Natural Resources committee  Yes, I think natural gas will definitely be an important transition fuel, but where we need to be tracking is to transition ourselves off fossil fuels over time. Obviously it's decades-long to do that. So natural gas will play an important role. The IEA estimated that if the wo

Natural Resources committee  I'd agree with a lot of what Mr. McGowan said. I believe part of what you were making a point around is that we need to deal with energy efficiency as part of a real energy security strategy to reduce our overall use of energy. From my perspective, a true energy security strate

Natural Resources committee  Those numbers were based on industry estimates after they had accounted for what they collect, so that was their estimate of what gets through. It was a compilation of all the industry assessments of that from their environmental impact assessments.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, the greenhouse gas emissions from in situ are higher than the open pit mines because they require more energy to pump the steam underground and extract the oil. So over time, the greenhouse gas intensity per barrel is projected to go up. We hear a lot about the reduction in

Natural Resources committee  We compiled it for the entire industry, so I cannot provide Syncrude's specific numbers. But as an industry, each company estimates how much gets through after they take into account the pumps that pump the leaked water back into the tailings ponds. That's what our number was bas

Natural Resources committee  I would direct Ms. Gallant to our annual report on our website. I could send a link to the committee. It outlines our funders.

Natural Resources committee  As I mentioned, I can submit for the record our annual report, which lists our funders. I can throw out examples, but I don't see how useful that is right now.

Natural Resources committee  To answer your last question first, no, there isn't. But I'll step back a bit. The issue of leaching from the tailings ponds is definitely a big one, so I'm not discounting that. We took industry's own data, their estimates of how much is leaking out each day, to compile it, and

Natural Resources committee  No, they have not. People have asked Alberta and the companies, and they have refused.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I think addressing the economic impacts and implications of our energy security is absolutely a role for this committee and any type of national energy strategy or discussion. We see provinces like Ontario and Quebec investing heavily in the transition to cleaner energy sour

Natural Resources committee  We have not yet.

Natural Resources committee  There have been reports. I can direct you towards a study that the Pembina Institute did that dug up engineers' reports from some of the existing tailings ponds that cited concerns about weaknesses in their walls.

Natural Resources committee  There has been an example with one of Suncor's ponds. There was a breach in the dam wall; it's been fixed since then. Worldwide, the type of dam that's used for tailings is ten times more likely to fail than a conventional hydro dam, let's say, so in general they are a risk. The

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Thank you for inviting me here today to speak. My name is Gillian McEachern. I manage the climate and energy program for Environmental Defence. We are a national non-profit organization. We work on a range of issues, including climate and energy, toxics, and land us