Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This amendment is quite similar to the one that snagged us into some dispute and confusion last meeting. It's to adopt recommendations from a number of environmental law groups. It happens that West Coast Environmental Law staff lawyer Andrew Gage was the one who testified before us. He represents the views, as I've been reminded recently, of a large collection of climate groups and environmental law groups.
Under subclause 7(4), we've already made the amendment changing five years to nine years, 366 days. As I understand, the expectation is that at report stage it can be changed to 10 years. This is a parallel proposal and I think it's quite consistent, although I don't see an identical Liberal amendment coming up soon thereafter. I'm a little worried about this one, but I certainly hope it will be passed, because it is consistent and gets down to the emissions reduction plans that attach themselves to the targets. It is for subclause 9(4), which currently reads:
(4) The Minister must establish each subsequent emissions reduction plan at least five years before the beginning of the year to which it relates.
I'm hopeful that we can change this from five years to 10 years. Again, I note that it's the intention of the majority of members of the committee that subclause 7(4) be changed from five to 10 years, so surely the subsequent plans should be targeted to the same year. I hope the amendment as drafted for 10 years will meet with the approval of the majority of committee members.