It's 10:30. I'd like to begin this meeting. My name is Jim Simpson. I'm Chair of the Board, I would like to welcome you all. It's a little different today. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that this AGM is being held on the traditional territory of the Treaty 7's people, the Stoney Nakoda, Tsuut'ina, Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, and lo and behold, we have a guest. Before introducing our head table, what I'd like to do is introduce Casey Eagle Speaker, who is an Elder from the Kainai Nation, which is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy. For those who don't know Casey, he was awarded David Crowchild Award from the City of Calgary, for his work in cross-cultural awareness, Dr. Joseph Crowshoe Award for the University of Calgary for his work in Aboriginal education.
Today he's the Aboriginal resource coordinator at Hull Services, a Calgary nonprofit that focuses on children's mental health and behavioral problems. He regularly conducts workshops and Aboriginal ceremonies, practices and offers sweat lodge ceremonies for both people in the organizations he serves, as well as members of the public. He is a well-known Elder in Calgary and in the community and across the country, he's been a wonderful resource for us and a teacher, and Casey, we appreciate that very much. If you would, sir, please come up.
Okay. I'm going to do this in Blackfoot, I'll have our board here translate that for you. It is a great honor. In these times that we say change is at every moment, we must allow ourselves to shift with change. Our people often say that we don't just try, we just do it. In Blackfoot, that's exactly what we say. Some say, "Don't try, because when you try, you're going to try it again, because you're never going to fulfill what you need to do." We often think that Nike stole our slogan of just do it. I do thank all of you. I was at the gathering for the last three days. I think one of the messages I gave them is that, we're often talking about Indigenous, non-Indigenous people.
If we were just to remove the word Indigenous and non-Indigenous, we'd be left with the foundation that we're all people, human beings. We have an obligation. In Blackfoot, in the ceremony, we say, or all my relations. It's not about acknowledging the holy ones from the spirit world to join us, but true acknowledgment that we have a shared collective responsibility for the wellbeing of all our people and our community. That's where we're all at. We all have that collective responsibility. Change is not something that you create because it's happening at every moment. It's how you shift your mind, your heart, your soul to move with time. As I said yesterday, time creates trust and trust creates time. Time is something that we created by putting it on a face of a clock or a watch.
The teaching I received says time begins from the moment that you open your eyes to see the light of day for the new lifetime that you've been gifted with. It'll last until you close your eyes at night before you enter the dream world. That's the time that we do have. After all, a lifetime is just a one-day event. Yesterday's time is just memory, we cannot undo what has happened, but we can certainly learn from it, both negative and positive, to find the strengths in both. As human beings, we will make mistakes every day of our lives, every moment. As we will today, one-15% of the day, every one of us shall make a mistake. That's a given. That's just being normal. As I often tell my wife, I'm never right all the time. I'm just never wrong.
It is true. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. Nobody in this room can say they're going to be alive tomorrow because you have no way to prove that. In saying that, we remember our own families, your relatives, your friends, your coworkers, people you're affiliated with. That every one of them is uniquely one of a kind, and nobody can be replaced from the physical world. It's learning how to appreciate all the people around you. You don't always have to like their choices, but appreciate that they're still with you, because you only have that one-day lifetime.
In our cultures, when we speak in our traditional languages, it's always about the present tense, where you might refer to something from the past for what's happening at the moment, so that we may understand what we can do differently That we're not going to change what has happened, but we can certainly shape what tomorrow could look like. Those are the choices that we're set with. As I said yesterday, there's times in corporations and in organizations, and even in families, and even amongst our own people, where power tends to take a different level, and is resistant to change. Yet, even in all their efforts, change must happen, and it does happen. I think the analogy I used yesterday is like going back to the muscle cars, and we had the four on the floor and you're shifting.
All the power is in first gear, and if you don't shift from that, ultimately it's going to break down and the costs can be astronomical. In building relationships with Indigenous communities, is being able to shift that power, our own personal powers, organizational powers, and realizing we must shift in order for movement to happen in a smooth rate. That once you get to that fourth gear, flexibility is there, and the costs are much lower than just acknowledging and doing nothing. We have that shared responsibility. You, I, everybody, have that shared responsibility. The relationship begins with you. As I said yesterday, the most important relationship that we will ever have in our lives is the one that you carry for yourself. Self-acceptance, loving who you are, trusting who you are, creating time for yourself at any given moment.
That you can have a trusting, healthy relationship with others, is how healthy is it with you? Your past is the foundation for the journey that lies ahead of you. Those relationships that you're going to have are built upon the foundation of the relationship that you carry for you. We are human beings, and we're all built exactly alike. How many of you are white people? How many white people are here? There's a few hands up there. Can you prove that to me? This is white to me. If you can't match that, then maybe you need to understand something. Creator created us all equally in the image of himself, and that's the spirit within you. That carries no color, it carries no gender.
Your body, as I said at the gathering over the last few days, is a gift from Mother Earth, and will go back to her when the time comes. To realize what that means, the hair on your body represents sweet grass that grows on a prairie. Your skeleton, your bones are mountains and rocks used in ceremonies like a sweat lodge. Your arteries, veins, and vessels are your rivers, streams, and creeks. Your heart will pump, pulsate, like the core of a mother does. Your breath is the wind. Your tears are waters upon the earth, and are very healing when you allow them to flow without hindrance. The shade of shell you carry is like a mother, white and gold sands, brown, black soils, just four different shades of brown. That's what we are. Your truest identity is that you're a human being.
Your sense of belonging is knowing and understanding the cultural group that you come from. I think in all the things that we need to do today is to use the power of the human being. Policy and procedures have their place, but when we allow that to be the ultimate power, it's difficult to flow with the change and to make that shift. The same thing with our indigenous laws, our traditional laws. When we let that be the ultimate power, again, it's difficult for us to make that shift. What we need to do, for those who understand the sweat lodge, is that we take policy and procedure, we take our traditional laws of our people and bend them to create the sweat lodge. A healing journey to a place of wellbeing.
The 14 ribs that we use that signify the ribs of the American buffalo that has 14 ribs on both sides, all others have 13. Those 14 ribs, the seven on the indigenous side, the seven sacred teachings. The seven ribs on the opposite side of it are the same identical seven sacred teachings of other worlds. Seven sacred teachings are universal. Until we identify that and accept that, we will not understand diversity in its truest context. We will find racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Maybe our ancestors did not understand what diversity meant. Maybe they translated that to division. It's about inclusion. We can no longer afford to say there's a non-indigenous society in Canada, and over here is the indigenous world. We share the same land. To become caretakers of the land as our ancestors were.
