Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly want to reply to MP May's suggestion here.
I believe that there is a huge value in accountability, but the fact remains that this number has been picked, and again, we can agree...is the number too high or too low? We can have discussions over that. Ultimately, for the government, if we simply give it a target that is not within reason and cannot be attained, then I think we are setting ourselves up for more failure and more cynicism.
I'd much rather have it so the government can, through, as I said earlier, a whole-of-government approach—which may not be possible given that one of our amendments was rejected—discuss with the expert panel and with Canadians and post the target, and then be held accountable because it's something they did in discussion with so many.
I think that for us to be picking a number and then saying “here's the number” outside of what has been committed to.... For example, Mr. Chair, you were there when Mr. Harper worked with his provincial counterparts and asked for their input as to what targets should be taken to the Paris accord. What was taken to Paris, sir, was the result of government discussions between 10 provinces, three territories and the federal government to come up with a national target. That is what was taken there. For us to simply put in our own best guess as to how things will merit that, I don't believe would be helpful.
That being said, once the government announces it, it should work a hundred per cent towards those targets—something we just have not seen from this government yet.
While I'm not going to be supporting this, I hope my colleague Ms. May understands that I think it's just a disagreement about the number itself, and not that the government should not be taking action to work with industry, to work with other governments, to work with different stakeholders and to work with first nations on an achievable number that Canadians can count on. Then, as parliamentarians, we can hold them accountable for it.
Thank you.