Mr. Speaker, I will start with my colleague's second statement repeating what my colleague from the Conservative Party said, namely that if we support the motion, it is because there is no automobile industry in Quebec.
It is rather facile to say this. What explains the fact that, yesterday, the Bloc was the only party in the House to propose legislation applying the Kyoto Protocol to all industrial sectors? Are they saying we propose that the manufacturing sector, which is the basis of Quebec's economy, should be excluded from the Kyoto protocol and should not have stricter standards? No, not at all. Quite to the contrary, if the automobile industry were the basis of Quebec's economy, we would call for exactly the same thing we are calling for for the manufacturing industry. That was the first thing.
Second, the government cannot go on negotiating forever with an industry that refuses to apply existing technology. I remind the House that, if the automobile industry said to the government, “We cannot improve the efficiency of our cars by 25% because the technology does not exist”, I might understand. But the technology does exist. If it exists, why does the industry not voluntarily use it? If the industry agreed to use it voluntarily, we would not be compelled today to debate a motion aimed at regulations.
We are debating stricter regulations for vehicle manufacturing precisely because the automobile industry has not been willing so far to incorporate existing technology in its manufacturing methods.
It is time now to stop shilly-shallying, to do something and introduce regulations, which, in my view, must go further than those proposed by the NDP, which must specify that vehicles have to be 25% more efficient, within a reasonable amount of time, of course, for the industry. The standard will have to be gradual, but it will have to be imposed.