The responsibility of being caretakers of the land is to have the caretaking for each other, too. To see each other from here and to speak from here. To speak your truth and to be honest with the truth. Life does not happen in the mind alone. It happens mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. We have an obligation to each other, and it's something that we cannot walk away from, and we can no longer turn our heads away from that. We have to accept that. We need to accept it. If life is to be whole, then let's become whole together. As I said at the gathering, each of you represent a single blade of sweetgrass. When it stands alone, it's quite weak and can be torn apart very easily, but we're all to join those and braid them. There's great strength in that braid.
No two blades of grass are identical to each other, each unique to itself. Each has its own qualities, as all of you do. Future is ours to help mold and design for those who are going to inherit that, and that's our children. Because it is the future, and the land belongs to them. We're here just to ensure that whatever we do in life, that that will be there and available for them. To get away from the selfish thoughts that today we own it, but we know it's the opposite. You realize that there was this young Indigenous boy in grade 1. His teacher wanted to put him into grade 3 because he had such a high level of intelligence. She calls the principal down to her room and says, "Can you come down to my office?
I want to put this young Indigenous lad to grade 3. He's quite intelligent." He walks down there and says, "Okay, can I see the exam?" Says, "Oh, no, it's not a written exam. It's going to be an oral exam for this young man. I want to recognize and honor their tradition." He said, "How many questions do you have for this young man?" She said, "I only have three questions." He said, "That's great." Says, "Proceed." Susan says, "Joey, the first question for you is what do women have two of that cows have four of?" He studies the teacher up and down and says, "Legs." Says, "Fantastic." Said, "Your second question, Joey, is that what do men have in their pants that women don't have in their pants?" He studies the teacher and studies the principal.
Pockets." "Oh, that's another great answer." Says, "Your last question for you, Joey, is that what starts with the letter F, ends with the letter K, is extremely exciting and a lot of fun?" He studies the teacher, had a smirk on his face, says, "A firetruck." That's when the principal said, "Put him in grade 5, because I had all the answers wrong myself." Lucky you here. You've been gifted the gift of life today. Everything about you yesterday has already changed. You are not the same person. We don't know what tomorrow holds for us. Don't let that worry you, because today is the day that you actually worried about yesterday. When we are in the now, is to understand what you need to do today. I was taught that by my elders. I realized that procrastination, I have my own definition.
Procrastination is the thief of life. Whatever I meant to do yesterday, I put it off to do today, then I rob myself of today's new life and adventure to try and redo what I needed to do yesterday. In that saying that, if you ever find yourself in this position, if you ever want to avoid something, and many of us have done that, the teachings we have is that you're never too busy unless you really want to avoid something. Remember, the lifetime that you have is from the moment you open your eyes to the time you close them. I'll do my prayer in Blackfoot. Pray for you, your family you left at home. We pray for the sick, young and old. We pray for little people on the streets, the homeless, the starving. Pray for the war-torn countries abroad.
Pray for those who had recent losses in their families, for all people, that we leave no one out. I do thank you. I wish I could stay, I shared earlier that Mark Little and I do have to head over to Hull. I have a sweat lodge to do for some visiting Scottish students who've never been to Canada, are trying to create relations with Indigenous people, but they want to understand things and look in at ceremonies. We decided that we'll go ahead. They connected with me three months ago to run the sweat lodge for them, we are going to blow their kilts off. No.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
That was wonderful. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
It's hard to follow that one, I'd like to say a couple of things. Those are some very profound remarks, Casey, we appreciate them, and more than that, your blessing and prayer for us, we deeply appreciate, so thank you so much. Last year, at the AGM, we announced that Suncor was going to strengthen its focus on relationships with the Aboriginal people. We're committed to that. There's more we can do and more we must do to understand the history and experiences of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada. I'd now like to introduce the people sitting next to me on the platform. We'll start with Steve Williams, our company President, Chief Executive Officer; Alister Cowan, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; and Janice Odegaard, Senior VP and General Counsel, Corporate Secretary.
On behalf of Suncor's directors and management, it's my pleasure to formally welcome you here and begin the formal part of the meeting. The first order of business is a safety moment. I want to draw your attention to the exits. The alarm system in this building is by voice. If you hear anything going off that sounds strange, I think it'll be explained quickly. The idea is to have an orderly withdrawal from this building through the exit doors. We'll gather on 4th Avenue, which is right in front of the building.
Can you put the mic closer to your mouth, please?
Having trouble hearing? Can you hear me at the back there, Sean?
I haven't heard a word up to now.
I'll try a little harder.
Thank you.
Can you hear me now?
Better.
They can hear at the back, that's good. We'll now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. There's several items on the agenda as usual. To expedite things, we've asked a number of people to make motions and second motions. We've opened the meeting to members of the media and other guests. However, only shareholders and proxy holders are entitled to participate in the business of the meeting. If there are any questions or comments from the floor relating to today's formal business, please stand, tell us your name, confirm whether you're a share owner or a proxy holder, and we'll proceed from there. In order to ensure that discussions of the motions during this formal portion of the meeting is productive and efficient, each speaker will be limited to a time of three minutes. All remarks must be relevant to the motion at hand.
If you have any general questions, kindly hold them until the end of the meeting. For those share owners joining us by webcast, you're invited to submit your questions at any time using the question box which is on the bottom of the webcast display. We'll be more than happy to respond to them during the Q&A period at the end of this meeting. Let's proceed with the business of the meeting, starting with the appointment of scrutineers. Computershare Trust Company of Canada is the transfer agent and registrar of the company and is represented here today by Connor Doyle and Dean Ogler. If there's no objection, I will appoint them to act as scrutineers for the meeting to report on the number and percentage of shares represented at this meeting and to record and report on the votes cast in any poll that may be taken.
You've all received notice of the meeting, and I'll call on Janice Odegaard to report the mailing of notice.
The notice calling this meeting of shareholders was mailed on March 20th, 2017, to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 7th, 2017, and has been provided to each director and to the auditors of the company.
Thanks, Janice. A copy of this notice and proof of mailing will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I am advised that the scrutineer's report has been completed and a quorum is present. I ask that the corporate secretary read the scrutineer's report, which indicates the number of shares represented in person and by proxy. Janice?
