Environment committee  One estimate is that there are 5,900 premature deaths across Canada due to heat waves and smog episodes. It's the combination of smog-producing chemicals and climate change that makes them much more effective in causing health problems. That's getting gradually worse. I'm reluctant to put the value of a human life into dollar terms, but I think the health issue is very serious.

Environment committee  It's based on the studies you referred to, done for the International Joint Commission on Ouranos and the studies that were done on the impact of climate change on Great Lakes water quality. They also estimated the changes in water quantity, levels of the lakes, and flow of the interconnecting channels and the St. Lawrence.

Environment committee  Our company is committed to regulation. Our company is committed to the science that is behind climate change.

Environment committee  I think Mark was sort of heading into this territory when he spoke, but I don't know if he totally got there. The first absolute is to have a full, robust policy infrastructure around climate change by the end of the Kyoto commitment period. We need to have emissions trading systems, updated building codes, and energy efficiency standards. We need to have the entire architecture, technology drivers, in place.

Environment committee  The problem with territorial division is simply related to the fact that Canada is responsible under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The provinces have no responsibility or duty in actual fact. As a result, energy management by province is not the best way to reduce greenhouse gas. If we facilitated recognition of reductions that can be achieved from one place to another by monetary offsets, it would be much easier to achieve that type of reduction.

Environment committee  The science of climate change works and should be trusted.

Environment committee  Having regard to the demographic increase — we know that the world population is several times more than what it was in 1900 — and to technological means, vehicles and our habits and so on, and if we consider that there was already a climate change 100 years ago, to what extent should our CO2 emissions be reduced in order to achieve neutral warming or even a cooling of the Earth?

Environment committee  Rutherford, sometimes we hear certain people say that it's hard to predict the weather for tomorrow or next week; how then can we predict the impact of climate change in 20 or 30 years? What do you have to say on that subject?

Environment committee  I'll just add a question to that. In the government's recent climate change plans, how heavily involved was the insurance industry in guiding some of the principles set out in that plan?

Environment committee  There's something quite a bit more. Is there not some effort to re-establish Canada's battered image with respect to climate change?

Environment committee  I know you have the same arguments for Quebec. We haven't received one single bit of credit for this since the climate change discussions started, so I don't believe we'll get any credit, and I don't believe we'll have anything to sell. We'll just end up with higher numbers, and in fact that is exactly what happened.

Environment committee  We could conduct an economic analysis of the effects of achieving the Kyoto Protocol objectives, but I think we should also do an evaluation of the costs associated with not complying with the Kyoto Protocol. I think the British study released last week, which puts the cost of climate change at $7 billion, must be weighed as well. When we talk about a nearly 20 percent reduction of global GDP, I think these are also economic analyses that have to be taken into consideration when public administrations are required to make decisions.

Environment committee  The point is, though, that there is an urgency to act, and to act quickly, unless you're willing to accept the consequences of longer-term, built-in climate change going on for centuries. That may be a decision that society would want to take, but that's not for me to say. All I can say is that the science tells us that if we continue on the path we're on, there will be certain consequences.

Environment committee  I have a very quick last question. I didn't hear anything about climate change and greenhouse gases. It seems to me there's a consensus that global warming is having short, medium and long-term impacts. Mr. Freeman may have something to say about this. Surely global warming is affecting children and their health and has medium and long-term effects on populations.

Environment committee  With climate change, not specifically, but if you take a look at air health effects, particularly in vulnerable populations, there is evidence to suggest that smog, in particular, does have an impact on seniors as a vulnerable population--so not children, but a different vulnerable population.