Hello. I am a professor of physics and the scientific director of the Trottier Energy Institute, or TEI. It is truly an honour for me to be here. Good afternoon to all the members of this committee and its chair.
I have been working on energy and climate governance issues for over 15 years. I was co-chair of the Commission on Energy Issues in Quebec in 2013-2014. I co-authored the proposal that led to the founding of the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, and I actually sit on its board of directors.
The TEI is leading the Energy Modelling Initiative at the federal level with support from Natural Resources Canada. This initiative aims to structure the modelling capacity in Canada to support decision-makers. I work a lot on all kinds of initiatives that try to build structure into Canada's ability to move forward.
The TEI also publishes the Canadian Energy Outlook. We are currently working on our second edition, which models carbon-neutral scenarios. These reports will be available in a few weeks. What emerges is the immense challenges of meeting carbon neutrality targets and the absolute inadequacy of the measures in place, both federally and provincially. Basically, it is impossible to move in this direction with the measures in place today. I would also say that carbon neutrality is a big game changer in terms of how we do transformation in terms of intermediate goals. We absolutely have to keep the end goal in mind: zero emissions. Any trajectory and any decision has to be consistent with that end.
A few years ago, I piloted the Le climat, l'État et nous initiative, which aimed to transform environmental governance in Quebec. Rest assured, I failed completely. Environmental governance in Quebec is unfortunately not on track to achieve its goals either.
I worked with several stakeholders, among others. We looked at several models abroad, so you won't be surprised to find some similarities with the statement that Corinne Le Quéré presented earlier. Indeed, I have worked with her on several occasions over the years.
Bill C-12 is essential, but clearly insufficient. There are significant gaps in it that make it impossible for us to achieve our goals or get where we want to go, even though those things are important. I don't want to go back to that, so I'm going to talk about a few other issues.
The first issue is data. It's important to prepare progress reports to indicate where we are. Yet data in Canada on greenhouse gas emissions are published at least two years after the fact. It is absolutely impossible to manage a transition and assessment with data that is consistently too old. It is imperative that this bill include a requirement to produce data on a monthly or quarterly basis, at most, as is done with employment data and other essential data in Canada. Without this, we are working in the dark. There's no way to assess the quality of the measures that are put in place. We're going to mess up completely.
We also need a clearer horizon. I completely agree with Professor Le Quéré that we need to set intermediate milestones in the longer term—5, 10, 15 years in advance. This will allow industry and investors to understand where we are in terms of regulatory transformation. These milestones need to include sectoral targets that will facilitate guidance. Thirty years is really too far away for many policy-makers, investors and industries.
In addition, we absolutely need to have better accountability. If this bill has a major flaw, it is this. Indeed, if we can assess neither the capacity nor where we are going, nor what we have done so far, we cannot get there.
The next issue is similar to one of the recommendations we made at the Quebec level a few years ago. It is imperative to elevate the status of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to that of a senior official who answers directly to Parliament. This will allow the commissioner to use different approaches and tools than the Office of the Auditor General, including the ability to evaluate not only programs, but their relevance to the achievement of objectives. He would be able to conduct a much more integrated evaluation of environmental actions, not just based on an accounting approach such as that developed in the Office of the Auditor General.
Annual progress reports are also needed. Again, five years is not enough. We see that abroad. When we just have 30 years left to achieve our goals, we need to make sure that the billions spent year after year are really moving us in the direction we want to go. These reports need to include not only progress at the federal level, but the full picture of what is happening from a Canadian perspective.
We need more independent and responsive boards. Currently, in Canada, there is the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices. There is also the Net-Zero Advisory Body. These two bodies could work together, but they are both insufficient at present. The Canadian Institute for Climate Choices does not have enough flexibility or teeth. It has no legislated existence and no direct access to Parliament.
I think my time is up.