Thanks, Jim. There's 22 shareholders in person representing approximately 127,000 shares. There are 898 shareholders by proxy, representing approximately 2 billion shares, 920 total shareholders therefore. That represents 71.86% of the outstanding shares of the company.
Well, thanks, Janice. That report will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I now declare the meeting regularly called and properly constituted to constitute and transact business of the meeting. I propose to take votes by ballot for the election of directors, the resolution on the increase in the number of common shares reserved for issuance under the Suncor Energy stock option plan, and the resolution on Suncor's approach to executive compensation. I propose to take votes by a show of hands for the appointment of auditors. Just so you know, based on the proxies received to date, if we had a ballot on this, less than 1% of the votes would be cast against the motion. Okay. I now ask that the 2016 annual report, which includes the financial statements, year-end documents, and auditor's report be tabled.
Here they are, they're also at the table at the back. It was mailed to any shareholder requesting this report, we'd be happy to answer any questions concerning the annual report during the question and answer period following this formal part of the meeting. The next item of business is election of directors. Suncor's bylaws state that the number of directors to be elected at any meeting of the share owners shall be the number of directors then in office or such other number as has been determined by the Board. There are currently 12 directors in office. The Board has determined that 11 directors will be elected at the meeting. I am retiring as Chair of the Board and as a member of the Board, will not stand for re-election this year.
Of the 11 directors nominated, 10 are independent and one, Steve Williams, is a member of management. Their backgrounds and experience, including principal occupations, are described in the Suncor management proxy circular that's distributed for this meeting. May I now have a motion to nominate for election to the Board of Directors those candidates named in the proxy circular for this meeting.
Good morning. My name is Prit Kotesha, I'm a Suncor shareholder. I move to nominate the following candidates for election as directors: Patricia M. Bedient, Mel E. Benson, Jacynthe Côté, Dominic D'Alessandro, John D. Gass, John R. Huff, Maureen McCaw, Michael W. O'Brien, Eira M. Thomas, Steven W. Williams, Michael M. Wilson.
Thank you very much. May I have a seconder to the motion?
My name is Cindy Roberts. I am a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion.
Thank you very much. I declare the nominations closed. 11 directors are to be elected at this meeting, and 11 persons have been nominated. I propose that we vote on this matter by ballot. The Corporate Secretary will now give instructions on the voting procedure.
On this ballot vote, all shares for which proxies in favor of management have been received will be voted in accordance with the instructions of the shareholders giving the proxy. Only proxy holders and shareholders who have not already returned a proxy or who wish to change their previous instructions have to complete a ballot if they wish to vote. The blue ballot handed out during registration at the beginning of the meeting is the ballot to be used for this vote. If you wish to complete a ballot but did not receive one when you registered, please raise your hand. I don't think we've got any there.
I don't see any.
Okay.
Maybe in the back.
The ballot lists the 11 nominees named in the Management Proxy Circular. To vote or withhold from voting for each director, please complete the ballot by placing an X in the appropriate spot beside the name of each nominee. When you've completed and signed the ballot, please raise your hand and it will be collected by an attendant and given to the scrutineers for counting. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Janice. Anyone need more time to complete the ballot?
May we have a discussion?
Beg your pardon?
May we have a discussion on the board members?
Yes.
Of course.
Good morning. My name is Marijke Knibscheer. I'm a proxy holder for my own investment company. I'd like to speak on this motion. I understand that the ballots have obviously already been tallied. It's a choo-choo train. The directors own most of the shares. It's a fait accompli. There are things that need to be said about the directors. One being that I'm rather upset at the amount of money that we are shoveling into the pockets of our directors for part-time work. I say part-time because if you take a very good look, we can see that Ms. Bedient, I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing the name. It says she has two other directorships. If you read a little closer down, you'll notice it's five. We're getting one day out of five out of her life, and yet we're paying big bucks.
If you carry on, the same thing with Ms. Côté. If I read all the places that she's active with, it's five as well. We get one day out of five. The amounts of money that these people are earning are sometimes five times more than what the regular person is earning. If you take a look, last year, we spent over CAD 4 million of our money shoveled into these people's pockets. There's 12 of them, 11 this year. My good God. There are many people in this city who are unemployed, who we could put on this board for a whole lot less money than what we're getting out of these individuals. I think it's a disgrace, and it's got to stop. I really have not been able to vote for any of them. We need to, as they say, clean house and start over. Thank you.
Thanks for your comments. I'll briefly comment that I personally, and now that I'm leaving the board, I'm a little more independent. I'd personally like to express my support for this board of directors. They're a fantastic group of people to work with, and they've contributed immensely to the profitability of this corporation and all the good works that are being done by the company. Appreciate your comments. While the votes are being counted, the ballots are being counted for this motion, I'm going to proceed to the next item, which is appointment of auditors. Management has proposed PricewaterhouseCoopers be reappointed as the auditors. Since auditors are appointed by share owners, I ask for a motion appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers as our auditors. May I have a motion?
Good morning. My name is Sheila Innes, and I'm a shareholder of Suncor. I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed auditors of Suncor Energy Inc. to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until a successor is appointed.
Thank you. May we have a seconder?
My name is Michael Lawrence, and I'm a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion.
Okay. You've heard the motion. Those in favor, please indicate your approval by raising your hand. Thank you very much. The motion is carried. Next item of business is a resolution to approve an amendment to the Stock Option Plan to increase the number of common shares reserved for issuance by 25 million common shares, as more particularly described in the management proxy circular. As noted in this circular, the purpose of the additional reservation is to ensure that a sufficient number of shares remain reserved for issuance under the plan to enable the company to continue its practice of granting options to eligible plan participants as a component of their long-term incentive. May I now ask that a motion be made in this matter?
Good morning. My name is Patricia O'Reilly, and I am a Suncor shareholder. I move that the resolution with respect to the increase in the number of common shares reserved for issuance pursuant to the Suncor Energy Inc. Stock Option Plan by an additional 25 million common shares, as set forth on page 15 of the management proxy circular of Suncor Energy Inc. delivered in advance of its 2017 annual meeting of shareholders be approved.
Thank you very much. May I now have a seconder?
My name is Ed Ma. I am a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion.
Thank you, Ed. You've heard the motion. I wonder now, are there any questions or comments? If there are no questions, I propose we now have a ballot on this matter. We have received proxies representing a total of over 90% of votes cast on this motion, which direct that they be voted in favor of the motion. We will follow the same ballot procedure as described by the Corporate Secretary earlier. The yellow ballot handed out during registration at the beginning of this meeting is the ballot to be used for this vote. Please mark the ballot with an X in either box under the words for or against. When you have completed your ballot, please raise your hand. Okay. While ballots are being collected and counted, we'll proceed to the next item on the agenda, which is executive compensation.
