A question. All right.
The first point was the provincial versus sectoral approach. Don't forget that what we're talking about is the residual, the amounts that would not have been invested or allocated or applied for within the first two years. Our frank anticipation is that any commercial entity worth its salt would have got its application in to get its money back, so it's not willingly going to surrender the money. So there will not be a large balance in the account.
Secondly, our view was—and again, I think Monsieur Bigras made the point very well in arguing for a territorial approach to the balance of the funds—it makes a lot of sense to avoid the perception that one part of the country is being drained for another.
I think in practical terms if, for whatever set of reasons, a company fails to take up its money, it may well be that another company in the same province in the same line of work will find better use for that money than the original company—which strikes me as something the board of directors of the surrendering company might want to address.
So I don't know that it's a real problem, but we were trying to deal with the perception that we were draining one part for the other.
The second point was, why not 100%? You reversed the argument and said why not 100%? You should remember that, in effect, we have moved somewhat in your direction with the NDP friendly amendment, which says that a target of 50% might be used for retrofitting projects and that retrofitting is not limited to the particular province where the source of the money comes from. So in some ways we have recognized Mr. Jean's point—perhaps not in a way you anticipated or wanted—that there is a way in which the money, should there be any in the account, after a two-year period could go across the country for retrofitting purposes, while still leaving the balance of that money, to the degree of 80%, to be reinvested in the territory.
And then on the final point, which has to do with four years versus two years, I have a couple of points. First of all, the number of large final emitters in this country is not limitless: there are 700 of them. It's not like Europe, where there were 11,000 and we didn't have good data. So we're actually in a fairly controlled universe of 700 entities that produce 50% of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.
Secondly, we think that any company worth its salt does have plans on the books to expedite or hurry along the investments that will reduce greenhouse gases.
I think what we're trying to do here through all of these amendments, particularly this one, is to create a sense of urgency. I would remind Mr. Jean that industrial companies, when they are put up against a real challenge, as in World War II, for example, when there was a shortage of artificial rubber because Malaysia had been captured.... At that time, we mandated a company called Polysar Corporation in Sarnia, Ontario, to develop artificial rubber from zero to 100, and they did it in 18 months.
So when Canadian companies are given that sense of mission and urgency, and the right kinds of financial incentives, as would be understood in the creation of a green investment bank of Canada, we think they are capable of moving beyond a leisurely pace to an urgent pace. We think the situation of climate change and the threat of global warming are such that this is a very good reason to be urgent—and two years will do fine.