There is no doubt in my mind that coming from Mr. Godfrey, whose new leader, Stéphane Dion, has always opposed a territorial approach, these questions are certainly not prompted by a desire to be ornery.
First of all, we did receive a legal opinion on this and had it validated by the Library of Parliament on December 7. It states the following:[...] it seems that the provision could be constitutionally valid in that it falls under either the criminal law power (91(27) of the Constitution Act, 1867, or the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Canada to legislate for peace, order and good government in Canada (national dimensions theory) (introduction to section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867).
We took the trouble of asking for a legal opinion to validate our amendment before even tabling it with the Committee. We figured that some members might raise constitutional arguments.
Indeed, with respect to the credits trading system—
I don't know whether Mr. Godfrey is listening, Mr. Chairman—