Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for that question. It does underline the importance of my letter to the Prime Minister in which I asked him to call for an energy summit and look at a number of options that he might have. One of them was conservation.
My party is the only party in the House of Commons that has been supporting and asking the government to develop a comprehensive energy conservation program for Canadians. We believe that the government should be providing leadership in this regard.
The Kyoto protocol, which is not particularly related to this matter of transportation infrastructure that we are talking about today, is not something that I am totally familiar with. I have not read it from cover to cover but I am familiar with it in general terms. However, I think all Canadians would stand by the objective of making sure that we preserve this planet for our children, our grandchildren and those who follow us.
The environment is a very important element in this world. If we do not have clean air, fresh water and soil that can grow crops we are all dead. We really are custodians of this planet for future generations. I would even suggest that the Reform Party supports that. I would be surprised if they did not. I think the Liberals and the Reform members talk about it but there is really no action.
In Saskatchewan, where I am a little more familiar with the environment, we have undertaken a number of initiatives which protect and enhance our environment. I would ask the Liberal government and the Reform Party to look at some of those initiatives. I know the Reform Party has looked at a lot of the initiatives of the Roy Romanow NDP government and the Allan Blakeney government before. In Saskatchewan the NDP and the CCF have governed for 37 of the last 55 years. Out of 37 years we have had 35 surplus budgets.
The only time the Reform supporters were in power, the Devine Reform-Liberal coalition ran 10 consecutive deficits. For a million people it put the province about $12 billion to $13 billion in the red in 10 years. It is unfortunate that the Reform policies of Mr. Devine will mean that Saskatchewan residents will be paying this mortgage for the next 60 years, whereas before we had no operations debt, none. We had no deficit and no debt either.
The member raises some good questions and I thank him for that. I would ask him to study perhaps again some of the very positive things that the NDP and CCF have undertaken in Saskatchewan so we can benefit our entire country more.