Steve Rickard introduced our guest speaker, Roland George.

Roland is well qualified to speak to us on the economics of the petro-chemical industry as he spent 30 years in the private energy sector prior to joining the National Energy Board of Canada, or the NEB as it is commonly called.

Roland is well qualified to serve Canadians on the NEB as he holds several education credits from universities in Ottawa and a bilingual MBA from Montreal. Steve and Karl both know Roland as an avid outdoors man, a mountain climber, road runner and trekker.

Roland thanked Steve for his warm welcome and thanked the club for inviting him to be our guest luncheon speaker. He feels that although Rotary is quite different than the NEB, we have one thing in common, public service. He said that Karl was very persuasive when asking him to speak to us: Karl told him that this would be a "piece of cake" compared to all the other things that Roland does.

Your scribes will do a brief report on Roland's 10-page talk, but, for more information about the NEB, please visit their website at www.neb.gc.ca

He told us about the importance of energy for Canadians and the role of the NEB in making decisions in the public's interest. The role of the NEB and their mandate is to "promote safety and security, environmental protection and efficient energy infrastructure and markets in the Canadian public interest".

He said that our values of truth, fairness, goodwill and friendship are very similar to the NEB's values.

The NEB was started in 1959 as an independent federal agency responsible for overseeing the construction and operation of international and interprovincial pipelines, power lines and associated tolls and tariffs and energy exports out of Canada. They are responsible for the regulatory controls in the frontier areas and offshore in a similar manner that the Energy Utility Board monitors the energy industry in Alberta.

The NEB monitors 71,000KM of pipelines and 1,400KM of power lines across Canada.

He discussed how Canada is rich in energy resources and the importance that these resources be managed responsibly and safely. Canada's oil reserves are second only to that of Saudi Arabia. Our oil production is expected to grow from 2.7 million barrels per day in 2008 to 3.8 million barrels per day in 2020.

Even though our gas reserves are huge, many of these reserves are in remote areas and not available to markets. In 2008 the energy industry accounted for seven percent of Canada's GDP and 28% of the total Canadian exports. Roland gave a detailed look at the importance of natural gas to all Canadians and the challenges that face the industry in finding and producing it now and in the future.

Bryden Horwood thanked Roland and presented him with our Boltman. Bryden reiterated that indeed Canadians are blessed to be owners of these energy resources that the NEB manages for all Canadians.

reported by Pauline and Garth Evans