It's an advisory vote, sometimes called say on pay. The results of these type of votes are considered non-binding. They're a vehicle to allow share owners to express their views and make them known to the board. As noted in the management proxy circular, in considering the company's approach to compensation in the future, the board will take into account the results of the vote together with any feedback it receives from shareholders in the course of the board's engagement activities. The form of motion set out for the management proxy circular follows the recommended best practices for the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. May I now ask that this motion be made?
Good morning. My name's Adam Horne. I am a Suncor shareholder. I move on an advisory basis, not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the board of directors, that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the management proxy circular of Suncor Energy Inc. delivered in advance of its 2017 annual meeting of shareholders.
Thank you very much. May we now have a seconder?
Good morning. My name is Ryan Robb. I am a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion.
Appreciate that. Thank you. Now it's time for questions. Anyone have comments? Yes, ma'am.
I still would like to say that I think the mic system in this room is horrible. I can't hear anything hardly. I am going to speak about the compensation matter. My name is Marijke Knibscheer again. I am the proxy holder for my own investment company. I take a look. I see again what we're paying the top five people. Again, the amount of money that we are paying. I realize that is based on a very high elite group of maybe 150 people in this city or maybe 200 that are being pooled. God forbid that our little group shouldn't fit into those, because the rest of the city doesn't earn the amount of monies. We're looking at Mr. Williams' total compensation this year of almost CAD 11,000,500, to be exact, CAD 11,000,482 with everything added in.
How many of us ever even earn that in our whole lifetime? On top of which, I take a look. We have a defined pension plan for this gentleman. I can't even find a word to express how disgusted I am. In my own language, it would be called wuchlak. We see here in our circular, CAD 21 million in defined benefit obligations that we, as shareholders, also have to put forth to this gentleman. Does he not earn enough money out of his CAD 11 million that it said he got this year in combined totals to put a little bit of it aside, maybe, for his own benefit when he gets to be an old man? Most of us have to do that, and we only earn less than CAD 100,000. Some earn CAD 50, and we have to put aside for ourselves.
We're not only overpaying these people, we're giving them even more when they're sitting on their stumps after they've retired and do nothing with the money that we then continually have to pay them. We know that we as shareholders, the minority ones, we can only speak up. You don't even listen because you will have all your own shares, and you have too many shares, and you can do what you want. It's sickening. It really is. The majority of the shares are not held by small people, and yet we're having to endure this. We get a measly 3.03% of a dividend, and yet from 2014 to 2016, Mr. Williams' non-equity incentive plan increased by 33.819% in a two-year period. Right here, I see your face scrunching. It's right here. You do the math.
I was just thinking about the time. We do have just three minutes per speaker.
That's fine for the three minutes. We had a 19-minute talk in the beginning of this, which was not put on the agenda, which may have been by a gentleman who had or may or may not have been a shareholder. I'm a shareholder. Three minutes you can at least give me, if not a little bit more, because half the people here may not even realize how bad it is. When we take a look and the monies that we are expending on the five top people, I am sorry, it is just not common sense to do that. There's many people who are unemployed in this city who have abilities who could step into those roles.
You may not think so, sir, but if you take a little look around and not just in your little circle of 200 people, or maybe even three, this city is filled with very good, experienced people. What we pay these people, we don't have to give them a pension plan. On top of which, if you take a little look, if we happen to let them go without cause, they get millions as well. We can't even get rid of these people without paying them millions. That's not normal in most little places. If you're let go, you're let go. That's again written in here. Thank you. I'm just disgusted.
Thank you. I think the process is working. I appreciate hearing comments. It's hard to respond to so many comments, I'll just assure you of a couple of things. The first one is that the compensation system that we have is designed to reward our senior executives for performance. For non-performance, the numbers you were quoting don't matter because there will be less compensation if future performance is lower. It's a crucial principle that we reward performance and we subtract for non-performance. The second principle that obviously didn't satisfy you last year was our need to be competitive. We have to have the highest quality people in this complex company to run it environmentally soundly and safely. I think it's pretty self-evident that the results have been delivered. I'll just add one final comment that you're getting more than 3% dividends.
The share price for the shares you own has increased to over 20% in 2016, total shareholder return has increased by 27%. The performance has been undoubted. As I said at the beginning, this is an advisory vote. We'll take your comments under advisement.
The share price is a little bit off here. From last year to this year, the share price did increase by 13.81%, the dividend is 3.03%.
You're right. I'm talking about 2016. If there are no further questions, I propose we now vote on this matter by ballot. We've received proxies representing a total of over 94% of the votes cast on this motion, which direct that they be voted in favor of our approach to executive compensation. We will follow the same ballot procedures as described by the Corporate Secretary earlier. The pink ballot handed out during the registration is the ballot to be used for this vote. Please mark with an X either in the box under the words "for" or in the box under the words "against." When you have completed and signed the ballot, please raise your hand. Does anyone need more time?
While the ballots are being collected and counted, we'll proceed to the next item of the agenda, which is remarks from our CEO and CFO, Steven Williams and Alister Cowan. Mr. Williams and I will preside over a question and answer period at the end of the meeting. If you have any questions, I ask you raise them at the time. Steve, over to you.
Thanks, Jim, and thanks to Casey as well, who gave us the blessing this morning. We are deeply respectful of the lands we're on and the neighbors that we have here, and I'm pleased and delighted he honored us with his presence this morning. Welcome to everyone. Welcome to the 2017 AGM. As I say, it's on the traditional territory of the Treaty 7 peoples, we were delighted to welcome Casey this morning. I'd like to start my words by expressing some appreciation to the Board Chair, Jim Simpson. As you've heard, Jim announced his retirement from the board in February. He retires at the end of today's meeting after eight years on the Suncor board and five years prior to that on the Petro-Canada board. Jim's impact on Suncor has been considerable through his time, both as a director and a chair.
I think he's very well known for his reputation and strong focus on governance, on collaborative working, on focusing on solutions. Really just to say, Jim, we are sincerely thankful for your presence, and they are appreciated. It's been through a period of immense growth and success for the company. Thank you very much. I'd also like to just take a moment to welcome our incoming Chair, Michael Wilson. He's been a member of the board since 2014. Michael, a warm welcome to you, and we look forward to working with you in the new role. Welcome. Looking back over the past year, 2016 was anything but dull. It proved to be full of challenge and, in equal measures, opportunity.
