Ignatieff calls for cap and trade

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told a Quebec City audience Thursday that Canada must create a cap-and-trade system in which companies would make money by going green, and polluters would need to pay.He said he hoped such a plan would fit into a global system, and work in conjunction with any plan set up in the U.S. But he said Canada should go ahead and create the system even before the Americans have established theirs. Ignatieff also said he favoured using the stricter baseline year of 1990, favoured by most developed countries and the backbone of the international Kyoto accord, to calculate emissions cuts — while the Harper government prefers using 2006. His plan would benefit provinces, like Quebec and Manitoba, that have already been working over the last decade and a half to reduce their emissions, Ignatieff said.