In fact, I think it would help if Bill C‑235 referred to working together with respect to the laws and regulations that already exist.
Instead of starting fresh in Bill C-235 and saying that now, for these enumerated areas, from tree planting to the rest, we are going to mandate implementation—which sounds pretty top-down—but we're going to then consult on that mandated implementation, it seems to me that it would be more helpful, I think, to say.... There are dozens of top-down regulations, policy mandates and laws on the books, from the federal fuel standard to clean electricity regulations to holding on to our carbon tax money to the rest. It's almost difficult to keep track of all the federal programs on the books that are in that mandate to provinces.
I think it would be helpful, in light of all of these—from the federal fuel standard to the carbon tax to the methane—to say that we're going to share data, we're going to talk to communities, we're going to talk to ministers. We're going to lay all these things on the table, literally and figuratively, and we're going to figure out how we can actually work together in a real way and in an apples to apples way.
I bring up methane, for example, because it was “Reduce it by 75%. Thanks for doing 50%, but we raise you to 75%”. We provide our numbers, but where are your numbers?
It seems to me that we don't need a Bill C-235 to say that collaboration should start now around new areas, new infrastructure and new projects. I think it's really about stopping where we are, pausing and going back and talking through everything that has been imposed till now.