Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
If I could comment just briefly on that, I can try to explain what should be in Bill C-30. Let me take another cut at that.
In a climate change plan, a plan to address the climate change issue, we believe very strongly—and this was in the report last fall—that there's a need to have clear, measurable expectations or targets for the short, medium, and longer terms. Otherwise, there's no way of really knowing whether the plan is unfolding as it should, or whether activities being carried out during the year or over a period of two or three years are actually working. You need expectations and you need targets, and you need them for those three timeframes, I would suggest.
The other thing I would suggest it is important to have in addressing climate change would be to take those targets and capture them in what I'd call a concise periodic report to parliamentarians from time to time, so that they know in plain language whether the program is in fact being worked on and if the long-term program is having any effect. I firmly believe that kind of report is possible to prepare. In fact we're going to do a little bit of work next spring to take a look at that.
That's the key to it all, I think, sir: clear, measurable expectations or targets. Get them firmly in place so that everyone can see them for the short, medium, and longer term, and then report back on those periodically. It needn't be annually. It may be every three years or something, but then all of us—primarily members of Parliament, but the Canadian people too—could know whether or not the initiatives we're taking on are working.