Thank you for that.
There's been a lot of discussion this past week in the House of Commons about the memorandum of understanding. I mean, if we were going to talk about the industrial carbon pricing—because we are talking about Alberta when we we're talking about this memorandum of understanding—the federal carbon pricing system was actually modelled on a system that was developed in Alberta. Alberta had an industrial carbon pricing system before we had one nationally. I think that's a really important point to take into account.
Now, the next piece is that if we were looking at the votes we were having in the House of Commons this week, the part that the Conservatives were unable to include in their motion and that actually was part of the agreement with the Province of Alberta was the part about industrial carbon pricing, which is fascinating to me, because, as I said, the system is based on a system that was created in Alberta, but no matter. The other part is that a fundamental part of this memorandum of understanding is an agreement for the province and the federal government to work together on how we strengthen the industrial carbon pricing system.
That is an important step forward, because it's good from an emissions reduction standpoint, but it's also really important from a competitiveness perspective. It makes the businesses more competitive. I hear that from businesses over and over again. They want to make sure there's a certain and predictable credit price for industrial carbon pricing, so that they can make their business plans and plan out for it. Time and time again, what I'm hearing when I'm speaking with businesses is that having an industrial carbon price isn't a hindrance. It creates the way to plan forward. It incentivizes innovation.
Just as I mentioned in the context of steel—which I know is not an Alberta example as I'm saying it, but I can provide Alberta examples as well of industries that have done well with industrial carbon pricing—it actually makes them more competitive on a global market, because the world is moving towards a low-carbon economy. We see that time and time again in terms of where investments are going globally. We know as a country that we need to be trading and diversifying our trade partners. We know that we have trading blocs like the European Union and the U.K. They're moving towards carbon border adjustment mechanisms, which means they're looking to see if we have an industrial carbon price. If we have one, it gives us better access into those markets.
At the very moment that our country—provinces like Alberta, but all of our provinces—wants to have access to trade in these other international markets and to diversify, having an industrial carbon price is an important part of how we make sure that we have access into those markets and that we have preferential products that people want to buy, because countries around the world are also moving towards a low-carbon economy.
I apologize. That was a bit further out, but I think that's why this memorandum of understanding shows how the federal government can work collaboratively with provinces, and that's what we want to do. We can't reach our climate goals without working with our provinces and having our provinces also do that heavy work with us. This agreement shows that provinces like the Province of Alberta see the opportunity in making sure that we're climate competitive as an economy.