Mr. Speaker, my colleague has debated the subject of the agency and the creation of an emissions credit trade system. We support the creation of such a system. We have nothing against it. I would, however, have preferred to hear from the member some indication of whether he thinks Canada should use taxpayers' dollars to buy pollution credits. That is the issue being addressed in this debate on Motions Nos. M-5 and M-6, and I have not heard him say anything about them so far.
This being a government agency, the possibility of going elsewhere to buy emission credits is not excluded. Because of its very nature, it is governmental.
What are Motions Nos. M-5 and M-6 about? I am not privy to the innermost thoughts of the member. Does he truly not believe that what needs to be done is to restrict and prevent the government from buying foreign credits? This does not block Canadian businesses from doing so. In my colleague's first speech, he said and repeated, and rightly so, that business wants this system, this emission credit trade mechanism. That goes over well with us on this side, because we also support this trade mechanism.
But do these businesses really believe that public funds ought not to be going back to them in order to develop technology and to ensure that we achieve the greenhouse gas emission reductions, rather than using the taxpayers' dollars to buy pollution credits? That is the real question.
I feel that the amendments proposed by the Conservative Party do not in any way discredit or eliminate the creation of a credit trade system. They do, however, prevent the government from going to other countries to buy emission credits, though businesses are not prevented from doing so.
I repeat for the umpteenth time that, if these industrial sectors were allowed to purchase these credits elsewhere, they would be able to meet the Kyoto objectives for their sector. This would be accounted for nationally as a reduction and a step in the right direction as far as Canada's international objectives are concerned.