Mr. Speaker, let me begin by passing a compliment to the member for Peterborough. I did not realize that he was one of the initiators of the blue box in Ontario until it was mentioned earlier in debate today. That has had a significant impact across the country and I congratulate him for his involvement on it.
With regard to the fact that we do consume a tremendous amount of energy in North America we recognize that we do live in a cold climate and our energy costs are undoubtedly higher. It has been pointed out that in European countries there is a lot more technology and a lot more effort put into ensuring that houses can be cooled and heated by natural currents and the movement of air.
What the member is alluding to is the footprint that we would leave as a world population on the environment if countries like China and India become as big consumers of energy as North America. If we were to take the lead and show other countries that it could be done, that our environmental footprint could be a whole lot less than it is now, that would be the way to go and that would be the way to preserve the world for a long time to come.