First, I'm very pleased that you used some of your time to talk about everything you've done for the environment in your work in Halifax. It had an impact. I saw it myself, when I was parliamentary secretary and we were there to set up charging stations, among other things. I also saw the work that was done to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.
It's important to see how we need to work, and your question kind of illustrates what this is about. It's not just about the federal government. We need to work with other governments to get results. We have to accept that things are different in different parts of the country and facilitate co-operation.
When we can enter into an equivalency agreement with a province, that means that the province has the same objectives and wants to achieve the same end result, but perhaps it will do so in a slightly different way.
The changes we are proposing in this bill will give us more flexibility to conclude these agreements. As I said earlier, the provinces have to achieve the same end results, but perhaps they will have another way of getting there.
Something that is very important for us is the fact that these agreements could last longer than five years. Right now, we can only implement five-year agreements. This means that, shortly after we have reached an agreement, we have to start negotiations again. It wastes a lot of time and energy, and it doesn't allow us to do long-term planning.
So the changes proposed in this bill will help us work better with the provinces and reach agreements that allow for long-term planning.