Moved second reading of Bill C-12, An Act respecting transparency and accountability in Canada’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

She said: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak at second reading as the sponsor in the Senate of Bill C-12, An Act respecting transparency and accountability in Canada’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. I will focus on the general context, the main principles and the objective of the bill.

Scientists are clear: Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity in the history of our species. Current average global temperatures are close to 1.2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, while Canada has experienced twice this warming and the Arctic three times. Here in Canada, these changes are leading to intense heat waves, the melting of permafrost, sea level rise, intense and frequent extreme weather events and the northern expansion of disease-transmitting insects affecting biodiversity and species health. Each of these impacts, in turn, cause a series of domino effects that impact every aspect of our life and society, whether urban, rural or northern.

We have upset the delicate balance of life-support systems provided by our planet, and we have breached several of the planetary boundaries allowing sustainable life on earth, one of them being a stable climate. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest level in the last 14 million years. Now, at over 400 parts per million, we have far exceeded the 200 milligrams per litre present when our distant ancestors began farming and that allowed the development we enjoy today.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the extraction, processing and combustion of fossil fuels for energy have been the primary emitter of greenhouse gasses. In fact, 78% of the total increase in emissions between 1970 and 2010 are due to fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes.

We are learning more and more about how the fossil fuel industry has consistently furthered its interest at the expense of a safe climate. It has persistently lobbied governments for weaker environmental laws and further entrenchments of the use of fossil fuels. Their efforts have resulted in unprecedented subsidies, weak environmental regulation and the sluggish development of cheaper and safer low-carbon energy sources. A growing number of independent investigations and allegations in court cases around the world show how some of the biggest oil and gas corporations funded climate change deniers and hid important knowledge on climate change developed by their own researchers for decades.

As a result of these efforts, societies and ecosystems around the world are suffering the impacts of climate change and pollution. Close to home here in Canada, over 7,000 people die each year due to air pollution from burning fossil fuels. At a global level, there is an estimated 10.2 million premature deaths annually due to the burning of fossil fuels.

Considering Canada’s history of environmental racism, these health costs are incurred disproportionately by structurally oppressed groups, such as Indigenous people, women, seniors, children and people with disabilities. This, colleagues, is socially and morally unacceptable.

According to the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, insured losses for catastrophic weather events totalled over $18 billion between 2010 and 2019 and the number of catastrophic events was over three times higher than in the 1980s. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, these insured losses amounted to $2.4 billion in damage in 2020, and insured losses are roughly three to four times higher. Who can afford these catastrophic losses?

Some provinces are hit more than others with extreme weather events. British Columbia and Alberta have experienced the worst forest fires in Canadian history. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire caused the evacuation of 88,000 residents with an overall cost of $8.9 billion.

As I stand here with you, there is a record-breaking heat wave in British Columbia, setting and breaking record temperatures day after day.

We can no longer continue to argue, given the urgent need to reverse this trend by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to avoid further destabilizing our climate and our society.

Our climate inaction is hurting our health, our prosperity and our safety. Refusing to make changes now condemns us to industrial obsolescence, and we are running the risk of weakening our competitiveness and tarnishing our international reputation.

Conversely, by achieving net-zero emissions, Canada would save between $30 billion and $100 billion in health care costs. According to the World Health Organization, health gains from climate action are twice as valuable as the cost of mitigation policies.

In December 2015, at the Twenty-first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 194 countries reached a historic consensus under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees, and preferably 1.5 degrees, relative to pre-industrial levels. Canada has led the charge to adopt the more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees.

The Paris Agreement also introduced the concept of net-zero emissions, which is defined as:

 . . . a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHGs . . . .

Achieving net-zero emissions became the objective after the 2018 special report was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which concluded that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require that net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide reach net zero around 2050.

Esteemed colleagues, we must act now. For every year that we fail to take action, the cost of reaching the objective of 1.5 degrees Celsius goes up by $5 trillion.

The Paris Agreement must also be implemented fairly and in accordance with the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility.” This has consequences for Canada, a rich and developed country that has the highest historic emissions levels and associated level of development. I should point out that carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. The emissions from the early days of the Industrial Revolution are still in the atmosphere.

