Natural Resources committee  The Fraser Institute, as you know, is a non-profit organization. It's not a consulting organization. It receives no money for consulting work. It's not a consultant and receives no money from government. It operates strictly from donations from individuals, companies, and foundat

Natural Resources committee  I believe it may...I think it does, but I'm not absolutely certain.

Natural Resources committee  I'm not familiar with them. I've heard of them.

Natural Resources committee  They have different issues, but if they can come together through a single window kind of approach, it does make it easier, and sometimes I would think it would reduce the time and the cost of processing applications.

Natural Resources committee  I think he's doing the right thing, certainly, going out and seeing what is taking place in Arkansas, B.C., and other jurisdictions, and learning from the mistakes that have been made and hoping to take a best practices approach. There certainly is a benefit in being able to see

Natural Resources committee  Certainly, when you look at the moratoria on offshore drilling in British Columbia, there are two governments involved. In a way, there are more than two: there are the first nations, the Haida, who have a strong interest because of where they reside. In the north, the overlappin

Natural Resources committee  The governments have to work together from a single window that prospective investors can deal with, rather than from a maze of windows with many officials from several levels of government.

Natural Resources committee  You mean between provinces?

Natural Resources committee  It's worse than two different people. In some cases, you have different facets of the same government. You could have the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. You could have Environment Canada. You could have Natural Resources Canada. You could have Alberta Environment. You could

Natural Resources committee  Those six that I identified were the main areas. Did you want me to drill down into the NEB situation a little more?

Natural Resources committee  Is it with respect to the NEB itself? Yes. I think just as a casual observer, I see the NEB doing things like quarterly reviews of the energy outlook in Canada, for example, that are useful. Things like that are things really left to the marketplace, to consultants. I don't thin

Natural Resources committee  I don't think there's a role for government incentives. If, economically speaking, it should be developed, let the risk takers determine that.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. It's the government's role to set the framework, to ensure that if you want shale gas to go ahead, the royalties are competitive. There will be, and there are, environmental concerns. If the government wants to have shale gas developed, then it's up to the government to de

Natural Resources committee  Certainly, I wouldn't argue for no government at all. You need government. Governments have a role to play. But in terms of resource development, you have to listen to the people, to what's best for the people of Quebec and Canada, and have the regulations in place that are requi

Natural Resources committee  I'm not an engineer or a technologist, but if a jurisdiction decides that it needs to go more slowly than some of the neighbouring jurisdictions that have shale gas potential, the gas will stay in the ground, and someday it may be worth more money.