I think thanks to the very focused strategy, the integrated business model we have, and the operational and capital discipline, what you've seen is Suncor deliver strong results in a very complicated external environment. Let me just take a brief moment to talk about 2016 and that context. As we expected, the average oil price was the lowest in over a decade. While prices did stabilize and strengthen somewhat, we maintained our focus on operational excellence, that cost management and reliability, and capital discipline in what work we put the shareholders' capital to. 2016 oil price environment also created some favorable conditions for acquisitions and divestments. Thanks to the strength of our balance sheet, we were one of the few companies able to take a real strategic advantage of that market opportunity right at the bottom of the cycle.
While with the transactions we executed in the past year, our belief is that we've enhanced our portfolio of assets and generated significant returns for our shareholders. As Jim said, in 2016, the shareholder return was just under 27%. It's impossible to reflect on the past year without mentioning the wildfires around Fort McMurray. I think the fires tested industries, governments, and communities' response capabilities. I think they also proved without a doubt our resolve and our resilience in the face of that adversity. Climate change continued to be top of mind in 2016, with various regions introducing legislation to address this challenge. We continued to support policy promoting economic prosperity, competitiveness, and regulatory certainty while protecting the environment. Last year also marked by energy infrastructure decisions. In November, two key pipeline applications were approved, while another was denied.
As we all heard recently, a presidential permit has been issued for the Keystone XL project to get our products down into the U.S. If nothing else, 2016 demonstrated what I think of as the importance of vision and focus. For us at Suncor, we've taken those words to heart, building on what I described as an incredibly resilient company. That was tangibly evident in our response to the Fort McMurray wildfires. Our safety-first value guided our efforts in that response. While our assets were undamaged by the fires, we did take the precaution of commencing an orderly shutdown of operations in the area, then safely restarted our operations. Our response and our efforts to help the community recover wouldn't have been possible without the strong focus on operational excellence that we've had over a number of years.
I can honestly say, I've never been more proud of our company, of Fort McMurray, or of the Suncor team. Our employees also helped to drive solid operating and financial results in 2016. That includes just under 623,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in total production, that was an 8% increase over 2015. We also generated CAD 6 billion in funds from operations in 2016, even with an average crude price of just CAD 43 per barrel. A significant focus for us has been on managing our costs. We're making real progress, achieving significant and sustainable cost reductions in line with our vision of operational excellence. Let me just give you an example. Our average oil sands operating costs for 2016 were 26 and a half Canadian dollars per barrel, that's a 5% improvement over the previous year, and that trend is continuing this year.
You'll see us continuing to focus on operational excellence, productivity, business processes, and the supply chain into our business. Meanwhile, our Downstream business delivered strong results, including throughput of just under 430,000 barrels per day and a refinery utilization of 93%, which is an industry-leading performance. Our E&P business made solid contributions in 2016, including just under 118,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent per day. As you heard with our first quarter results, that strong performance has continued this year. While these are independent business units, together they form a proven integrated model. That's one which is helping Suncor to make the most of its profits through each part of that value chain. Combine that with the capital discipline in our integrated model is helping us to build considerable financial strength. Now this strong financial position has enabled us to strategically grow the company.
A major accomplishment for us in 2016 was increasing our interest in Syncrude through the acquisition of Canadian Oil Sands, and the purchase of the Murphy Oil assets. Those transactions resulted in our ownership rising from 12% to almost 54%. Suncor's focus on the Syncrude asset and operations has increased accordingly. In 2016, we acquired a 30% interest in Rosebank, an offshore development in the U.K. North Sea. Should that proceed to production, then Rosebank could add 30,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent, very high-quality sweet crude to our product mix. Taken together with the sale of our Petro-Canada Lubricants business and other sales, these transactions reflect a strong record of counter-cyclical acquisitions and divestments. We also continue to invest through the commodity price cycle into key long-life growth projects, Hebron and Fort Hills.
Located off of the East Coast, Hebron achieved a significant milestone late last year with towing of the platform to the deep water construction site. We expect the platform will be towed out to the production site probably in the next few weeks, and that first oil will be achieved in the first quarter. Our Fort Hills project advanced significantly through 2016 and into 2017. 83% of the construction is now complete. Four of the six major project areas have been turned over to operators. 69% of the operations personnel have been hired. We've just achieved just under 50 million construction man-hours without a single environmental, health and safety, or regulatory enforcement action. Very proud of the focus of the team up on Fort Hills. The project is on track for first oil in quarter four of this year.
We think it's quite fitting in a sense that this is our 50th year of operations, and now we're bringing Fort Hills on, which is going to be with us for the next 50 years. A key part of the Fort Hills is the East Tank Farm development, which, when completed, will significantly contribute to bitumen storage, blending, cooling facilities, and connectivity to third-party pipeline systems. We're really pleased, delighted to have entered into agreements with Fort McKay and Mikisew Cree First Nation for a combined equity interest of 49% in that project. For these two nations, this project will be a substantial business investment that will provide a stable source of income over a long time to fund essential community programs, services, and the infrastructure they need. For Suncor, these agreements demonstrate an evolution in our relationship with First Nations.
They will become true partners in Suncor assets and will be well-positioned to realize their long-term economic prosperity and greater participation in energy development. I'd like to extend my personal thanks to Chief Jim Boucher and Chief Steve Courtoreille, and to Mark Little, our President of Upstream, for their leadership in putting what is a monumental deal in place. It really is, I think, going to set the trend for the future in terms of those partnership relationships. As we grow Suncor, we've recognized that access to market is not just an engineering and financial discussion. It is something that needs to happen in a much broader social context. We support the responsible development of pipeline infrastructure, not only to move our product, but as an important contributor to provincial and national economies.
We're very encouraged by the Government of Canada's recent approval of the two pipelines, and a presidential permit being issued for the third. These pipelines will move oil produced to the highest standards while staying under the oil sands emissions limit of the Alberta Climate Leadership Plan. We know that ongoing consultation, listening to communities, and understanding ways to address concerns and explore opportunities need to be part of that path forward. That means further working closely with Aboriginal peoples so that they're involved in developing resources from the start and then through the life cycle of development. Something you've seen us do with that East Tank Farm development by Fort McKay and Mikisew Cree First Nation.
