Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity at least for a few minutes to comment on Motion No. 360 by my colleague from Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys. I will just make a couple of key points.
I certainly support his motion and whatever we can do to encourage a public transit system, get people off of the roads. Certainly as someone not in a huge urban area, I have no problem acknowledging that if larger urban centres can put something in place to have fewer vehicles on the roads, decrease emissions within their areas, we can have some kind of benefits such as a tax exempt bus pass benefit.
As the member for Mississauga South indicated, there is not equality throughout the system. Northerners have a northern remoteness allowance and we get a tax exempt status for remoteness in some areas. It acknowledges that Canadians recognize there is diversity and we need to reflect that in the actions we take.
Seventy-three per cent of Canadians are in favour of this type of legislation. I think the comment that it is already taking place in a pilot project in Ottawa is an indication that there is certainly support for this type of a program within Canada. Canada needs to work very hard in meeting its Kyoto commitments. This is certainly one way of doing that. The number of large urban centres that would put this type of a practice in place could certainly go a long way to helping Canada reduce its emissions and meet those Kyoto commitments.
I want to thank the House for these few minutes. I commend my hon. colleague. Hopefully the House will support the motion unanimously.