Thanks, Chair.
I want to go back to that line of questioning I had and I think I was discussing things with Mr. Burt insofar as the North American energy system is concerned.
I've been on this committee for quite a while now and we've talked about the rationalization of the refining sector in North America because the North American marketplace—the refining sector basically provides for the refined products here in North America. We've gone from I think hundreds of refineries—we have some abandoned refineries in Alberta and I know where they are—and we've rationalized down to a very few that are providing. When we get the refining folks in here they say that even the refineries that they have only need to run at about 85% capacity in order to provide for the North American marketplace.
Can you just talk from an economics perspective, because it's been argued here at the table and while it sounds good at the coffee shop...? Could you discuss some of the economic impacts of regulatory or political policy intervention when they interfere in a marketplace, a market-driven approach to providing energy, and what the impacts or effects might be if that's handled badly? If the governments tried to put or force the refineries to happen and force through policy directives like what's being promoted at the table here today, what would the potential impact be?
Ms. Kenny, can you talk a little bit about, from a pipeline perspective, I'm not sure it matters a whole lot to your companies what goes down the pipeline, but I think you have regulatory approval. Certainly you need to go through a NEB process just to switch the direction of flow in a pipeline, which to me is beyond absurd. Can you just talk a little bit about some of the issues you had faced from a regulatory perspective and just from an overall logistics perspective of shipping a known product consistently, rather than changing it up all the time to ship one refined product followed by another refined product and so on? I think there are some costs associated with that and ultimately who would pay that?
So go ahead first, Mr. Burt.