Mr. Speaker, first of all, the Conservatives are saying that if the government wants to tax, then it needs to give parliamentarians the information so we can debate it and let Canadians decide. That is number one. That is the main focus of today's debate.
Number two, the member may recall that I actually said that the B.C. NDP government in the 2018 budget actually referred to carbon leakage as being a concern. The pulp and paper mills in British Columbia are very carbon sensitive. Again, that increase from $30 to $35 is already having a remarkable impact on their ability to compete internationally. I believe that this will now be juxtaposed against extra subsidies to those industries. They are setting that context.
When it comes to climate change, there are a lot of other questions that we may have. John Tirole, who is a Nobel Prize economist, has said before that when a country such as Canada, or even a province such as British Columbia, puts a dollar of effort against climate change, but we only account for 2% of the total emissions around the world, that is like saying we will put in a dollar and two cents will go into a savings account to help fight it. What we are doing is we are actually paying the free-riders of countries that do not have those laws and regulations.
We need to have a discussion about how the world is working on this and, to tell the truth, the non-binding mandate of the Paris Agreement allows for countries to make pledges that they may not have any intention of meeting. There are a lot of things to unpack in that question. I would say, let us start in our legislative assemblies in the provinces and here in Parliament, and give parliamentarians the information, so that we can actually have the proper debate.