Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here today.
I'd like to raise one issue, one example of why, just as you said, we should have a more level playing field of efforts, particularly on this emissions inventory of products and efforts within countries. I'll mention one type, an example. In Japan they have a very high bar of acceptance for used vehicles and test them for emission tailpipe levels on a periodic basis. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but that high bar has the effect of removing an awful lot of two-year-old vehicles from the roads.
While that appears to be admirable on the surface--and I'm sure it would be counted in that emissions inventory structuring system--I'm wondering if it's counted when they take those same vehicles, load them onto a huge automobile carrier ship, take them into the Caribbean, and resell them. In other words, they're selling their failed emission vehicles they have counted in their inventory into the developing countries. I would think that needs some exploratory work done too. What's the point in removing vehicles if you're just going to pass that pollution into another part of the world?
My concern today is mainly with this bill. I certainly recognize that the plan we as a government have in place is a vast improvement from not having a plan at all. It seems to be balanced, achievable--and it's good to hear it is absolute too, because that's a firm direction to be going in. With this bill, I would like to know if we have some idea on costing to achieve the higher standards of Bill C-311? This is not just in raw dollars and cents.
I noticed here in some commentary that the Parliamentary Budget Office could not do a cost analysis, but has any other department done a cost analysis on it? In addition to a cost analysis of the raw dollars and cents to achieve that level, what industries have to be shut down, or do any industries have to be shut down, to achieve those levels?
Having the leader of the NDP fly over Fort McMurray and want to shut down the oil sands...in Alberta, where we're from, one of the industries would have to be shut down to meet these types of targets. Do we have the impact on major industries that may have to be curtailed or shut down? If we do have a much higher cost for doing this, what else would have to be cut back from our system to be able to meet these targets--health care, post-secondary education, or other initiatives? Does it have that much of a financial and industrial impact?