Federal Election: There is not one single party that can put a price on the implementation of Kyoto

Montreal, January 11, 2006 – The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) released this morning the five main political party’s answers to questions about their evaluations of the economic impact resulting from the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.

“We are happy to see that all the parties have seriously answered each of the questions that where given to them. Canadian voters now have another valuable tool to compare each party, allowing them to make an intelligent choice on January 23,” said Pierre Desrochers, a geography professor at the University of Toronto and an associate researcher at the MEI.

Mr. Desrochers stressed that the main purpose of the exercise was to get a grasp of the real costs and efforts needed in order to reach the objective of reducing 30% of CO2 emissions by 2012, he also noted that none of the five party’s was able to be precise when answering the question related to the cost that Canadians would have to bear in order to respect the Kyoto protocol engagements.

“It is alarming that such an important protocol is signed without knowing how much it will cost us. The parties are asking voters to sign a blank check,” said M. Desrochers.

Nevertheless, according to the professor, there are important differences between all five political parties when it comes to environmental questions. Consequently, the MEI is making all questions and answers available on its bilingual Website.

– 30 –

For information and interviews, please contact: Patrick Leblanc, Director of communications, Montreal Economic Institute, Tel.: (514) 273-0969 / Email: pleblanc@iedm.org