We need to change the way we think and act in order for Aboriginal people to play a greater role in our development, and that's part of some key social goals that we've been setting ourselves, and that we introduced some new ones last year. We've committed over the next 10 years to further Aboriginal employment recruitment, training, and development, partner with Aboriginal youth, and advance these mutually beneficial marketing arrangements. That's not the work of a few people on the edge of the business. That's the work of all of us in Suncor. It's early days, but by inspiring all of our employees to take action, we think we are uncovering real, tremendous opportunities now. Another important area of collaboration is on climate change, and we're doing our part there, too.
Through a new greenhouse gas goal to reduce total emissions intensity of our oil sands and petroleum output by another 30% by 2030. Second, by working with others, such as the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, to accelerate environmental technology development and then the rolling out and deployment of that technology. Third, by raising the bar in how we report on our progress. You may have seen that we recently published a climate report which outlines Suncor's strategy to be resilient in a carbon-constrained world. The preparation of the report took transparency in the industry to a new level as we engaged in a broad-based dialogue with a cross-section of our stakeholders. The fourth area is by promoting what we call sound public policy through organizations like Canada's Ecofiscal Commission.
We fully support that view that a healthy environment, social wellbeing, and a prosperous economy go hand in hand. Several years back, we sat down and worked to crystallize Suncor's mission, vision, and values. It took a fair amount of time and effort and reflection. I'm confident that the discussions were worth it, and we got it in large measure, right. Our vision is to be trusted stewards of valuable natural resources. Guided by our values, we will lead the way to deliver economic prosperity, improved social wellbeing, and a healthy environment today and tomorrow. That vision has served us extremely well in generating value for our shareholders. Looking back at what we achieved in 2016 and reflecting on what lies ahead, I remain very optimistic.
We're well on the path to achieving our vision thanks to our strategy and the disciplined focus of our leadership team, and most importantly, our employees, who demonstrate and live those values every day. As I turn the floor over to Alister, I'd just like to thank you for your continued support and confidence.
Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to present Suncor's 2016 operating and financial results for the past year. They demonstrate that the execution of our business strategy is really driving Suncor's continued success. Thanks to our integrated model, our financial strength, and our ongoing focus on operational excellence and capital discipline, Suncor remained well-positioned to respond to the dynamics of the year and deliver significant value for the shareholders. As Steve mentioned, we grew our production in 2016 due to an increased stake in Syncrude and strong performance across all our operations. Our total upstream production was just under 623,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. That's an 8% increase over 2015. Our production included over 117,000 barrels per day in E&P, over 378,000 barrels a day at oil sands operations, and 130,000 barrels per day at Syncrude.
In our downstream business, refining utilization remained consistently at the top end of peer performance at 93%. That drove throughput of over 428,000 barrels per day. Turning to our financial performance, we generated CAD 6 billion in funds from operations, even with an average WTI crude price of just over $43 US per barrel. Due to the impact of the forest fires and the decline in the oil prices, we incurred an operating loss of CAD 83 million, or CAD 0.05 per share. I just want to emphasize, however, that our cash flow generation of CAD 6 billion more than covered our sustaining capital and dividend requirement of CAD 4.2 billion in 2016. Being able to generate cash to that degree doesn't mean to say that we rush out and spend it. Suncor continues to maintain a strong focus on controlling our costs and rigorous capital allocation.
Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that our capital allocation priorities haven't changed over the course of the past year, and they won't change in the coming year. Just as a reminder, they are to sustain our asset base and production, to return cash to shareholders through growing dividends and value-based share repurchases, to maintain our strong balance sheet, and to fund profitable growth, including mergers and acquisitions. We've been conscious of living within our means throughout the downturn, which has included pre-funding major growth projects. We've also maintained a very disciplined approach when it comes to managing costs. For example, we have achieved nearly CAD 2 billion in cost savings over the past 2 years, inclusive of the additional costs incurred with our increased stake in Syncrude. That capital discipline has also ensured our ability to maintain our strong balance sheet and strong investment-grade credit rating.
At the same time, our capital discipline and financial strength have enabled us to take advantage of market opportunities to generate and return significant value to our shareholders. That includes a history and its 15 consecutive years, to be exact, of annual dividend increases. It also includes preserving the ability to maintain and increase our dividends throughout the downturn, and also staying true to our philosophy of being able to sustain capital expenditures and dividends at a $40 U.S. per barrel oil price. The sum total of our financial strength, our long-term strategy, and our disciplined execution is an indicator of the leading company that Suncor has become, and we believe is one that represents a strong investor proposition.
Investors can rely on Suncor to continue to do the right things, delivering strong returns to our shareholders, maintaining our balance sheet and flexibility, driving profitable growth, and ensuring risks are properly managed. Thank you for your commitment to Suncor, and with that, I'll turn it back to Jim. Thank you, Steve and Alister, for those remarks. It's now time to finish the formal business of the meeting. We've received the ballots from the scrutineers, and I'll now ask the secretary to give you the results of those ballots.
Thanks, Jim. I will round these numbers to shorten this part of the meeting. We will be publishing the numbers following the meeting as well. First of all, I'll report on the election of directors. Patricia Bedient, 99% in favor. Mel Benson, 99%. Jacynthe Côté, 99%. Dominic D'Alessandro, 99%. John D. Gass, 99%.
John R. Huff, 99%. Maureen McCaw, 98%. Michael W. O'Brien, 99%. Eira M. Thomas, 99%. Steven W. Williams, 99%, and Michael M. Wilson, 98%. Secondly, I will read the report on the ballot relating to motion number three, which was the increase in the common shares reserved for issuance under the Suncor Energy Inc. stock option plan. Percentage of votes for the motion, 90%. Percentage of votes against the motion, 10%. Finally, the ballot on motion number four, which is the advisory resolution on executive compensation. Percentage of votes for the motion, 95%, against the motion, 5%. That concludes my report. Jim?
Thank you very much, Janice. The scrutineer's report will be incorporated into the minutes of the meeting. I accept this report and declare that the board of directors will consist of the 11 nominees named in the circular. Congratulations. I also declare that the shareholders have approved the resolution respecting the increase in the number of common shares reserved for issuance under the stock plan by an additional 25 million shares. I further declare that the shareholders have accepted the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the management proxy circular. If there are no further matters to be brought to this meeting, may I have a motion that the formal portion be terminated?
My name is Steve Duke, I'm a Suncor shareholder, I move that this meeting be terminated.
