Mr. Speaker, we are seeking an emergency debate on the ratification of the Kyoto protocol. As members will recall from question period yesterday, this has become an issue of great concern to Canadians. I would suggest this is as a result of issues and incidents that have arisen in the last week or ten days, in particular the incident between the Prime Minister and the premier of Alberta in Moscow and the proposal put forward by the president of the United States with regard to its program dealing with climate change and global warming.
As I mentioned, questions were asked in the House yesterday. Great concerns have been raised on both sides of this issue in the last several days because of the uncertainty as to whether Canada will proceed with the signing of the accord. On one side, people involved in the fossil fuel industry are gravely concerned about what it may cost them. On the other side, the industrial sectors, including the farming industry, the insurance industry, the tourism industry, and the list goes on, are concerned about the economical impact of global change on them.
In addition there is great concern for the health implications if we do not proceed with the Kyoto agreement and the impact it will have. I say that in relevance to my riding where we have a very serious health situation which has been impacted to some significant degree by transboundary pollution. This pollution would be alleviated quite significantly if we proceeded with the Kyoto agreement and the reduction of those emissions.
I believe there are grounds for this to be an emergency debate because there had been a good deal of debate on this issue which appeared to be inevitably leading us to signing the Kyoto agreement. However in the last several days a number of incidents have occurred which have changed that. The emergency debate would allow all parliamentarians to debate the issues and bring forward information as to where Canada could alleviate a great deal of the concern in the country.