Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the standing committee for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association and to provide the submission and speak today with respect to the upcoming budget. I will summarize our submission comme

Finance committee  I'm sorry. It was cutting out a bit. I was just going to say with respect to the climate change question that yes, we believe in climate change, and I think we are supportive of the greenhouse gas initiatives in Alberta and the focus on that federally.

Finance committee  That's correct. I mean, we support the deepening of consultation with first nations, and we do say, with respect to the modernization of the NEB, that those voices at the board level should be included.

Finance committee  Is that a question?

Finance committee  I'm happy to respond; I'm just checking. One of the key things on both sides of the fence to restoring confidence and trust in the system.... The changes in CEAA 2012 I think were grown out of the Liberals' smart regulation proposals. Making the process longer doesn't make it be

Finance committee  Yes. I would say that from our perspective it's less of an ask; it's more of a give. If we have an appropriate regulatory system that allows us to have access to new markets, that's a plus of billions of dollars, and if we're investing in building these pipelines, that's plus t

Finance committee  What's important to point out, If I may.... I would say that the differential between WTI and WCS today is a function of our having to discount our heavy crude going into the U.S. market. With access to offshore markets and so on, that differential would collapse substantially.

Finance committee  I would concur. Things are going to improve over time but—broken record—we need to have access to markets.

Finance committee  Yes, I would agree with Alex's comments. I think on the large pipeline side there is a rate-based component to it, but it does figure into the economics and it does figure into the de-risking of capital investments.

Finance committee  Yes, please, just a short comment. I think the nature of pipeline infrastructure is that those benefits are translated right across Canada, and the scale of investments we're talking about are significant and are spread across Canada. I will say that on maintenance alone in the e

Natural Resources committee  Thank you so much. My name is Chris Bloomer, and I am president and CEO of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association. As you may know, the association represents 12 of the major transmission pipelines in Canada, We transport 97% of Canada's crude oil and natural gas production,

Natural Resources committee  With respect to what our organization does in terms of promoting infrastructure development, it's really related to the various operations that we have right now. We don't specifically go out and advocate for a road and so on. That's really for the project proponent to do that. R

Natural Resources committee  Okay. Yes.

Natural Resources committee  I'd say that over the past 10 years, under NEB auspices, several pipelines have been built. Certainly the Line 9 pipeline was approved under the NEB process. The Access pipeline and the initial Keystone pipeline were built. There is a list of pipelines that went through the regul

Natural Resources committee  They would have been in that time frame.