Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank my colleague from British Columbia for putting this forward.
Again, we have consistently tried to strengthen this bill by not putting the onus on one minister but to have the onus on cabinet. We believe that it takes an “all hands on deck” approach and a whole-of-government approach. Unfortunately, putting a minister such as Minister Wilkinson or future ministers of the environment and climate change on the hook for the actions of Crown corporations that report to other ministers, as well as the general departments that he or she is not responsible for, I don't think is a good approach.
I sincerely appreciate that the member is trying to raise accountability, but again, to be fair to that individual, they are not necessarily accountable. The Prime Minister and his or her cabinet are the ones who should be bearing the most responsibility. That is why Conservatives have continually said that if there is an action that's brought forward, it could be brought forward by an individual minister on the recommendation to cabinet, but it should be the cabinet itself that endorses, debates, deliberates and puts in place those mechanisms.
We will not be supporting this, but I applaud her thoughtfulness in trying to make sure there is accountability. Oftentimes, I do not see this government being accountable. It seems that it is more about putting out the announcements than necessarily seeing that what is implemented is done well and competently.