Mr. Speaker, I too commend the hon. member from Kamloops for bringing the issue forward in this motion.
The fact is that we have made commitments in Kyoto. Global warming is real. It is a very important issue, one that all Canadians and certainly members of the House from all parties should be extremely concerned about.
The parliamentary secretary spoke about the need for a plan and that the federal government would work toward developing a plan. He was also very clear in terms of his opposition to the motion. Where he was not so clear was what in fact was the government's plan to deal with this extraordinarily important issue.
The government is very good at pinpointing a particular initiative such as the one suggested by the member from Kamloops as being inappropriate or wrong headed, but the government has not been as good in actually providing some level of leadership or strong consultation with the provinces and the municipalities to develop a strategy that addresses this very real issue.
Initially when I saw the motion I had some concerns. I typically have concerns about a Pavlovian type tax policy that encourages some types of behaviours and discourages others. We already have a tax code in Canada that is far too complicated. The logical corollary of the motion, for instance, is if people were walking to work we might remove taxes on shoes. I am not being facetious, but we get into a very murky area when we talk about complicating a tax code that is already far too complex.
That being the case, while I should have perhaps been happy to hear the parliamentary secretary speak about simplifying the tax code—and again his government has done nothing but complicate the tax code—our party continues to stand for and believe in broadly based tax relief, increasing the basic personal exemption, reindexing the tax brackets, and eliminating and phasing out the surtaxes that are currently driving some of our best and brightest elsewhere, the types of tax policies that will benefit all Canadians not just now but as we enter the 21st century.
Our party is supporting the motion. One of the reasons we will be supporting it, despite our concerns about an increasingly complicated tax code, is that the environment is a very unique issue. The environment and economics are inextricably linked. For far too long we have in a lot of jurisdictions in the country dealt with the environment separately from economics. In fact those people typically interested in economics discount environmental arguments and vice versa. In fact we cannot do that. It is not appropriate to do that and it is not logical.
It is very important at the time of the production of an environmental externality, that is emissions, that the cost of that externality be internalized into the cost of the consumer who is utilizing the service or the product which is causing that environmental externality. It is very important that there be a direct cost for environmentally unsound behaviour and a benefit for environmentally positive behaviour.
It is very difficult for us in our day to day lives to see the benefit of sound environmental actions on a micro level because we cannot tie it directly to our quality of life in the short term. Global warming for many of us is something that still seems fairly esoteric and arcane. It is important that somehow we can link in a very direct way people's behaviours: negative behaviours to a negative policy in this case or positive behaviours, that is taking public transit, to a positive treatment under the tax code.
I lived in New York for several years. During that period the degree to which New Yorkers relied on public transit was amazing to me. In north New Jersey and New York City there are about 10 million people living in a very small land mass. When we consider how efficiently that city operates in terms of its public transit system, probably from an environmental perspective the low impact the citizenry of New York has in terms of global warming compared to other centres that are more spread out, it is almost a miracle. We could look at cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto and such cities that were built around the suburbs and urban sprawl. Cities like New York rely on public transit and were designed very well from the beginning to accommodate public transit and ultimately have become in my opinion examples of environmentally sound urban planning.
Perhaps that is one area in which the federal government should be working more closely and playing a leadership role. Part of our Kyoto commitment could be working with provinces and municipalities in terms of urban planning and the types of initiatives that have been successful globally. Linking environmental policy to day to day action is very important. We need to explore this issue further.
I know the Reform Party has spoken against the motion but we are supporting it. We also recognize that there are other examples where tax policies have been suggested by Reform members. For instance, the mortgage interest deductibility was supported by and large by the Reform caucus. There are examples where the Reform Party will recognize the importance of some types of behaviours but not necessarily other types of policies.
I would argue that certainly home ownership is as extraordinarily important as a clean environment, an environment that is sustainable and is there for future generations of Canadians. One thing Canada has that we must covet and protect is our relatively clean environment. We are recognized around the world for our relatively pristine surroundings and environment. It is something we cannot take for granted.
If we look at the demographics and the fact that people are moving into the cities, that urban centres are growing, this is the type of policy we have to explore very carefully. It should not be summarily discounted by the government as a bad idea until it has a set of policies to address these very important issues.
It is also important to recognize and commend the New Democrats for doing something that I had not expected them to do and that is to suggest a tax cut. Perhaps we should recognize that important evolution. If we support this private member's motion on providing a tax benefit for taking public transit, in the future perhaps we could engage the New Democrats in a discussion about their supporting our belief of tax cuts for everybody in Canada. Clearly that is something we all need. It would be sound not just for the environment but for all aspects of our quality of life.