Canada is the tenth-highest contributor to climate change and our per capita emissions are among the highest in the world. They are twice as high as Norway’s.

As you know, Canada has not managed to meet its territorial emissions reduction targets since the international negotiations started 30 years ago. Furthermore, Canada has since seen the largest increase in emissions among all G7 countries.

Colleagues, it is literally the time to go from zero to hero in this race for net zero. Bill C-12 is the first step and the starting gunshot. Bill C-12 is not a plan to make a plan. It is a comprehensive framework with a clear goal: attain net-zero emissions as soon as possible and, at the latest, in 2050. Countries, industries and corporations, have all heard the signal and they are off the starting line — some with advantage. The more we lag, the less chance we have to keep up and the more it will cost to us.

Fortunately, Canadians are ready for change and are demanding concrete action. The majority of Canadians from all provinces believe the energy transition is unavoidable. Two thirds of Canadians want Canada to do better than the average and shift to low-carbon energy and clean technologies. The pandemic has not altered this support.

Two weeks ago, the G7 committed to:

 . . . ambitious and accelerated efforts to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and by 2050 at the latest, recognising the importance of significant action this decade.

There are 121 countries in the Climate Ambition Alliance which have committed to “. . . working towards achieving net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.”

Two nations have already achieved net-zero emissions and now claim to be carbon negative; thirty-four other countries have made commitments to achieve carbon neutrality prior to or by 2050, including five OECD countries that have net-zero commitments earlier than 2050.

Bill C-12 is about ensuring Canada finally joins the club.

In the private sector, at least one fifth of the world’s 2,000 largest public companies have committed to meet net-zero targets. The companies together represent sales of nearly US$14 trillion. Even the Canadian oil sector is now on board. Earlier this month, companies operating approximately 90% of Canada’s oil sands production announced an initiative to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands operations by 2050.

Last month, the International Energy Agency, an organization of fossil fuel suppliers, released a comprehensive road map for the global energy sector to reach net zero by 2050, which stated the transition to net zero is “. . . a huge opportunity for our economies, with the potential to create millions of new jobs and boost economic growth.”

In their February 2021 report, Canada’s Net-Zero Future, the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices examined more than 60 possible pathways to reach net zero by 2050, and in all of them Canada’s GDP is substantially larger than it is today. Canadians understand and agree with the data. The majority feel that the economic opportunities of the transition outweigh the economic risk.

Racing toward net zero is a tremendous opportunity for a more prosperous and resilient future for all Canadians, especially our children and those who will follow. Bill C-12 is how we start acting for them. The way to ensure our climate goals are achieved is through climate accountability legislation, which was pioneered by the U.K. in 2008 and ensured that they reached the greatest greenhouse gas emissions reductions of all G7 countries since. At least 15 countries have legislated climate accountability since then.

Furthermore, climate accountability isn’t a new concept in Canada. Six provinces have already implemented climate accountability laws. Quebec passed its own accountability framework last fall, which provides for the creation of an advisory body that must consist of a majority of scientists and must comply with provisions that prohibit all conflicts of interest.

Fully 75% of the members of Quebec’s advisory committee on climate change are scientists. Prince Edward Island has set an objective to attain net zero by 2040 and Nova Scotia intends to be the first net-zero province. British Columbia’s public sector reached net zero in 2010, and its laws require the publication of annual public reports containing detailed information.

With 29 clauses, Bill C-12 is a bill on climate transparency and accountability. Among other things, it requires the establishment of increasingly ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its final objective is to achieve net zero by 2050, at the latest, by setting new milestone targets every five years between now and then. It enables the federal government to implement an assessment of its target planning and progress, and provides for the creation of a net-zero advisory body to provide independent advice to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. It requires the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to assess Canada’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and it requires the Minister of Finance to prepare reports on the measures taken to manage financial risks and opportunities related to climate change.

