Mr. Chairman, if you'll allow me, thank you. It's nice to have the minister here today.
Mr. Chairman, through you to the minister, on December 21 you received a letter from the CEO of the Toronto Stock Exchange, Mr. Richard Nesbitt. It was a ten-page memo, in fact, in which he pleaded with you to keep Canada in the international emissions trading system for several reasons: first, because it will lower the cost of compliance for Canadian companies, Canadian emitters; second, because it will lower global greenhouse gas emissions; third, because it will help Canada to participate immediately in the global carbon trading system, in the market; and fourth, because Canada's market alone is too small.
So you've been forewarned on this issue by Mr. Nesbitt, CEO of the Toronto Stock Exchange, and every expert on climate change or on emissions trading that this committee or the Bill C-30 committee has heard from has told us it would be foolish, in fact, for Canada to withdraw and not take part in the global carbon market.
Just hours ago, the Prime Minister ruled out completely Canada's participation in international emissions trading systems. You just said you're considering participating in the clean development mechanism under Kyoto. How can you participate in something the Prime Minister has ruled out?