Mr. Chair, I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Department of Public Works and Services bring forward a proposal to allocate a portion of profits from sales of petroleum products to initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the benefit of those communities where the revenue is generated.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to request a response to my question from the Minister, who must know what I’m going to ask. Thank you very much.

Laughter.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick one. I’m wondering what the grant-in-kind was that apparently was stopped last year, that didn’t continue this year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Any more general comments? Moving on to the response from the Minister. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Krutko.

So perhaps after this response you could lay out your general comments. We’ll get other general comments and have the Minister respond. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We haven’t come to the detail yet, but I understand your questions are on the opening comments. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciated the Minister’s opening comments here. I agree that Public Works and Services is a very essential partner in the achievement of government-wide goals, as he stated. A big one I’ve been emphasizing — and I know many people in this department have shown some interest in it — is dealing with our energy crunch and our environmental issues associated with greenhouse gas emissions. There’s sort of a happy overlap of a couple of problems that can be addressed with the same solutions.

I see one of the things mentioned is fuel services for residents, businesses and...

The residents and communities are actually doing quite a bit on this sort of thing, but we’re looking for some response to industry. The non-government organizations have shouldered the costs in the joint review process of the Mackenzie Gas Project. They are the ones who hired the economists to look at what the carbon-neutral approach would cost. And it’s quite modest, in the order of less than a 10 per cent increase in costs — 5 to 7 per cent. When is this government going to start playing that role and, instead of being open for business and subsidizing this industry, get some answers on...

This was reflected in our committee report, and it’s been discussed a number of times. I think the department has shown interest in this sort of thing already. It’s a recognition that we need to change our approach, change our way of thinking. I think the responsibility of this government is to…. If we’re going provide subsidies, let’s not subsidize things that we know are hard on people and are destroying our future. Let’s take those subsidies and put them into things that benefit everybody and actually work towards achieving our goals rather than competing with or opposing our goals.

This is...