Mr. Speaker, as always, I thank the hon. member for his thoughtful approach to politics. Perhaps the CCF does not suffer from the same defect of partisanship that the rest of us do at times in the House.
He is absolutely right. The phenomenon of carbon leakage is real. If a system is created that does not protect against trade-exposed industries potentially fleeing Canada, we will have the exact kind of consequence that the Ecofiscal Commission warned would result if we implemented the NDP's approach, which does not adequately take this into effect. I read with interest the editorial the hon. member put forward just last week on this subject.
We established a price on pollution for large emitters, which they would have to pay. Then industry by industry identified a threshold of the rebate that they would get back, should they perform above the industry average with respect to reducing their emissions. To the extent that someone can actually significantly beat the industry average, they can receive a credit. To the extent some just continue on with business as usual, they will pay a significant price. We have used the market to create an incentive for large emitters to reduce their emissions over time, without putting them at risk of having jobs leave the country.
I would be happy to carry the conversation on with the member after.