Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment has made a great deal about having consulted widely with industry over the past five years. If this is true, then I wonder what kind of consultation has been going on because there are still so many questions being asked by industry about the Kyoto protocol. For instance, NorskeCanada president, Russ Horner, said at the Vancouver Board of Trade yesterday that:
British Columbia's pulp and paper industry could be wiped out by American producers if Canada signs the Kyoto Accord and the U.S. doesn't...
But if other nations don't sign and Canadian industry is required to pay a carbon tax, “You might as well ship the fibre south of the border and manufacture in the United States.
I am particularly concerned about this captain of industry making that kind of statement because NorskeCanada happens to be the biggest employer in my riding.
The Minister of the Environment is also not telling us that the support of Kyoto by Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada is conditional. Its support is conditional because it demands $1 billion to deal with the consequences of Kyoto. It sees that Kyoto is going to hurt. The union acknowledges a large cost and it wants government to pay for it.
Some of those people work in the mill in my riding. When they go to buy homes, they check out the costs to ensure they know how much they will be paying for them. How can we expect the provinces, industry, workers of this country to buy the plan when they do not really know the cost?