Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today to address the hon. members, and indeed all Canadians, to reaffirm our unyielding commitment to the Paris agreement. Today, after decades of warning, the effects of climate change are no longer a distant threat. Across our own country we see its impacts seared on the landscape.
In the boreal forest, wildfires rage longer and harsher than ever before. In the Prairies, droughts and floods occur with greater frequency and with more devastating effects.
In the Arctic, the sea ice is thinning at an alarming rate, transforming traditional Inuit hunting lands where they have been hunting for millennia. From coast to coast to coast, rising sea levels pose a very real and potentially catastrophic threat.
These are great challenges we face and we see them happening around the world. However, by tackling them now, by lowering our emissions, and transitioning to a low carbon economy, we can take hold of a tremendous opportunity. It is an opportunity to not only prevent the worst impacts of climate change, but to spark clean innovation, strengthen our economy, and create good paying jobs for Canadians in the clean growth century.
Let us be clear. As temperatures rise and the environmental crisis advances, inaction and indifference are no longer an option. The previous government did not take climate change seriously. It created targets with no intention to meet them and refused to back them up with tangible, credible plans. However, Canadians expect us to act on climate change and that is exactly—