It's been all of them—on every occasion that I've had the opportunity to speak with the Prime Minister. Most recently, Saskatchewan had a significant presence at COP28 in Dubai. We had over 60 provincial and national businesses, delegations and industry representatives. Post-secondary folks who were with us there had the opportunity to speak with a couple of ministers, including the Minister of Environment, in that setting.
Each and every time, through multiple ministers and the Prime Minister himself, we have voiced our opposition to what essentially amounts to an inflationary tax. In the early days of its introduction—and I remember it well because I was the environment minister at the time—I was in Montreal when the Prime Minister rose to his feet and introduced it on Canadians. I believe it was on October 3, 2016, if I'm not mistaken. My predecessor, Brad Wall, very quickly asked, “Has anyone done the economic analysis on this?”
I think what we're seeing today, with the Bank of Canada's statement on the productivity emergency we are facing in this nation, tells us that, no, we haven't done an economic analysis on this policy and many others, but it's high time we did. I'm not in any way saying that we should be making decisions that increase the emissions in our industries, but we should be looking at the emissions in our industries relative to their counterparts and competitors in other areas of the world. Are we cleaner? Can we do more?
In the meantime, we should ensure we are making every effort to make our cleaner products available to the world, displacing some of the dirtier products that are produced in other areas. I think if you accept the fact that climate change is real and you accept the fact that climate change is a global challenge, not just one in Saskatchewan—or even in Canada, for that matter—we need to work together with our national partners on achieving global solutions.