Good afternoon, chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
The Canadian Labour Congress is Canada's largest central labour body. It advocates on national issues on behalf of more than three million working people from coast to coast to coast. Climate change is a vitally important issue for unions and all working people in Canada. That's why the CLC and Canada's unions welcome the Canadian net-zero emissions accountability act.
In the limited time I have, I will confine my remarks on the legislation to three areas: accountability mechanisms in Bill C-12, the just transition and the net-zero advisory body.
First, with respect to accountability, as others have said before me, Canada has never met a single climate target that it has set for itself. To break this pattern of missed greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, we need a law that holds governments accountable for meeting its milestones, not for trying to meet them. Bill C-12 requires a rolling cycle of planning and reporting against the five-year milestones and the long-term targets. However, the bill provides too much leeway to set weak targets and issue plans with few details.
The act should set clear and firm obligations on the minister to meet or exceed robust minimum standards when setting targets and establishing emissions reduction plans. These plans need to contain robust modelling clearly demonstrating how the targets will be met. Accountability must be results-driven, not process-driven.
Additionally, there are inadequate accountability checkpoints in the crucial next decade. Bill C-12 uses milestone targets rather than carbon budgets. Compounding this, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development would be required to prepare reports on the implementation of measures only once every five years. Now that the government has set a target for 2030, there is no justifiable reason not to hold the government accountable in 2025.
Finally, to remain aligned with the 1.5°C limit on warming, this legislation must require absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, rather than relying on carbon offsets and hopeful technological solutions that will allow industry to continue to generate rising emissions.
I'll turn now to the just transition. The CLC appreciates the job-creation focus that went into developing Bill C-12, and we don't expect this legislation to achieve all of the goals of the promised just transition legislation. However, in our view this bill should contain specific references to a just transition as an important driver of climate ambition. Concrete just transition plans for affected workers and communities are essential, not only so we can increase climate ambition, but also to ensure that our actions meet our ambition. The bill should recognize that meeting climate milestones will require robust plans for a just transition of the workforce.
Finally, I'll turn to the net-zero advisory body. This body is an important component of the bill; there is no question. It is composed of representatives of diverse communities, including indigenous communities, government, the labour movement, environmental organizations, industry and academia, all with their own expertise. We are pleased that the CLC's president, Hassan Yussuff, will represent workers on the advisory body.
In our view, though, the net-zero advisory body must be positioned to provide strong science-based guidance on pathways to achieving the five-year milestones. While the advisory body would provide important guidance on measures and strategies for meeting Canada's emissions reduction milestones, there is currently no clear role for the advisory body in monitoring, assessing and reporting on progress towards meeting Canada's targets. In our view, there should be independent and frequent detailed assessment of whether Canada is on track to meet its targets.
The CLC welcomes this legislation, which has the potential to change Canada's history of never having met our climate targets. Strengthening certain areas of the bill could put Canada on track to meaningfully contribute to the crucial efforts of limiting warming to no more than 1.5°C.
Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions.