Thank you for your question, Mr. Cardin.
I want to note one point with regard to renewable energies. What is interesting is that many problems specific to wind energy that were raised by Mr. Hornung also apply to solar energy problems. Renewable energies aren't competing energies. Ethanol drives vehicles, wind energy produces electricity, and thermal solar energy, which moreover is quite widespread in our region, heats water and air.
There is a program, the REDI program, or PENSER in French, which has done its job very well since 1998. Mr. Goodale, the Minister of Natural Resources at the time, and Minister of Finance in the last government, established the first facility under this program in 1998. That was at Farnham, in southern Quebec. Since then, the REDI program has done a very good job.
I say it's doing a very good job because it pays 25 per cent of the total capital expenditure incurred for a project in non-residential sectors, that is in the commercial, industrial and institutional sectors. People have benefitted from this program, and I believe the federal government has made a good investment. Adjustments may have to be made to the program as it progresses, and that's normal. However, we see that, in certain other countries that have very good subsidy programs—moreover, I met with people from Austria on this subject last November—there is stability. As Mr. Hornung mentioned, stability is extremely important for investment and for the signals that are sent to the market, both for clients and for the industry that develops as a result of the incentives in place.
So stability is very important. We can understand that the present government has other priorities than the previous government and that it wants to change matters. That's not a problem for us. What hurts is mainly the break between the two. There should be a transition period. What I would like is for some stability to be maintained, even if arrangements are changed, if, for example, the government drops the arrangement whereby it pays 25 per cent of the capital cost for a thermal solar system and decides instead to provide assistance on a per-kilowatt or per-square-meter-installed basis. Regardless of the form that might take, I would definitely encourage it to maintain stability. It can introduce another program, based on its priorities, but it must at all costs continue in the wake of what is already in place and not interfere with the progress that has been made.