Finance committee  As we've said over the past few weeks as details of the pending legislation have been leaked out, we're always glad to see a shift away from voluntary mechanisms, which is what the government has said it will do with this legislation. What does concern us is the considerable length of time this legislation might take to bring about the changes that are needed in the short term in terms of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

Finance committee  Yes, it was introduced in the U.K. in 2002. It's been meeting its targets of both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing fuel costs for employees and employers.

Finance committee  I haven't seen switch green introduced anywhere. In essence, it supplies that model to the Energy Star appliances we're all familiar with. But where there is currently a small price gap between the efficient Energy Star appliance and the inefficient non-Energy Star model, we try to bridge the price gap.

Finance committee  That's right. EnerGuide will tell you what the electricity performance is of every model, and Energy Star is a label that certain efficient models receive.

Finance committee  The World Economic Forum ranking--I want to be very even-handed about this--much to my chagrin, didn't take environmental sustainability into account as one of the indices in ranking the countries on their competitiveness. Of course, in the OECD ranking we did late last year, we took environmental performance into account.

Finance committee  Education, or the fancy term we use for it sometimes, social marketing, is creating a positive buzz around acting responsibly in connection with the environment. In the same way that four decades ago drinking and driving was a wink-wink, nudge-nudge thing, or smoking inside was acceptable, through social marketing, or education as you call it, and leadership by the federal government, people in society came around to seeing that the responsible way for the greater good of all of society was to not drink and drive and not subject others to the danger of smoking.

Finance committee  That's a fantastic step in the right direction that's been coming along in harmony with the U.S. It's a fantastic step, yes.

Finance committee  Actually, we have some national water quality guidelines, but they are only guidelines. They're not enforceable. So we have a patchwork quilt of provincial and municipal water standards. In far too many instances, we have no water standards at all. One solution would be to look to the countries that finished ahead of Canada, both in the economic ranking that the World Economic Forum recently released and in the OECD environmental ranking.

Finance committee  It would be a domestic emission trading system. It would be a closed-loop system. Buying offshore, be it trying to buy offshore credits or offshore facilities, would not count towards the domestic emission trading system.

Finance committee  In a nutshell, one solution would be a domestic emission trading system. No money would go offshore under such a system. It simply means that the government introduces a modest, declining cap on the amount of pollution each sector or industry is permitted to emit into the atmosphere annually.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee for inviting the foundation here today. For Canadians to maintain a high quality of life with continued economic opportunity, we must increase Canada's long-term competitiveness through responsible environmental policies. We've got to stop equating environmental protection with poor economic performance in this country.