Thank you for your presentations.
Mr. Mead, I am honoured to have heard your presentation, which was clear and sincere. I appreciated it very much.
The Minister of the Environment often quotes the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy to justify the government's decisions on all sorts of initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. You were the chair of the round table until 2005, so you have not had the opportunity to work with the new government. The theoretical sources you quoted seem to me to be so obvious that I have a hard time understanding why your work—you were the chair from 2000 to 2005—did not prompt the government to adopt the approach you suggested, which was supported by the Pembina Institute study.
I am a newly elected member of Parliament; five or six weeks ago, I did not know a thing about natural resources. Since then, we have heard a number of witnesses. I am a little stunned by your report. It gives me the shivers because it makes me feel that we are hitting a wall. I get the feeling that the government, whether Liberal or Conservative, does not want to open its eyes and face its responsibilities, given the urgency of the situation.
You strike me as being a free thinker, a philosopher by training, so can you explain to me why, given all of the evidence you have already put forward, we are still coming up against governments' refusal to take concrete action, such as transferring fiscal incentives? Can you speak your mind on this? Why do we keep coming up against a wall, and why do we have to fight to make the government understand the evidence you have presented?