Bill C-12 has been strengthened by over 30 amendments proposed in the other place. During third reading, I will explain how these amendments have resulted in stronger transparency and accountability, increased ambition and collaboration. Establishing these goals in legislation signals Canada’s commitment to leadership and action on climate change and makes sure the government is being accountable and transparent to Canadians on the path to achieving net-zero emissions. It ensures continuity in setting targets that are grounded in science and developed with the input of the provinces and territories, Indigenous people and their knowledge, experts and Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

Bill C-12 will also establish a sustainable, transparent and accountable mechanism that will help Canada deliver on its commitments under the Paris Agreement to limit the risk of climate change. Adopting this bill will support the international momentum toward net zero by joining a growing number of jurisdictions in doing so.

Dear senators, climate accountability is greatly needed in our country to set the path toward a better future for our children and grandchildren. For all the reasons above, I urge you to agree with Canadians on the important need for this legislation and support this bill as amended by the other place. Thank you, meegwetch.

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak on Bill C-12, the “Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.”

I was initially excited when I saw this bill. What a change of pace, I thought, to actually receive a bill from the Trudeau government with the words “Accountability Act” in the title. My hopes were soon dashed, though, as it’s just more smoke and mirrors — fake accountability from an insincere government.

My Conservative caucus colleague MP Dan Albas aptly calls Bill C-12 the “Seinfeld” bill because it is about nothing. It is a bill of empty environmental promises, as he puts it, “largely devoid of details or costs.” Maybe the Trudeau government has taken guidance from Seinfeld’s George Costanza, who says, “Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it!”

This Liberal government has a legacy of broken environmental promises. It keeps setting targets and failing to meet them, opting instead for performative politics. We’ve seen that play out in this very bill. Bill C-12 requires that the minister set emission targets for the milestone years of 2030, 2035, 2040 and 2045 to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050.

When the Green Party proposed the creation of an additional milestone year of 2025, the Liberals made a deal with the NDP to instead pass an amendment to create only a progress check-in objective in 2026 — not even an accountable target.

Of course, what does that 2026 date also allow the Liberals to do? It lets them dodge accountability for failing to hit their environmental targets, not only in this pending election cycle, but in the next election cycle as well. The Liberals are so committed to dodging accountability, they’re now planning it years in advance. How about that? For the first time ever, I can actually say the Trudeau Liberals are overachievers. But my biggest problem with Bill C-12 is that, once again, it continues the Trudeau Liberal government’s legacy of sticking it to Western Canada. As the lone official opposition senator in Saskatchewan and Alberta, I refuse to let this bill sail through this Senate Chamber without voicing my region’s significant concerns.

The West has struggled greatly under Trudeau government policies punitive to our energy sector. The Liberal government’s infamous Bill C-69, the aptly nicknamed “no more pipelines bill,” established criteria for energy project impact assessments that had the practical consequence of stifling oil and gas investment in the West. Bill C-48, the tanker ban bill that banned oil tanker traffic only on the West Coast, effectively cut off new exports for Western Canada’s energy products.

The Trudeau government’s carbon tax has also had a detrimental impact on the West. It has driven up the cost of everything for everyone, from gas to groceries to home heating. The carbon tax hits farmers particularly hard. It costs them more to produce, because it is more expensive to dry grain and transport their agricultural products to market. Meanwhile, increased trucking prices also mean higher prices for consumer products, and farmers are squeezed at both ends.

In the 2019 federal election, the Liberals promised a cap on the carbon tax of $50 per tonne in the year 2022. Even as recently as February 2020, Senator Gold, as the Government Leader in the Senate, repeated that promise in this chamber. But, lo and behold, by last December, just after the House of Commons had adjourned for the Christmas break, the Trudeau Liberals announced they would, in fact, dramatically increase the carbon tax by a whopping 240%, to $170 per tonne in the year 2030. This is yet one more major broken promise from the Trudeau government.

