Mr. Martin, it's interesting to see the document that is guiding your negotiations. I have to say that I am left extremely confused. Your document states that the position of Canada at the negotiation table is that the federal government is pursuing clean electricity as part of its strategy. It says that this will be done by switching away from coal and expanding the use of nuclear and renewable power, and that the government is providing significant incentives to increase Canada's supply of clean electricity from renewable sources.
It then mentions that carbon capture and storage is an initiative into which the department is putting a lot of money, a lot of taxpayers' money. Turning the Corner, which is supposedly Canada's greenhouse gas strategy, last fall's throne speech, and this year's budget all state that the Government of Canada is going to achieve “cleaner electricity through nuclear, coal”. Nowhere in any of these three documents are the words “renewable energy” mentioned. There has been a commitment of many hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars to the development of carbon sequestration. As far as I'm aware—and I can be corrected—the government has yet to commit any money for the renewable sector, and the money being spent now is still 2008 money.
I'm doubly confused to see that carbon capture and storage is now admitted by the government and industry to be for cleaning greenhouse gases from coal-fired power. Supposedly, the strategy of the federal government is to switch away from coal, yet we're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in CCS, and the Government of Canada is on record saying that they are dedicated to the expansion of coal-fired power, including for export. How do these things fit together?