Thank you all.
I think it's been very instructive for all of us. I also think it's been helpful to think through the solutions to the problems you've raised. Stewart Elgie's comments were very helpful in that regard.
It seems to me--and you are the lawyers, I certainly am not. I have a couple of broad questions. One is, why regulate? How urgent is this question, and would that urgency allow us to use the peace, order, and good government provisions?
It seems to me that Peter Hogg gave the show away a bit when he said in his conclusion that you'd have to argue this is as serious as wartime. Indeed, I think we're prepared to argue that. I think the question of how grave a matter this is, not only for Canada but for the planet.... I'd be very surprised, given what we know now, if one couldn't argue that case.
The other question is one of how we would do it. I think some very useful solutions have been put forward. You, of course, reminded us that the federal government has certain abilities--once we've determined this is a crisis--certain ways of doing things, through taxes, for example, which are undisputed as a way of achieving various purposes.
One that I don't think anybody mentioned--outside of the CEPA context--was the ability of the federal government to regulate standards, such as product standards--to regulate low-sulphur diesel for the whole country. We have a number of strategies on the “how” front, once we've determined how important all of this....
Finishing up my opening remarks, I was a little distressed that the Canadian Bar Association seemed to still have doubts about the science of climate change. We might well wish to incorporate--in the language of the preamble to the bill--the latest information from the climate change panel of the United Nations, but I think all reasonable people would now say that we are in a very urgent situation. We can strengthen that language.
Let me turn back to the critics. Maybe we'll start with Professor Hogg on POGG, if I may put it that way. First of all, I'd be interested in your response--if I have treated your argument unfairly about the urgency of the matter.
Second, I'd like to know if the various suggestions put forward by Mr. Castrilli and Professor Elgie--to be more explicit about CEPA, for example, and to tie it in with the language of Bill C-288, to use formulary language that we know about and that has a precedent--would help with some of your concerns and criticisms.