I guess I just want to point out to the Member that’s he’s referring to one incident that happened some time ago. I think, as a government, we are definitely responsible for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Certainly, if it can be shown that the purchase of carbon offsets will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we would definitely find a way to put it into place. I guess a question is…. The practice of buying carbon offsets from travel agents. Does that really reduce the emission of greenhouse gases?
I had responded to the Member in response to a previous question. At that time he had indicated he would provide me with a list of travel agents he said
were able to do exactly that. We would have to satisfy ourselves that paying an extra $20 on an airline ticket to provide for carbon offsets would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Once we were satisfied that was the case, then we would definitely bring forward a policy for the government to implement when making travel arrangements.
The Member also referenced my letter where I talked about the federal level. In a lot of our human resource practices, sometimes we look to see whether the federal government has done anything in that regard. We are definitely prepared to review that policy, and if it, in fact, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we would take forward a request.