Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know that the government seems to have reservations about the reference to the Kyoto Protocol, but I believe it is essential.
Mentioning a compliance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—the UNFCCC—is essential, for two reasons. First, people at the Montreal Stock Exchange and other stakeholders in the emissions trading system have told us that the system Canada establishes will have to be compatible with other systems. The system compatibility issue is crucial in ensuring a viable carbon market in Canada.
As a result, insofar as the systems established so far have been founded on the joint application concept provided for in the Kyoto Protocol, that reference to the protocol is crucial to ensuring that Canada's future emission rights trading system is viable.
Second, the reference to the Kyoto Protocol is crucial in enabling us to trade credits internationally. You want those credits to be recognized. And for them to be recognized in the achievement of our environmental targets, the benchmark must be the Kyoto Protocol.
So, for both the above reasons—the need for systems compatibility to facilitate access by Canadian companies, and the issue of credits traded internationally being recognized in Canada's attainment of targets—the Kyoto Protocol and UNFCCC reference must be expressly set out. That is what amendment L-20 achieves.