I wouldn't put it that way, Mr. McGuinty. I'd actually say that those countries, which are Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, all of which have carbon taxes and have had carbon taxes for a number of years, have not had their economies harmed by the presence of those carbon taxes. And there is considerable support in the economics literature for the proposition that with a carbon tax, if it's imposed in a revenue-neutral way and the revenues generated by the tax are used to reduce other forms of taxes--payroll taxes, income taxes--you get what's called a “double dividend”; you get environmental benefits as well as economic benefits.
On February 6th, 2007. See this statement in context.