Yes. It's very simple. Canadians, in their everyday lives, aren't the cause of emissions of this size in the domestic market. Canadians' day-to-day activities emit between six and 10 tonnes, depending on the province, but the remaining tonnes making up the 20 tonnes that we emit are associated with exports. For example, one tonne of aluminum — in Quebec, we produce five percent of the world's aluminum — adds four tonnes of greenhouse gases to our footprint. Every time we export a tonne of aluminum, we have to offset an equivalent of four tonnes of CO2. The same is true for the oil sands. The oil that is extracted from the oil sands does not remain in Canada. If we want to impose this 10-tonne reduction on Canadians, they'll have to achieve zero tonnes. In actual fact, the burden can't be imposed solely on the public. That's why I was talking about an empty country. “Empty country” means that our position as an exporter is disadvantageous relative to the size of our domestic market, particularly since our main customer, the United States, has no emissions limits and therefore, in terms of competitiveness, can't help us offset by paying for the emissions for which it's responsible here at home.
On November 7th, 2006. See this statement in context.