Thank you, Mr. Boulerice.
I'm a business grad myself. I understand we have some business profs in this room. What I learned at Laurier, in my business training, was that we have to listen to experts and that we have to think long term.
I'd like to introduce a quote from an expert in this area on climate science, Professor Jim Skea, co-chair of the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, working group III. This is from back in April 2022. Dr. Skea says, “It's now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”
I think part of why climate scientists like Jim Skea have spoken about this urgency, with my understanding of the climate science, is that we have feedback loops. Last year, in Canada, our emissions were 702 megatonnes. The emissions from the wildfires, wildfires that become more extreme and more frequent because of the climate crisis, don't show up in our climate balance sheet, but they were 647 megatonnes. That's before the Jasper wildfires and all the devastation that was there.
Part of how we try to make sense of that is there's the social cost of carbon. The social cost of carbon attempts to reflect the reality of the damages from carbon in the atmosphere at this stage of the climate crisis. It's used by countries around the world, including Canada and the United States. ECCC estimates the social cost of carbon to be $294 per tonne.
To Dr. Tombe, my question for you is this: In your assessment of the TMX's being worth every penny, have you included the social cost of carbon in that assessment, yes or no?