Thank you for the question, Mr. Arnold.
In your preamble to your question, you correctly recognize the importance that coastal communities attach to the sustainable use of the oceans, its fisheries, its other industries, and its marine tourism. All kinds of jobs and economic opportunity properly depend on the sustainable and safe use of our oceans. We don't disagree with that; we hear it all the time. We try to work with these groups over and over again, as often as we can, to ensure that we get it right. I think that if we properly protect our oceans, reaching 5% by the end of this year or even 10% by the end of 2020 is, in our view, a reasonable target to ensure the long-term sustainability of those very resources that these coastal communities depend on.
You asked where the push came from for the 2020 or 2017 targets. The push for 2020 came from a global consensus that Mr. Harper's government signed on to in 2010 that countries would get to the 2020 target within 10 years. There's a broad consensus on that. As I said, we believe that showing Canadians that we can achieve the significant progress of 5% this year was reasonable and attainable.
I don't want to pre-judge Parliament's work, but it's unlikely that Bill C-55 will make it through the House of Commons and the Senate in the next couple of months, so it won't be available as a tool to reach the 2017 targets. We think that if this legislation is passed, it'll be critical to getting the country to the 2020 10% target, and that's why we're asking Parliament to consider this bill.