Mr. Speaker, in terms of the final question, I absolutely agree with the member on the principle that the question of intergenerational justice is very much relevant to our discussions about how we manage the environment and the quality of the environment we pass on to the next generation. I just disagree with the government's belief that the best way to improve the environment is for the government to impose punitive taxes and raise revenue, because I am actually concerned about the environment, not about increasing the size of the revenue stream for government.
Liberals do not want to credit the previous government for actual progress that was achieved on the environment, so they say that it was either because of Ontario or because of the global financial crisis. Let us be clear that global emissions went up during that period. Canadian emissions went down, and Canada, though affected by the global recession, was relatively less impacted by the global recession than many other countries. It stretches logic for the government to say that environmental progress was a result of the environmental downturn. The fact that global emissions went up while ours went down and that we were less affected by the recession than others does not really fit.
The member talks about our economic performance as if, in one breath, on the environment, he wants us to remember that there was a recession, and then in the next breath, he wants us to forget it. Canada's relative performance during this period was by far the best in the G7. It had the best job-creation record.