Natural Resources committee  That is basically part of the document we will be tabling. It's a study we carried out in cooperation with the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and the Department of Finance. Because Quebec does not have an oil industry, with the exception of two and a half refineries—one of

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that's right.

Natural Resources committee  No, not at all.

Natural Resources committee  Or to buy electricity from Hydro-Quebec, rather than buying oil, which is increasingly sourced from countries like Algeria or Angola. That is the strategy we're pursuing.

Natural Resources committee  I was referring to the fact that we have no incentives in place for the production of renewable energy and that this has been noted in several studies, particularly the OECD study. We are one of the rare industrialized countries, if not the only one, not to have a strategy and fu

Natural Resources committee  If we are not the only one, we are certainly one of the only countries not to have one. From memory, I would say we are the only one. I could forward to you the documentation on that. Several OECD studies have been done on this, but I can tell you that the United States has one,

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. It should probably be pointed out--I guess everybody knows that around this table--that the committee that produced that report was hand-picked by the government to do the study. I find it unbelievable that in a country like Canada we would have a rep

Natural Resources committee  Well, we should definitely look at the last few reports of the Auditor General. They showed us how ignorant we are about water and how the federal government has not been doing its homework. While we don't know what's happening, we're allowing all kinds of projects that stand to

Natural Resources committee  As I said in my testimony, we understand that oil has been around for a while and will continue to be. That being said, we know that internationally things are changing, and rapidly. We've seen very rapid increases in the price of oil over the last decade, something no one predic

Natural Resources committee  You're right; it's a political question. Équiterre is a non-partisan organization. We work at both the provincial and federal levels, and even at the international level. I am co-chair of the Climate Action Network International, which is a group of NGOs--

Natural Resources committee  -- that work together on climate change issues. I'm one of those who believes that we could have an international strategy on energy and public transit which would mean that not just one industry or economic sector would benefit. Unfortunately, that is not the case now, but I ha

Natural Resources committee  Are you wondering whether this is something that can be done more efficiently?

Natural Resources committee  We are increasingly moving in the direction of reduced greenhouse gas emissions. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Expert Panel on Climate Change—which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, as you may recall—all the large emitters of greenhouse gas emissions around t

Natural Resources committee  Certainly at the federal level. We are one of the only countries—and certainly one of the rare OECD countries—not to have a national public transit policy, unlike France, Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries. As for the transportation sector which, I should point out, pro

Natural Resources committee  At the time, it was one third of what was offered under George Bush, and now, we have nothing at all in Canada. If we took action in the public transit sector, by developing a strategy and providing the means to implement it, if we reviewed our tax system and incentives for the p