Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. It’s a real pleasure for me to see you back, especially at this job as the chair of this committee.
Good afternoon, Mr. Giroux.
As I told you earlier, it's a real pleasure for me to see you again. We read you and quote you often. We're very happy with the work you do, which is neutral, objective and based on facts and figures. As we often say, figures are stubborn things.
The last time you testified before this committee was a little more than a month ago, on May 8. The least we can say is that you and your team are prolific. You regularly publish reports, including the one you released on May 18 last, entitled, “A Distributional Analysis of the Clean Fuel Regulations”. Obviously, it directly concerns the problem of climate change, which we're all facing, and the steps we must take to combat it.
First, let's get one thing clear: climate change is real; it's having an impact on our everyday lives; human beings are contributing to it; and human beings must therefore help reduce the impact of climate change by reducing pollution here in Canada, of course, but also around the world. Some countries have adopted different approaches from those of our government. This one has introduced carbon pricing, which we call a carbon tax, and has adopted a new approach, that of the Clean Fuel Regulations.
I'm from Quebec. We know that the National Assembly adopted the carbon trading system. We also know that, under the act that the federal government passed a few years ago, the federal government acquired the authority to impose a carbon price on the provinces, including Quebec. Each province may have its own system, but the price is dictated exclusively by the federal government.
Considering these basic facts, according to your report, what will be the average impact of this second tax under the Clean Fuels Regulations on Quebec families?