is the comparison we've made.

Finance committee  Which? Is the tax treatment....?

Finance committee  The gas market situation is very different. The same type of treatment applies to an oil well drilled in the United States versus an oil well drilled in Canada, so the same issue applies.