I need to be careful. I'm not here to provide the committee with legal advice, and I'm not here on behalf of the Department of Justice.
It's our view from a policy perspective, in discussing this with the people who will be responsible for implementing the act, that “demonstrate” and “explain” have very similar meanings. Indeed, the similarity becomes even more apparent when you read, in my opinion, the French provision.
“An emissions reduction plan must explain how … the strategies that the plan describes will contribute to Canada achieving net-zero emissions …”.
The word “précise”, I would suggest, is a little in between “explain” and “demonstrate” in English. In other words, there would not be a substantive difference in terms of what the act would require the plan to contain.