Natural Resources committee  I should just clarify one thing. The initiative is actually broader than the office itself, so $150 million was allocated to a number of departments over five years, and actually 85% of that money is to deal with capacity issues. In essence, there has been, as the minister mentio

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  Let me deal with the seasonal first. The demand for gasoline is typically higher in the summer months, so the product is worth more, and so the refiner is able to sell it for more. You tend to have an increase. The estimate is typically between 5¢ and 6¢ higher over the summer mo

Industry committee  I've heard of quite a few. We characterize three of them as being more serious in terms of being considered, in Canada. All of them are in the order of about 150,000 to 300,000 barrels a day. That would be additional capacity.

Industry committee  Just to clarify, the graph actually shows the price of crude oil for a light sweet. It actually doesn't make any assumptions about the mix of crude, slate, and so forth. What's used to compare in the graphic on page 9 is a light sweet oil. So it doesn't take into account the diff

Industry committee  Canada's total capacity has gone up. For example, we had 30 refineries in 1990. However, at present, 19 refineries are producing more than what was produced in 1990. Canada's refineries have increased their production by about 5% over the past 15 years. Therefore, the relevant fa

Industry committee  In fact, regulations are not the only factor affecting price changes. As I said, demand is very strong and still on the increase despite an increase in production capacity, which is not as quick as the increase in demand. Moreover, some very specific events took place last year

Industry committee  The agency was set up at a time when we were regulating prices. There was a necessity for that type of information. As I said, through decisions that were made a few years ago and ones that we implemented as early as last year, we feel the information that's now collected by Na

Industry committee  I will try to answer your question. First, the graph on page 8 shows that the government has implemented regulations over the years. These regulations partly account for the rise in profit margins for refining. Here, it has to do with regulations for benzene and sulphur. It w

Industry committee  Despite the decline in the number of refineries in Canada over time...

Industry committee  We can separate refining and marketing margins.

Industry committee  I just want to make sure I understand your question. You're trying to understand why the refining margins have increased over time?

Industry committee  As I said, the current spike—you see a spike in the last couple of months—is really, as I mentioned before, a question of the inventory levels being very low in the United States. So we actually have an inventory level in the United States as low as it was after Hurricane Katrina

Industry committee  Why are the refining and marketing margins not subdivided?

Industry committee  They could be, and we'd be happy to provide the same chart.