Mr. Speaker, methylcyclopentadinyl manganese tricarbonyl is what we are talking about this afternoon. There have been a lot of myths and purported evidence delivered in this debate today.
I want to pay tribute to the Hon. Ralph Ferguson, the former member of Parliament for Lambton-Middlesex, who actually spearheaded the process of getting oxygenates into gasoline and MMT out. This process began long before I had the honour of being elected to the House. This bill should be attributed to Ralph Ferguson because of the work he did and the evidence he produced. He started the ball rolling and elicited the enthusiasm of this member, at least, to get on the ball to discover that we could actually do something positive with motor fuel.
It is not the question of whether manganese is toxic. There is some evidence which shows it is, but our health ministry has not declared it to be a toxin. What appeals to me about phasing out MMT is that the replacement that can be used probably provides for us the largest single window of air quality improvement that we are going to have during this session of Parliament.
By replacing MMT as an octane enhancer with oxygenates we will reduce the carbon monoxide emissions from all our automobiles, whether they have good emission controls or no emission controls, by 30 per cent and we will reduce carbon dioxide by approximately 15 per cent. The previous speaker, my friend from the Reform Party, talked about nitrous oxide emissions being increased, possibly up to 20 per cent if that were to take place.
If the member will look at the evidence he will find that there is also evidence which demonstrates there is no increase in nitrous oxide emissions. But if there were 20 per cent, 20 per cent of practically nothing is practically nothing. I would suggest to him that some of the evidence which was brought before the committee really pushed the envelope.
Thirty-nine cities in the United States have mandated fuel which contains oxygenates for the simple reason that they are concerned about ground level ozone. Anybody who lives in a metropolitan area in Canada, and particularly in metropolitan Toronto, will remember last summer and the summer before that during the hot weather ground level ozone warnings were being issued on a daily basis. Ground level ozone now has been studied to the point where we can predict by its intensity how many additional admissions there will be to hospitals. We can predict how many additional deaths from respiratory failure there will be because of ground level ozone. Does it not make simple sense to do everything we can to reduce those occurrences?
Getting rid of the manganese in gasoline and getting oxygen in its place is exactly what will accomplish that, whether evidence may show whether it is toxic or not. At this time we can leave that debate to one side.
There is overwhelming evidence from a health point of view and from the positive possibilities that are presented-