Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  It's at about $50 a barrel, give or take a few dollars.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Up until about a year ago, companies were talking about needing somewhere between $80 and $100 a barrel. That had a lot to do with the high cost of steel and other raw materials. Now steel prices and some other raw material prices have come down. I think projects are now looking at $60 to $75 a barrel in order to be viable to go forward.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I think you're very right. There has been an impact on employment across the country in terms of sourcing workers from across the country in order to work in new development projects in Alberta. You cited examples of where companies have tried to accommodate workers' concerns--about having to pick up and move the whole family outright, across the country--by flying them in, letting them do basically long-distance commuting for a time, and then flying them back.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I think there's one other thing to remember. First of all, we're the upstream petroleum industry, so we don't really speak on behalf of refiners and marketers who sell gasoline and other refined products. But from our general knowledge of that business, a lot of the fuel price, whether it's gasoline or diesel fuel or other prices, is taxes--taxes that go to the federal government and the provincial governments.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I think we're asking for the federal government, to the extent that it can, to try to persuade the chartered banks to free up some of their capital, some of the available capital loans, to industry in general and oil and gas in specific. Not to single out oil and gas, but credit is still very tight.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I think that might have been a question Mr. Garneau came up with on his own. I didn't mention anything about U.S. initiatives to try to bar Canadian oil or dirty oil. That is a concern. It may be targeted at Canadian oil sands oil or any oil from Canada. We've tried to point out to the Americans that our oil, on a full cycle of greenhouse gas emissions basis, is no dirtier than oil that comes from Venezuela or Mexico or even parts of California.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  It's looking at greenhouse gas emissions on a full-cycle basis.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  A number of the larger oil sands projects that were announced one or two years ago have been put on hold; they aren't going ahead this year. They are being deferred until there's a more stable pricing environment, when prices recover a bit and there is easier availability of credit to fund some of those projects.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  We are looking at different ways of trying to deal with any types of regulations or policy initiatives that the federal government and the provincial governments have for things specifically like greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon capture storage is a major development technology that we are spending quite a bit of time looking at.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I guess it's a matter of what you mean by doing well. If you have a $150-billion-a-year industry, certainly it's an industry in which you're spending a lot of money across the country in a lot of different projects. When you come down to an $80-billion-a-year industry, then you're cutting back on a significant number of projects.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I concur. We've pretty much covered it.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  That's been very important. As an industry we're very dependent on being able to attract capital from around the world to fund our investment activities. Last year, as an industry, we spent $50 billion across the country on exploration development activities. Some of that capital came from outside Canada.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  It's also important to realize that even though the tax rates have been coming down, tax revenues have been going up. We've seen that in a number of other cases. Although the rates are lower than they were a few years ago, the revenue that the federal government itself is collecting from the oil and gas industry has been going up.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I'll just add that nobody likes to see the price variations and fluctuations up and down that we've had over the last few years. In our industry, we don't like to see it either, because it affects our cashflow and it makes things uncertain in terms of being able to plan forward.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I have to disagree with your comment that the oil and gas industry has tax advantages over other industries. You specifically mentioned the accelerated capital cost allowance. That was something the oil sands industry had. It was eliminated and is being phased out as a result of Budget 2007.