Thank you, Steve. May I please have a motion to second the motion?
My name is Karin Hockey, and I'm a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion.
Thank you. Those in favor of the motion, please indicate by raising your hand. Contrary. Motion's carried. Ladies and gentlemen, I now declare the formal portion of this meeting to be terminated. I'd now like to open the floor to questions and answers, and we'll respond. Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to introduce our new Chair of the Board, Michael Wilson. Michael? Michael's been a Director of Suncor since 2014 and has acted most recently as a member of the Suncor Governance Committee and the Human Resources and Comp Committee. I'd like to take a moment now to introduce senior management team who may be called upon from time to time to answer questions. We've already introduced Steve and Alister, and Janice, of course. I'd like now for these senior executives to stand when I introduce you.
Eric Axford, Executive Vice President, Business Services. Mark Little, President of Upstream. Mike MacSween, Executive Vice President of Major Projects. Steve Reynish, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development. Kris Smith, Executive Vice President of Downstream, and Paul Gardner, Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Now we will take questions from the floor. Steve or I will endeavor to answer you. Yes, sir. Would you go to the mic, please, Roger?
My name is Roger Smith. I messed up your mic, Chair. Roger Smith, I'm a shareholder. First off, congratulations on an outstanding year. Given all the various pressures, it's quite remarkable. The other thing that I thought was remarkable was your safety record. I saw there was zero incidents. I don't know if that applied to the entire organization or not, but that's outstanding. Congrats. A couple questions. I guess they really focus on the oil sands. One, you mentioned that you got your cost down, I think you said CAD 26, and you mentioned the word sustainable. I'd like you to comment, if you wouldn't mind, on why you think this is going to be sustainable. There are a lot of competitive reasons, reduction in competition, service cost drops, et cetera, which have contributed to that, I expect.
Why do you think that can be sustained well into the future? The second is looking at the oil sands, what technologies, what operations, what innovative measures are you going to be taking that are going to help to improve emissions, productivity, and recovery factor? I'll just leave it.
Steve, I think that's yours.
Okay, thank you. Thanks, Roger. First of all, on the safety records, I think that they're very worthy of mention and comment. The performance on Fort Hills is absolutely world-class in an area which is very difficult to work through, a challenging construction program. As you know, we had the forest fires around there, too. Fort Hills was the 50 million man-hours. The performance in the rest of the company is at a similarly high level. In the past, we have had times when our performance hasn't been satisfactory. We've done an awful lot of work on safety and our environmental performance, and we're seeing the rewards of that now. Thank you. The costs are sustainable. In fact, we talked about just over CAD 26 for 2016. This morning when we announced our first quarter results, those costs were down to just over CAD 22 a barrel.
That's Canadian dollars, they're down at just over $17 US a barrel. We're comfortable that they are not always sustainable at the very low end of the range, but that we've permanently adjusted them down. A lot of it is to do with the long-term operational excellence program we've had in place. You've got very expensive fixed assets, and you're trying to get them as reliable as you can. We've gone through a complete turnaround cycle of the whole facility through the last five, six years, and we've got it into a condition where we believe we can start to sustain the levels of reliability. That's one of the big contributors to cost. The other one is the processes. We're getting smarter at what we do. There are some benefits of scale.
As we've been growing, we've been able to spread the resource we've got more finely and help the costs come down. Our view is they're sustainable, and the internal challenge we set ourselves is to try and get it below 20, and we think we could see that in the future. It's probably worth saying that gas prices, I know you're particularly familiar with the gas world. Gas prices actually came up just under 50% last year. The numbers we've got this year, when you look at the CAD 22, that's in spite of nearly a 50% increase versus the year before. It's a good performance. We're working hard on it. It's sustainable. Technology, a couple of things I would say. Lots of opportunity in technology.
Around the mines themselves, which tend to be thought of as yesterday's technology, we have a fleet of automated trucks operating up in the Millennium Mine now, just on a piece of land to the side of it. It's working well. We've still got some more tests we want to do, and we'll be coming to conclusions as to how broadly we apply that at the end of this year, beginning of next year. We're reasonably confident in the impact it can have, particularly in new mines. The trucks we've bought for Fort Hills, they have an autonomous capability in them because we believe at some stage in the future, we can put those into fully autonomous service. The other big technology changes are around in situ itself. We've got now large-scale pilot plants operating with the new solvent technologies, and it's encouraging.
I think that will be a part of the basis of the in situ replication we roll out as we go into the '20s. You may have noticed in the first quarter, we got the approvals for Meadow Creek East, the first of those projects, and we think we'll be rolling out probably 400,000 barrels a day of in situ capacity through the '20s. Lots of technology going really well. Probably just worth saying, we spent a lot of time and effort in what's called COSIA, the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance. We're a founding member. We're actively supporting it. There are literally hundreds of projects, very encouraging, addressing all of the challenges we see in the future. Lots going on, and I think we'll make great progress.
Thanks, Steve. Any other questions? Yes, sir.
My name is Dennis McDermott. I'm a shareholder. I've got a suggestion to make, and I hope you take it in the spirit in which it's given, keeping in mind that I did vote for every one of the directors. That is, there is a real concern about executive compensation. There's a great deal of space that in every management and professional analysis about how to justify that compensation. I would just suggest that you spend as much time indicating what the company is doing in terms of technology and what advances it's making. I mention that in the context of the origin of the idea of how to extract the oil sands. One of the early innovators was this fellow called Dr. Karl Clark, and he did his innovation in his washing machine. I think he ruined several washing machines doing it.
Before him, there was a fellow at Conoco named Dr. Diamond. He came up with a German process and brought the froth flotation process into mining, which is the kind of thing you're using ultimately in Suncor. Keeping in mind that, and I say this, Mr. Williams, because you've got an English accent, so you haven't spent the whole of your life in the prairies such as I have. Keep in mind, we have two commodities that really have made the West, grain and energy. Grain and low prices, keep in mind, both are governed by the world prices. Having spent some university time in Ontario, all these tariff protections and everything, we had none of that out here.
The grain at such a low level drove brilliant people from the farms into the oil industry, and that's why we've got so many capable people from the prairies in the oil industry. We that read these annual reports just are reading about numbers. This lady is quite concerned about how-
the compensation is going, and I do think there's an upset in the board, I think that there's a justification that you can make in your reports. If you're going to spend that much time having the wordsmith working on the executive compensation, try to tell us what some of the innovations are, the technologies are, that are going on. I know that they're going on because I'm a lawyer and I've acted in cases involving both Petro-Canada and Suncor. I know, I've been to the Suncor plant as a result of one of those cases, and I know that there's that technology, you're not selling it to your shareholders. You're not selling it to the East, because they just think that we're just a big pool and you just have to put a straw in, draw it out.