The ways in which this government has failed the West are legion. A new Liberal fuel standard will mean yet another additional cost for consumers and a competitive disadvantage for Western Canadian energy producers — as though the huge carbon tax wasn’t punishment enough. The Trudeau government’s indecision, mismanagement and failure to support new pipeline infrastructure and development, combined with policies of regulatory uncertainty that contributed to a hostile investment environment, resulted in the loss of one pipeline project after another, each one cutting off yet one more potential export route. With each failure, more Western Canadians lose their jobs and our communities suffer.

As the West suffers, so does Canada. The oil and gas sector is the number one private sector employer in the entire country. It produces Canada’s number one export. Our fortunes are tied together, honourable senators. While we all share a common vision to work toward a clean environment and sustainable development for future generations, we cannot do that by sacrificing the economic well-being of an entire region of our country.

I want to address the creation of the Net-Zero Advisory Body contained in Bill C-12; a body to which, incredibly, the Trudeau government had the arrogance to appoint people in February, four months before the bill establishing it had even passed the House of Commons, much less the Senate. Frankly, I’m shocked to see that the Leader of the Government in the Senate couldn’t even be bothered to give a speech on this bill today, because I think he has some explaining to do about that.

Bill C-12 says:

The Governor in Council appoints the members of the advisory body on the recommendation of the Minister and fixes their remuneration.

But the members of the Net-Zero Advisory Body were appointed by the minister in February, and there seems to be no order-in-council establishing the board. Certainly, as we stand here today, the bill has not even passed into law. Now we see that one of the Trudeau government’s new Senate appointees, Hassan Yussuff, was named to the Net-Zero Advisory Body four months ago. He’s still listed as an advisory body member and now he has also been appointed to this chamber.

What I would have liked to ask Senator Gold is: How much was Senator Yussuff getting paid as a member of this Net-Zero Advisory Body? Is he still getting paid for serving on that body while also being paid as a senator? How many federally appointed positions can Senator Yussuff hold at once? And under what authority did this advisory body get established in the first place? I would hope he knows these answers without needing to inquire.

In any case, the current membership of the Net-Zero Advisory Body lays bare a couple of the Trudeau government’s blind spots for Western interests in relation to environmental concerns; namely, those of the energy and agricultural sectors. It is obvious from the composition of this body that neither of these sectors were high on the government’s priority list for representation in the board’s membership. While there are only a few members with energy sector experience, none of the sitting board members come from the agricultural sector. That is shocking given that agriculture is an industry that can serve as a potential carbon sink. To meet the targets the federal government aspires to, it is crucial that the government hears the input of large-scale Canadian farmers — like those in Saskatchewan and Alberta — who are at the forefront of innovative and world-class agricultural techniques for carbon sequestration.

As witness and Saskatchewan farmer Corey Loessin testified before the House of Commons Environment Committee:

We need to have agricultural representation on the advisory panel to show how things are evolving and what can happen into the future specifically with respect to soil sequestration and how that will enable the country to meet its targets.

Quite frankly, the country can’t meet its targets without agriculture, and that’s just the reality of the situation. Why not have those involved who are actually doing it and find ways to perhaps do it better? The reality is that the country can’t meet the targets without agriculture’s being involved, so why not have them involved at the decision-making level and at the advisory level?

It would also be helpful to have representatives on the advisory board who could speak to the practicality of the government’s environmental targets in a rural, remote or agricultural area, for example. They could bring a certain experience and pragmatism that may be missing on an advisory board filled with members selected, as usual, from big cities. The realities in rural Canada are very different. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, for example, many smaller cities, towns and villages have no public transit. With recent changes at Greyhound and other bus services, many communities in the West are also no longer served by passenger buses. Given the inclement weather of a bitter Saskatchewan winter, for example, or the unforgiving terrain of northern Saskatchewan, year-round bicycle commuting is not only impractical, but obviously unsafe. Furthermore, sheer distances and cost can make reliance on electric vehicles or equipment unrealistic.

As I mentioned earlier, not many of the members of the Net‑Zero Advisory Body have energy sector experience. It is worth noting that many oil and gas companies have already committed to work toward a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The federal government should be partnering with them and using world-class technology developed in Canada to find innovative ways to reduce emissions. In fact, much of that technology has been developed in my home province of Saskatchewan. My province is on the cutting edge of technologies in no-till farming, uranium development, land use management and carbon capture utilization and storage. In fact, we boast one of the few large carbon capture projects in the world, the Boundary Dam Carbon Capture Project in Estevan.

