First, I'm going to speak briefly about the carbon budget. A carbon budget provides a clearer picture for the purpose of making decisions on regulations and infrastructure, for example, which have an impact on our GHG emissions.
Here's an analogy. If I want to cut my spending by 40% to 45% over the next nine years, I have to know how much money I have in my bank account and how much I can spend on periods shorter than nine years or else I won't be able to do it.
I repeat that, in Climate Action Network Canada's view, this is still an appropriate approach for Canada, even though the government hasn't opted for it. We believe it's possible within the federation because the federal government has tools at its disposal such as regulations, tax policy and the spending power.
However, if we want to ensure a minimum degree of transparency in plans and progress reports in the absence of a carbon budget, the bill should absolutely be amended to provide for annual modeling of GHG emissions in the plans.
The advisory group of the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices could look into that issue in future.