Thank you to all the witnesses for coming.
Ms. Smith, I just feel that I have to go to you and talk a little bit about energy. What the NDP doesn't tell, the story that isn't told, is that.....
Well, Mr. Brison and I, we went to China I think four years ago. They told us at that point that every two weeks they were building a coal-powered electrical plant. It was stated earlier, either by the NDP or by you, that Canada emits 2% of the world's greenhouse gases.
You know, the economic impact, and I'm not here to suggest...because I think it's important to point out that indeed in Canada, in 2006, $345 million was allocated for green energy, as was $230 million and then $1.5 billion in 2007. I can tell you that in my province of Ontario, in southwestern Ontario, that money was allocated for wind energy. If you come down to my neck of the woods, they're all over....
You must admit that you have some challenges there as well. For instance, we saw that unfortunate circumstance with the tailing ponds and the ducks, but I'm looking at statistics that talk about anywhere from 140,000 to 328,000 birds being killed by wind turbines every year. That's not very often talked about. Again, in my neck of the woods, where there is a huge migration, these are not the sparrows and robins and such; these are many of the songbirds. So there's a real challenge there.
Another challenge that I have to tell you about is the fact that Canada is a humongous country. It's cold in the winter, hot in the summer; we have huge distances to travel, and we have to stay competitive.
The final point is that we are a developed country, and the whole key to development is energy. Although we all want a cleaner and brighter world, I think you really need to give Canada marks for the effort we've made, as small as we contribute to the greenhouse gases...and yet important as it is to our economy.
I'll say one last thing. You're familiar with the acronym PIIGS, which was given to those five countries that were pretty much bankrupt in Europe. PIIGS stands for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.
For Portugal, it was interesting. Much of their demise came from building roads. But did you know that Spain's basic demise was solar energy? They will tell you this, that they switched over to solar and it pretty much finished their economy.
I want you to explain to us...but first I have to ask you this question: what do you drive?