Mr. Speaker, the government asked if the right hon. member had a position. I must ask whether it is fair to ask any member of the House if they have a position on something if the government cannot give us the details of what it is all about.
We do not know the costs of Kyoto. We do not know what effect it will have on jobs. We get phony figures from the Minister of the Environment all the time. It is not fair for the government to ask where an individual might stand on an issue. My party has a position. We are opposed to this. We have done our own research and it shows that this is not good for the House of Commons and not good for Canadians.
Canadians are growing more apprehensive every day about the dire consequences of the Kyoto accord. All the soothing assurances of those on the Liberal side, all their spin and fearmongering about the future of the planet, is being ignored. It has as much influence as what was said by a previous government about the benefits of the GST. The fact is, like the GST, the more Canadians learn about the Kyoto accord the more they fear and hate it.
Here is where we stand today. The Liberal government has committed Canada, without the permission of Canadians, to the Kyoto accord.
A week ago in New Delhi, as was pointed out by Diane Francis in a very perceptive and pointed column yesterday, the developing nations have opted out of Kyoto. If the developing nations are opting out of it at a furious pace, why is it that a developed and industrialized country like Canada is staying with this ill-advised and economically dangerous scheme?
Canadians know what the impact on their lives will be when the price of a litre of gasoline doubles. It will be disastrous for most Canadian families but not for ministers of the crown, or for the Prime Minister, or for the owner of Canada Steamship Lines because they ride around in chauffeur driven cars or, in the case of the owner of Canada Steamship Lines, he has enough money that $3 a litre probably would not be a problem.
I hope Canadians, who are busy preparing for Christmas and doing their Christmas shopping, understand that under the Liberal's Kyoto scheme, Christmas will be a lot less merry in the future. Their Christmas turkeys will probably triple in price because of increased production costs.
The government always asks where we get our figures. Well I say, just look at the gun registry which was originally going to cost $80 million but is now close to $1 billion. The Liberals do not know how to plan. I hope Canadians will remember who the turkeys were who introduced this wild-eyed scheme called Kyoto.
Heating the House at Christmas will likely be costly. It will probably double what it is now thanks to the Liberal Kyoto scheme. Driving out to visit friends at Christmas will double or triple because of the increased cost of gasoline.
Canadians surely will not understand why Canada is leading the charge on Kyoto when China and India are exempt on emission limits. Canadians know that those two countries spew out, as Diane Francis said, as much CO
2
in a day as Canada does in a year. Why should we be any different? Our friends to the south are not joining Kyoto. They are trying to solve other serious environmental emission problems.
If the Liberals would come clean and admit that Kyoto is basically just a worldwide welfare scheme to transfer wealth from the developed and industrialized countries, then Canadians could decide whether to support it on the merits of its basic purpose.
Canadians should be told and they should understand that the Prime Minister is going to jam Kyoto through, force it on them without their approval and without any regard at all for the consequences.
When the Prime Minister finally reaches the end of the longest retirement in political history, his pension will cover the astronomical costs of Kyoto. What about people on lower and fixed incomes? How will they heat their homes and feed their families at costs that soar into the high heavens? Not all Canadians go to Florida compounds to get away from the winter chill. The Prime Minister will leave them in the lurch in the cold with his Liberal Kyoto scheme.
We in the Canadian Alliance Party intend to support the motion, not because we think like the hon. member for Calgary Centre that another special committee is the answer to everything, but because we want to use this opportunity to alert Canadians.
The truth about the Liberal Kyoto scheme must be told by somebody. The Liberals, because it is their scheme, will not tell the truth on this matter, so it falls to the official opposition to do so.
Canadians must know that already major investments are being delayed or perhaps cancelled because of the Liberal Kyoto scheme. How can we expect people to invest in new industry in Ontario or anywhere else in Canada when they have no idea what the hidden costs of the Liberal Kyoto scheme will be?
Canadians should also know that of all the parties in this House, only the Canadian Alliance stands four square opposed to Kyoto. Our friends to the near left like it. Their neighbours a little further to the left love it. Their neighbours further away on their left will embrace it because they are trying to muscle in on the support of the parties that separate us from them.
The right hon. member wants a special joint committee of the Senate and the House to tour the whole nation to talk to everybody who will be hurt by Kyoto and report back by November 30. This means that the committee would talk to 30 million Canadians, thousands of executives from our corporate sector, union heads, school bus drivers, and hockey and soccer moms and dads, and report back in 22 days.
However we will support it with amendment because it might help delay Kyoto for a few hours and that at least will give Canadians a few more hours of memories of what Canada was before the Liberals destroyed our economy.
One company alone in the west might cancel planned spending of $300 million because of Kyoto uncertainty. That flushing noise we hear is more jobs disappearing down the Kyoto black hole.
Corporate uncertainty in Ontario is stalling job growth. What do the Liberals care? When the full impact of the Kyoto disaster is felt, the Liberals will blame the member for Calgary Centre for composing a motion that did not deter them from wrecking the economy.
The Liberal Kyoto scheme promises to be the disaster of the millennium. I want it known and on the record that every Liberal who sits behind or beside the Prime Minister is supporting this destructive and ruinous scheme. And I want every Canadian to remember that in the next election.
We certainly will be reminding them that the only friends Canadians had inside the House of Commons were the members of the Canadian Alliance who stood shoulder to shoulder against the Liberal's destructive Kyoto accord.
I move:
That the motion be amended by replacing the words “November 30, 2002” with “March 28, 2003”.
I might at the same time, in the good spirit of the matter that was passed in the House this week to make all private member's business votable, ask for unanimous consent that Motion No. 82 be votable.
