Mr. DeMarco, you said earlier that 2030 was a year “heavy with expectations”. I was just observing that when it comes to the net-zero accountability act, a lot of the timelines and targets are outside the political horizon. Looking back at the years since 1990, it seems that many of the targets have been outside the political horizon, and perhaps much of the backsliding has been the result of changes in administration and changes in the degree of commitment to the cause of reducing greenhouse gas pollution.
I worked on the net-zero accountability act. One of the things we fought very hard for was the 2026 emissions “objective”, I believe it's called, because we couldn't get the Liberals to agree to the word “target”. I note that it's just after the fixed election date.
I guess I'm asking you to stray a little bit outside the bounds of the report you've presented. If we could go back to that piece of legislation and ensure that the targets and the reporting years were all within the political cycle.... We have fixed election date law in Canada. Why not have governments commit, when they come in, to a certain emissions reduction during their term? When the voters go to the polls, they can measure them against something that is tangible.
It feels like we're always falling behind, and then having elections, and then starting all over again. Is that an accurate observation?