Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise briefly in the debate on the MMT legislation. I will address some of the points raised by some of the opposition members with regard to this issue.
The first issue is the impact of lobbying. All members must be well aware of the activity of lobby groups from various sectors of business and industry. Lobbyists to a great extent provide an interesting service to members of Parliament in that they bring to our attention their points of view and their interests with regard to proposed legislation. We cannot forget there are lobbyists on both sides of the question and probably on every position in between.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Canadian automobile dealers association. I had a good chat with their chairman, Mr. Douglas Leggat. We talked about a lot of issues. The lobby is not a single issue group. It represents Canadian automobile dealers association and not necessarily the manufacturing sector.
The group has concerns besides banning MMT as an additive in our fuels. Its representatives had concerns about the propriety of banks getting into auto leasing. They had concerns about the GST discrepancy, about whether GST had to be dealt with on their trade-ins, whereas the small independents who apparently deal with the vast majority of used car transactions do not get caught by the GST situation. They are concerned with a broad spectrum of issues.
The fact remains that it is not just the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association. Throughout the debate we have heard that virtually every automobile manufacturer has come out in support of the banning of MMT.
MMT is a fuel additive which replaced lead in our gasoline. All members know of the problems we faced when we phased out lead because of the serious health consequences that could be caused over a long period of time. As a result MMT, and I will not even try to pronounce the full name, is a complex chemical additive and replaces the additive lead which was necessary for the configuration of the combustion engines.
A number of the Bloc members have said that they are not sure that it is a dangerous substance. I sense that they are trying to say that until we know it is dangerous, do not do anything. The first thing I thought of when I heard that argument was, is it a good policy to wait until after there is a problem to do something? Maybe it is more prudent and responsible to deal with issues on a preventative basis to make sure that we do not get ourselves into a situation such as we had with lead additives or with ureaformaldehyde insulation. Again, at the time it came out there was a lot of interest. It was a new product recommended by jurisdictional authorities. As everyone knows, serious problems were revealed later.
On the point of not being sure, the issue is that we are not sure. There are no definitive studies that show the significance of the health impacts. There are some indications from some sectors. There is some disagreement and this is the reason that a strong central government is necessary because there is a disagreement among the provinces.
Apparently six of the ten provinces have said they do not think they want to support the banning of MMT. I am not sure of their individual reasons. The fact remains that we are not meddling in provincial jurisdictions. This is a health issue and an environmental issue. The federal government has to be proactive in terms of the protection of the health of Canadians and of Canada's environment.
There was some question about it having been reintroduced in the United States. Even the materials that were provided to members refute that as well. There are no major changes in the position of the U.S. More questions have been raised than answers given, quite frankly.
This piece of legislation calls for the banning of MMT. If we need an additive and MMT is going to be banned, it will have to be replaced by something. Major petroleum industry representatives are looking at ethanol as the additive replacement. When I was with United Co-operatives of Ontario, our petroleum division actually had a test site in the production of ethanol. It could not keep enough of it in stock for consumers who wanted it because of the significant increase in the performance level of automobiles. That was in the Guelph area. As I recall, this was a big breakthrough.
With regard to ethanol, another point that has been made by the opposition is that it is an Ontario issue. That is not quite right because there is an ethanol plant in Quebec and one out west. We now have a new plant in Chatham.
Our thanks go to the leadership of people such as the member for Kent who spoke earlier who have been working for some time to make sure that the facts get on the table. Judging from his speech the member knows what he is talking about. He has been a member of this House for eight years. He has done his work and he has provided leadership within this House to make sure that members know.
In closing I want to reiterate that the purpose of the bill is environmental health and protection. The most efficient way to ensure environmental health and protection is through pollution prevention. We have heard enough already about the impact on catalytic converters and the need for dealing with emissions into our environment.
Cars are the single largest polluter of our environment. This is one constructive, positive and necessary step to make sure that Canada has a cleaner environment.