Environment committee  I think it's just a common understanding that parties are expected to, over time, increase the stringency of their commitments.

Agriculture committee  The approach you describe is one that we use where we regulate a sector. They have to achieve a certain standard. In doing that, we can reward companies or farmers for doing better than average. An offset is something that you're not required to do. The challenge we have with o

Agriculture committee  I think we're looking at activities. We will not be giving credits for anything that occurred before 2018. That's in terms of the activity. As for defining what constitutes beyond business as usual, that is something that will vary depending on the activity.

Agriculture committee  That's exactly right.

Agriculture committee  That's still to be determined on a protocol-by-protocol basis. We have draft regulations that set the basic rules for developing the protocols and then using the credits. We're now in the process of developing those protocols, and, as I said, one of the first four that we're wor

Agriculture committee  That's correct.

Agriculture committee  This is directly within the scope of what we work on, because, of course, this is a challenge for Canada and other countries that are taking action to reduce greenhouse gases. We need to do so in a way that both reduces emissions and that doesn't adversely impact our economic act

Agriculture committee  We are looking at it. That's the short answer.

Agriculture committee  The short answer is twofold. First, I'll have to get back to you with the precise data; we do have that data. Second, the data will show that the relative contribution, of course, varies from area to area and ecosystem to ecosystem. We have some ecosystems that continue to be s

Agriculture committee  That's an excellent question, and it's a big challenge for us. The reality, however, is that what we need to do is to focus on creating incentives for new or changed behaviour so that we increase sequestration or reduce emissions relative to their current levels. There are som

Agriculture committee  With respect, that's not a question for our officials. That's a question you need to address to the members of the government.

Agriculture committee  The short answer is that it's through data collection and modelling associated with changes in the landscape. If we lose wetlands, then we lose the sequestration that previously occurred. If we gain wetlands, we gain sequestration that occurred. Again, it's always relative to wh

Agriculture committee  Have I been on a farm? Not recently, but I'm not the one doing the work. Initially, we undertook a survey to identify activities that should be the highest priority for us in developing protocols. That was—

Agriculture committee  Yes, it was with farmers, agricultural academics and representatives from all of the major agricultural industry associations. It's particularly important, in the context of agriculture, to ensure that we have input from across the country, because agricultural practices and requ

Agriculture committee  I won't comment on the inventory itself. I'm wondering if my colleagues at Agriculture and Agri-Food might comment on that. I will comment on the credit issue. The global obligation that we face is to reduce emissions so that nobody's getting a credit for something they're alrea