Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to start with a quote from Jim Leech, chair of the advisory council for the Institute for Sustainable Finance. I'll shorten it a bit, but he says, “The Climate Investment Taxonomy Framework is a necessary step towards securing Canada’s competitiveness.... We need the clarity this framework provides to attract global capital....”
Despite the overwhelming consensus we've heard on this committee over the last number of weeks that this is a necessary step for our financial and environmental ambitions, Conservative witnesses and testimony and many questions from Conservative MPs have disputed how critical an ambitious taxonomy and disclosure is, even suggesting that it could devastate revenues and jobs in the private sector.
I'm going to ask each witness to answer this independently. In your expert opinion, is it remotely possible that the costs associated with disclosures as they relate to sustainability could possibly outweigh the opportunity losses and potential liabilities of inaction on this, given the direction the world is headed in?
I'll start with Ms. Walton.