Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to address Motion No. 287, moved by the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salaberry. I thank her for her motion, which seems simple.
This motion deals with three fundamental elements that will trigger huge economic, social and environmental issues in the years to come, for Quebec and the whole planet. In the next 10 minutes, I will try to present some of these issues.
First, through this motion, the Bloc Québécois is asking the government to agree with what we have been saying in this House for years, namely that absolute greenhouse gas reduction targets must be set.
For years, the federal government has been stubbornly trying to favour one segment of the industry, to ensure that the increase in emissions in a given industrial sector is taken into account—I am thinking, among others, of the tar sands—and to adopt intensity targets. The government should agree with us. It should respect Canada's international commitments and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms. The way to do this is to set a cap on emissions and to base greenhouse gas reductions on absolute targets, and not on intensity targets, as the government is preparing to do.
Indeed, we must set absolute targets. Why? Because we must put a price on carbon. We have two instruments at our disposal to achieve that objective and to decarbonize our economy, namely to impose a tax on carbon or to establish a carbon exchange.
Today, when I hear Liberal members tell us that they support the establishment of a cap-and-trade market, of a cap on emissions, or of a carbon exchange, I cannot help but think that this is not what they proposed in the last election campaign. They did not talk about a carbon exchange but, rather, about a carbon tax. I have not heard the Liberal Party, and we have not yet read their election platform. Nothing says that they would not want to impose a carbon tax, instead of promoting a carbon exchange, as proposed by, among others, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP.
Why a carbon exchange? Because we have to look back in time and remember that the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges—and I invite the minister to pay close attention, because I think he is from the Toronto region—signed, in 1999, an agreement to ensure that Toronto—