Mr. Speaker, what are the costs? First, we do not have figures as to what it will cost the country as a whole. However it has been estimated that the government wants us to go to R-2000 homes, insulate our homes more. It wants us to go to smaller cars. It wants us to abandon clothes dryer and go back to the clothesline.
The accord is almost certainly to bring us increased costs for energy and for gasoline. The estimate is that it will cost an average of $2,700 per Canadian family. I have had questions from people in my riding about how much it will cost them.
I had a contractor ask me recently what it would cost him for the cost of building a home and how it would cut in to his ability to survive and keep his income and livelihood. In fact we have heard that up to 450,000 jobs are potentially in jeopardy.
This is an ideological debate. With so much of our industry concentrated along the border with so little potential gain to the environment, as industry moves south of the border to take advantage of economic energy opportunity there, really will we have achieved the goals that we want in reducing pollution or will we have just moved it a little a bit south of the 49th where it will continue to blow into Canada and continue to cause problems for us? Is it not better to pursue our own energy efficient policies, wind power, energy alternatives like hydrogen and expand our hydro electric capacity?
Could my colleague comment on that?