Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, MP Khalid.
I want to start by saying thanks to the commissioner and to your team for the work you've been doing.
I'll start with recognizing that, in exhibit 6.3 of the report being discussed this afternoon, you're helping Canadians to see that emissions have gone up in Canada since 1990 and that we're the only G7 country for which that is the case.
Emissions in Canada, as of the most recent inventory report, have gone up 100 megatonnes since 1990. It was around 608 megatonnes in 1990 when we all decided that we were going to start to care about the climate crisis, and it's about 708 megatonnes as of the most recent inventory report.
In your report, you've concluded that the measures the government has proposed to reduce emissions by 2030 are insufficient to meet their target of between 40% to 45%. I'll note that the target doesn't follow climate science and that we need to get to at least a 60% reduction by 2030, but we have started to go down in the last year. There's been a 7% reduction in the last year at least.
I'd like to ask questions about the measures we need to see this government taking it further and faster. On one hand, we had oil and gas CEOs at the environment committee last week, and they made it very clear to parliamentarians that they have no interest in an oil and gas cap. They have no interest in a windfall profit tax on their record-breaking excess profits. In fact, they have no interest in any additional regulations whatsoever. That's oil and gas on one hand, a significant emitter in this country.
On the other hand, we have this draft framework for the oil and gas cap that has come out since this report, and there are significant exemptions contained in it, including 25 megatonnes lost to compliance flexibilities and carbon offsets, essentially.
Commissioner, to you or Principal Leach, I'm wondering if you could share how important you think it is for this government to strengthen what was in the regulations, or if you can speak broadly about how important you see the oil and gas cap, this cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, as it relates to making progress towards the 2030 target?