Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question which brings us to one of the key points for a sector like agriculture. The cost of energy is a direct cost in the use of tractors and trucks that are used out in the fields. It is also a cost in the production of fertilizer and many of the inputs that farmers have to buy to raise the food that we need to live.
The Kyoto protocol would add cost to our food production which would raise the price for people on fixed incomes trying to buy food. It would also impact on our exports. We know other countries have a lot of subsidies so some of their costs are borne by society as a whole, but our subsidies are small and limited.
What is the impact if we were to increase the cost of raising grain, beef and all other agriculture exports? The member for Peace River has mentioned that it would make us less competitive in our exports of food and raw commodities.
Once we are less competitive, we would sell less on the world market. What does that mean? That means we would have less hard foreign currency being earned and coming into the country, less ability to pay for health care and education, and less ability in fact to pay for the Kyoto agreement that the government is pushing us into, especially if we would have to buy credits from countries like Russia or others that have this deal to sell credits.
This whole plan would simply make our standard of living even poorer. It would reduce the productivity of Canada as a whole. We already know that productivity is much less than it should be. It is much less than our main competitors in the OECD countries.
Our party is basing its position on common sense, rational thought, and not a belief in some mythical walk in the snow by the Prime Minister. It was probably a walk in too much heat that caused him to come forward with this plan.