Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the comments about this not being the forum. I would suggest to the hon. member that he take that up with his colleagues who have been in the House of Commons today speaking against the bill, including the chair of the environment committee, as well as other distinguished politicians who have had many years of service in the country. They have eloquently identified that Kyoto has a significant connection to this bill. It sends the wrong message.
A little while ago, there was a very good discussion about that fact. I do not think the member can say that this is not the forum. This is the forum. There is a connection between the use of this product and the effects it has not only on our community but on the world.
There is also an effect on the revenue stream that is available to the government to be able to make decisions. We hear time and again in the House that the government does not have the money. Last night when we voted on a bill, we heard that there was no money for volunteer emergency workers to get a tax credit. There is no money for those things but there are billions for this. There is no money for SARS compensation for workers. There is no money for Atlantic Canada, or it never shows up. There is no money for forest fires, BSE, infrastructure, all of those things.
It is ironic that we are talking about this issue. There is a relationship between the use of this product and roads and services. Right now the government is considering giving part of the gas tax to municipalities. It is talking about this, finally after all this time. It could certainly have put this money toward hard infrastructure. A lot of the vehicles that use this product are having problems moving about because the government has not put enough in to help with the $56 billion deficit in infrastructure.
The provinces have long been cheated out of transfer payments. That is the reason they are struggling for resources, that and downloading. We have seen what has happened to the provinces and the municipalities because of downloading. Of course they want resources.
The government has been swimming in surpluses. It has been doing boondoggles like the long gun registry. Yet it does not have any resources to distribute to the other levels of government while it usurps their taxes. That is why they are asking for more resources.