Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the Liberals bringing this forward, and I think they did that in good faith and in response to a recommendation by one of the witnesses, Dr. Boyd. Dr. Boyd, in his submission, in suggesting that this be added, said it would be oratory, not enforceable. For that reason, I find that it's not necessary to add the provision because it doesn't actually provide any enforceable duty. Those enforceable duties are already contained in existing environmental law. For example, everybody must obey the Species at Risk Act, must obey the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and so forth. So it's a little puzzling to add in when in fact we already have some provisions. But the main reason that I would have is that the preamble already makes the oratory statement, where it states:
Whereas Canadians have an individual and collective responsibility to protect the environment of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations;
Whereas Canadians want to assume full responsibility for their environment, and not to pass their environmental problems on to future generations;
I understand the intent of what Dr. Boyd was wanting to convey, and he was very clear it was to be simply oratory and not enforceable. My position is that in fact what he wanted is already reflected in the bill in the preamble.