In what he called his first major speech as Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion told a Toronto business audience Tuesday that Canadians can make enormous profits fighting climate change.

"Yes, Canada will cut megatonnes of emissions, but we will also make megatonnes of money," he told a joint breakfast meeting of the Toronto Board of Trade and the Economic Club of Toronto.

Stephane Dion speaks in Toronto on Tuesday.
(CBC)

At the same time, he expressed skepticism about expanding nuclear power — which some see as a way to reduce heat-trapping carbon emissions — because he has no answer to the problem of radioactive waste.

He said he would announce his shadow cabinet tomorrow and then backtracked. "Maybe tomorrow. I have a lot of phone calls to make," he said. 

The trick in getting rich on climate change, he said, is to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gas output and creating technologies for doing so.

There are huge opportunities for countries that grasp the opportunity, he said. "Their populations will have both higher incomes and a higher quality of life. I want Canada to be one of those countries."

If he gains power, he said, he will "immediately establish Canadian leadership" in trying to meet emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol "and I will get results both for the economy and the environment."

Under the Conservatives, he said, "that leadership role has been abandoned along with the economic opportunity that comes with it. This must stop."

Dion, who won the Liberal leadership in December, said he would "harness the power of markets" by instituting a cap-and-trade system in which companies that emit less than their quota of greenhouse gases are able to sell their rights to companies that emit more.

If companies face "strong and fair rules requiring a steady reduction of emissions over time," they respond with the needed innovation and investment, he asserted.

"When the B.C. forest industry had to spend billions of dollars on pulp scrubbers, why do you think they imported all that equipment from Scandinavia? Largely because Scandinavia's tougher environmental standards had induced Scandinavian companies to invest much more than their Canadian counterparts in eco-friendly technology."

Among other things, he wants Canada to become a world leader in carbon sequestration, the process of sealing potential greenhouse emissions underground, in Alberta's oil sands.

"If we can make Fort McMurray a centre for sustainable development, we will be able to do it everywhere in the world," he said. 

On transportation, he drew applause when he said: "I think it's time to consider fast trains in Canada. If we were able to have Montreal to Toronto, downtown to downtown, in three hours instead of five hours, how many of us will take the train instead of the plane?"

He said that nuclear power is part of Canada's energy mix but he doesn't favour an expansion.

"As long as I've not received a convincing strategy for the waste, as long as I am not able to look Canadians in the eye and say I'm comfortable with the waste, I will not recommend it.

"But, you know, it's an unavoidable debate in Canada. It's coming in Europe. Some countries that ruled out nuclear are considering it now, especially because of climate change, by the way."