Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to be back at committee.
Before I start, I just want to put a motion on notice for discussion at our next meeting. I'm going to read it in English, but it is in both languages.
I move that that the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development request that the Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna, appear before committee to explain the government's recently announced carbon pricing scheme.
Thank you to all of you for appearing here. It's nice to see you again, Michael.
Let me start by clearing the air a little bit, because people like Mr. Binnion are sometimes characterized as climate skeptics just because they oppose carbon taxes. I'm accused of that. I look at a tweet from you, Mr. Blandford, to Ms. McKenna herself. You say, as you've rightly pointed out, much opposition to carbon taxes is really just hidden skepticism about the reality of climate change and the need to address it.
You have at least four people in this room who oppose carbon pricing who are not climate skeptics. Most of the people I deal with who oppose carbon taxes are looking for solutions that don't increase the burden on Canadian taxpayers and allow our economy to remain competitive in an environment where we've seen a historic flight of capital from our country.
Hopefully this is seen as gentle chiding. This is not intended to embarrass you. If we're going to have civil discussions about serious issues in this country, we have to use language and treat each other with respect and not vilify each other with that kind of terminology.
Let me go to Mr. Bateman. You said we need to put a price on GHG emissions. Just to be clear, when you talk about pollution, you're talking about a price on carbon, correct? We're not talking about pollution at large. We're not talking about SOx, NOx, VOCs and all of those other compounds that affect human health and are referred to as pollution but are actually not addressed with the carbon tax that was just announced. Am I correct?