Finance committee  I understand. Mr. Lasnier, you have approximately 1 minute and 20 seconds left. As you know, we're considering Bill C‑19. Bills may be amended in committee. At the end of your opening remarks, you stated three very pragmatic demands to the committee. Would you please repeat them to the members of the Standing Committee on Finance?

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair All my questions will be for Mr. Lasnier and Ms. St‑Georges. I'll leave it to them to decide who responds. We have outstanding businesses in my riding, such as Cidrerie Lacroix and Intermiel, which are processors. Somewhat like you, they're surprised to see this new tax come out of nowhere as a result of the settlement of a trade dispute with Australia essentially concerning the wine industry.

Finance committee  I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. There has been no interpretation for the past 20 seconds. I think there's a sound quality problem affecting the interpretation or cutting it off.

Finance committee  I have a supplementary question for the Green Budget Coalition. I am going back again to the hydrocarbon grants. We're talking about $2.6 billion over five years, and approximately $1.5 billion for each of the following five years. If I quickly add all that up, it comes to $17.5 billion that goes directly into the pockets of the oil companies.

Finance committee  Needless to say, the government would tell us that some of the measures are green, but we know that there are others that are not very green at all. Even though we realize that it's impossible to do everything perfectly and that there are some positive measures in the budget when you look at it closely, do you think that when the time comes to invest large amounts of money, there is a bias in favour of the oil companies?

Finance committee  If I'm not mistaken, we're talking about $58 billion. Thank you very much, Mr. Green. That's it for me, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  If I correctly understand you, you're telling us this is both a subsidy and a bad investment of public funds.

Finance committee  I see. We're talking here about $2.6 billion a year that would be allocated to these technologies and that would go directly to oil companies. Then we would continue for five additional years, beyond 2030. Do you think this strategy will help the government meet established greenhouse gas emissions targets?

Finance committee  Okay. Just recently, the government announced that it was going to provide a $10 billion loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain project. In other words, after having financed an extremely risky project that has already generated numerous cost overruns, let's make a loan at the taxpayers' expense.

Finance committee  Ten billion dollars is an enormous amount of money. Do you think that the government could have guaranteed loans to finance other projects that could have been more helpful in meeting our targets?

Finance committee  All right. Also very recently, the government of Canada, according to the Minister of the Environment himself, approved the Bay du Nord project. I believe that this could in the end represent a billion barrels produced by Canada. Do you think this was a sound decision given today's climate context?

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Albas. I have some questions for the people from the Green Budget Coalition. If my understanding is correct, we should normally price carbon properly, and that would urge the oil companies to reduce their emissions. Using their own funds, they would have to invest in technologies that reduce their emissions.

Finance committee  The U.S. Congress and other authorities are talking about excess profits generated by the oil companies. Do you think those businesses could afford to finance their own investments in technologies designed to reduce emissions?

Finance committee  The budget also includes $121 million of public funding, once again, to develop small nuclear reactors. We produce unconventional oil in Canada, particularly in Alberta. So a great deal of energy is required to increase production. Do you think the $121 million earmarked for small reactors falls into the category of subsidies for oil companies, if only indirectly?