We got this guy in the East that just comes out here, smiles, and there's people here that will line up and have their picture taken because he's better looking than they are, so they go, "Wow, this is a great selfie." There's quite a bit of intellectualism in this Western area. I think that you should start appealing to that and you should take your message. It would be a real justification for the executives if they spent some time in the East selling what you have. Start off by selling it to your shareholders, because you've got a lot to sell, and I don't think you're doing as much as you could. Thank you.
Those are great remarks. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'll just make one little comment. I think in the highly competitive oil price environment that we're in globally right now, innovation and technology are crucial. I think your suggestion of explaining what we're doing, and we're doing a lot, as you surmised, I think explaining that better is a very good suggestion. Steve, any comments?
Yeah, I'll just make an odd comment and I'll try not to spend too much time on the minutia of it. We agree. We are actively developing technology. We are actively talking to federal government, as well as provincial government. We're talking way beyond the boundaries of just Canada. We're talking into the U.S. and the rest of the world. That conversation has made tremendous progress. That's why the Off Oil Sands campaign is not quite as energetic as it was before. That's why we've got three pipelines approved. That's why COSIA is in place. Some tremendous work. I take the point, we can always do better. The compensation issue, I keep hearing a thread of it, and I hear Janice did say a number. 95% of our shareholders supported our compensation system.
We are asking, we are listening, we recognize there are broader views, and the executive compensation has been flat for three years now. There are some arithmetic things that happen there, but salaries have not changed for three years. What I would say is we're listening, things have happened, and we're pleased that we got such a strong support of 95%.
Thanks, Steve. I have another question here.
Yes, good morning. My name is Ross Gurley. I am a shareholder as well. I just was wondering, and I apologize if it is already in the quarterly report here, is just wondering the financial impact of the carbon levy on your operations, and if it is reported or can it be reported in your quarterly reports?
Yeah, it is very complicated, as you could imagine, because it is a staged payment and it depends on what you actually produce. I think we probably have here. We have just put together a report which is set. It is probably the best one, to be honest, which is issued in the oil and gas industry, which addresses exactly that question. The simple answer for in the medium to long term is it is CAD 0.60 a barrel.
Yes, I would like to take issue with the fact that you keep pushing forth that you say 95% approved your compensation. The reason I take issue with that is because, first of all, when the motions are put forth in the circulars, there are recommendations as to how to vote. Generally speaking, those who hold their hand out will never say, "Don't vote for us and give us more money," or anything of that nature. Therefore, you get those people who are reading those circulars, and I hate to say it, but we do have perhaps some shareholders who really don't understand the whole minutia, and they just follow blindly as to whatever the board recommends. So there you are going to get a chunk already. Then, as I said, you have got a big chunk, even yourselves, who keep shoveling yourself all these units.
Individually, I'm sure you've got more units than a lot of us will ever get through hard work. The whole chunk, or a large portion, is already spoken for. I hate to say it, like I say, there's those who just blindly follow because they don't know what else to do. I'm trying to wake those ones up that are blindly following, because paying your board and paying yourselves these obscene amounts of money, this is why we're only getting 3.03%, and I think it's got to stop, really. Thank you.
Okay. I understand your point of view. Next question.
Hello, my name is Scott Wanger. I'm a Suncor shareholder. I just wanted to ask whether or not you're seeking opportunities outside of your current areas of operation.
We're a global oil company. We've got an integrated business in many parts of the world, but the simple answer is no. What we're looking at is concentrating in on our core, our core being the oil sands business integrated through to the customer. Oil sands through the pipelines to the refineries, to the eventual consumers. That's the core of our business. We have a very healthy E&P business, which is primarily on the East Coast of Canada and on both sides of the North Sea. You see us look at those areas, but we're not scouring the world. We tend to concentrate on the things we know how to do.
Thank you. Yes, sir.
Hi, my name is Adam Palmer. Just wondering, how low do you think you can get your cost per barrel?
That's over to you, Steve.
I'm not sure. They're far enough away that I can say some things, they can't get to me. We set the challenge internally to get below CAD 20 a barrel. Of course, when we set it, there was parity between the U.S. and Canadian dollar. We've beaten it on the U.S., Canada's up in the low, mid-CAD 20s. I think you will see us over a number of years continue to target that range, I think we'll make real progress. Getting it down in this low CAD 20s range is setting the standard in industry. We think we've got a bit more progress to make. An essential part of that is this ops excellence. Get the plants reliable, running them full, spreading the high costs over. Maybe below CAD 20, if I live long enough.
Yes, sir.
Good morning. My name is Kelly Carter. I'm a shareholder of Suncor. I've also been a dividend reinvestment plan investor since 1996, so I have strong confidence in the company. In university, I did a research project on the Obama administration energy proposal that brought the United States to 2035 with 85% of their oil production from the United States, with a 15% supplement from Canada. With the new administration in the United States, has that model changed?
It's very difficult to forecast exactly what's going to happen. I'll pick out a few key beliefs that we have. One is that you can go way into 2050 and beyond. Hydrocarbons will be an important part of the energy mix. We think there's still an important function for gas and oil. If you look at the mix of products, we had a point of view, which was on this continent, I'm sure you're familiar, various grades of crude oil. The easiest split is there's some light ones and some heavy ones. Our view was that there would be an abundance of light sweet crude on this continent, but a shortage of heavy crude, and that the choices the continent would have is either to use the Canadian heavy crudes or to import it from Mexico, Venezuela, some in the Middle East or Russia.
We believe we can win that competition to have ours. We're very comfortable that Canada's crudes have a part to play right the way through until supply, demand, and the remix of energy in a lower carbon world happens. Certainly gets us through that period. Yes, we're comfortable that Canadian oil sands has a big part to play.
Thank you.
Good question. Thank you. Any other questions? None from the internet, so I believe we're done. I'd like to thank everyone for joining, and I'd actually like to thank the lady, the shareholder, that expressed her points of view passionately, and obviously it means a great deal to her. I think it's healthy to have that kind of debate, so thank you. Look forward to connecting with you again. I'll be sitting down there next time. Thanks. Have a great day.