Natural Resources committee  Not specifically. We haven't done any study specific to NAFTA, if you're referring to the recent concerns that NAFTA may not endure. We have not done a study looking at that impact on electricity.

Natural Resources committee  Obviously, the process of NEB modernization and environmental assessment review has been going on for quite some time, and the board has worked hard to support that in any way we can. We're looking forward to what the government's going to announce, apparently this fall, to mod

Natural Resources committee  Yes, they do. There's a trigger in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act's designated project regulations that says the power line has to be 345 kilovolts and 75 kilometres of new right of way before it becomes a CEAA-designated project. But even in projects that don't meet t

Natural Resources committee  We do consider something that we refer to as “fair market access”. When a party is exporting to the United States, other parties—if they haven't had a fair market access to that power—can come to the board and provide comments or potentially appear at a hearing. That can be a f

Natural Resources committee  I think, from our standpoint, our role is to act on applications that are brought in front of us, not to question the larger policies of provincial governments to produce more electricity than they need.

Natural Resources committee  Sorry.

Natural Resources committee  I think that, from the National Energy Board standpoint, no, we're not. We believe that the market of the day in Alberta does have a competitive power market and will adjust to meet the government's demands in the market at a price, and that will come out. Canada has abundant nat

Natural Resources committee  We haven't done any studies on that. I'll reiterate something I said earlier. We do not regulate energy imports into Canada, so we don't actually look at them in the way that we would look at exports.

Natural Resources committee  For those transmission lines that fall within our jurisdiction, yes, it is.

Natural Resources committee  Correct.

Natural Resources committee  I can comment a bit on that. The National Energy Board has been around since 1959. It was created around pipelines. We received the responsibility for interprovincial and international power lines in 1990, in a change to the NEB Act. Since that time, no one has chosen—at least

Natural Resources committee  I can start answering that question and then I'm going to turn it over to our chief economist.

Natural Resources committee  You didn't hear it. Maybe as I go, you can catch it. Obviously, a carbon price will increase the cost of producing coal-fired electricity. As to whether or not it will come to equal that of hydro, or incremental hydro, that's a question that is more technical, and I don't know t

Natural Resources committee  Are you asking if we will ultimately get off natural gas power plants? Is that the question, because of carbon pricing?

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. Ms. Milutinovic and I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. I'd like to open by familiarizing the committee with the National Energy Board's mandate with respect to electricity. The production of elect