Mr. Speaker, I note with a great deal of sadness that despite the fact that the party opposite talks about wanting to respect Canadians, 98% of whom say they want species at risk protected, it found it could not support the bill last night at report stage and is saying it will not support it tonight.
The hon. member opposite makes a very astute observation that greenhouse gas emissions and acid rain are indeed things that the federal government, in its role, needs to participate on, on behalf of all Canadians, including the people of Quebec, because pollution does not ask for a visa, whether or not it comes across our border.
The very issue that other colleagues in the Alliance Party take umbrage at is the fact that the legislation actually builds on the good laws and the great action not only of Canadians but of provinces and territories.
My challenge for my hon. colleague opposite would be to somehow reconcile these facts that the government agrees that the people of Quebec and the province of Quebec have done some very forward thinking things and that rather than usurp them we are looking to add on to it and bolster them, so that if there is a province, a territory or a people where that is not happening we would be there to backfill.
I am having a hard time reconciling what the member opposite says he desires and yet his inability to support, in this very good piece of legislation, exactly what he has asked for.