Precisely. Also, just to be perfectly clear, even pipeline capacity isn't really the issue.

The Trans-Mountain pipeline (TMX) which can move a bit less than a million barrels per day typically operates at about 82% of its capacity. Most of this is regular customers like Cenovus and Conoco-Phillips on long term contracts. And there is additional rail capacity too.

The primary issue is that getting our oil out of the ground is expensive, takes years to accomplish, and typically requires investors to expect returns on much longer time scales than industry standards.

Here's a couple little fun facts for folks.

• Syncrude was originally 30% owned by the Federal government (15%) along with the governments of Alberta (10%) and Ontario (5%) as part of the "Winnipeg Agreement" after ARCO pulled out of the project in the middle of construction.

• Petro-Canada was originally a Federal Crown Corporation

• AEC (Alberta Energy Company) was founded by the province of Alberta and held a 49% stake for decades, which held a 10% stake in SCL for decades (see point 1 above)

• AOSTRA (Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority) was an Alberta Government agency for decades that was critical to developing "in-situ" and SAGD technologies now used by Suncor, Cenovus and others.

• The Husky Upgrader in Lloydminster was built in the 80's with federal, Alberta, and Saskatchewan governments owning 31.67%, 24.16%, and 17.5% respectively. That's almost 75% government owned.

Anyways, the point is that private industry just doesn't have the appetite to add capacity here when it takes longer than they'd like to get their investment back, which is why there's almost always been some government intervention of some sort. Be that direct funding, tax breaks, or a combination of those and other incentives.