This project is dear to my heart. Not only did I live in Estevan for a few years, as it was my late husband Dave’s hometown, but the Boundary Dam Carbon Capture Project was originally funded by the Harper Conservative government in 2008. When Dave was a Conservative Member of Parliament from Saskatchewan, he accompanied former Prime Minister Harper to the formal announcement of $240 million in funding for this world-class clean coal project. It was one of the last trips Dave made as an MP before he got very sick and retired later that year. To remember that today has a special poignancy for me, because tomorrow is the anniversary of Dave’s tragic death, on June 29, 2009. But if he were here, I know he would be proudly standing up for Saskatchewan’s interests just as strongly as I am.

The people of Saskatchewan have a lot of knowledge and wisdom to offer the federal government about being good stewards of the land and finding solutions to climate change. The only question is: Is the Trudeau government listening? Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any evidence that it is. Not one minister at the cabinet table stands up for Saskatchewan or Alberta, and it’s reflected in the Trudeau government’s policies that too often harm Westerners. In fact, the ministers around the table don’t seem to know or care much at all about life outside the Laurentian triangle of Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.

Instead, all the Trudeau Liberals offer up is lots of talk and no action. Former Finance Minister Bill Morneau promised aid to the oil and gas sector at the start of the COVID pandemic. He sat right in this very chamber and promised us that help would be coming within days. Those words seemingly evaporated into thin air, and no help came.

This government’s environmental policy has also been an endless jumble of empty promises. Their climate goals bounce from year to year, from percentage to percentage. Bill C-12 is just one more example. Juggling numbers and shifting targets, objectives and years are more ways for Prime Minister Trudeau to do the very thing he does best: avoid taking responsibility for his actions; confuse people into thinking you’re taking action; conjure up pretty words, talk about lofty goals and shove off accountability until after the next campaign, maybe even beyond, until, hopefully, it’s someone else’s problem when the deliverables are due.

In the meantime, of course, all of the confusion creates massive uncertainty for businesses, economic investment and our export markets.

But fixing the problem was never the intent; being seen to be concerned about it was. As always with Prime Minister Trudeau, only the virtue signal matters. You can tell that net-zero emissions aren’t really a priority for this government by the very way they have handled Bill C-12 in Parliament. They promised net zero in the 2019 election campaign, but this bill — essentially a plan to have a plan — wasn’t even introduced until last fall, and even then, it wasn’t called forward for further debate for months.

It is telling that Bill C-12 wasn’t even called for report-stage debate until June 22, a full week after MPs’ farewell speeches in the House of Commons. No sooner was the bill back in the House than the Trudeau government started ramming it through, invoking time allocation to shut down substantial debate and force it through before an election.

Prime Minister Trudeau is relying on the fact that he has now appointed a majority of senators to treat our Senate Chamber like a rubber stamp. He expects that the bills his government forces through the House of Commons at the very last minute will also be shoved through the Senate according to his whim. That is not how a reasonable government should be treating this equal and complementary chamber of Parliament. I call upon you, honourable senators, to not let yourselves and your votes be taken for granted.

To my fellow senators from the West, particularly from the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, please ask yourselves the following: Will this bill do anything to help my region? Are these the kinds of climate solutions the people of my province need? Does this bill take their interests into account? Will it capitalize on the West’s industrial and technical innovation, our farmers’ and Indigenous people’s knowledge of the land, our commitment to conservation and our pioneering spirit, or are these just more empty Liberal promises that will evaporate in a trail of hot air after the looming election?

I certainly know how the people of Saskatchewan view this bill and the Trudeau government’s continued insincere commitments. That’s why I hope you will join me in voting against Bill C-12.

Thank you.

Honourable senators, I am pleased to support Bill C-12, the “Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.”

We all know why we need to address climate change, and knowing the “why,” it’s now time to turn to the “how.” Bill C-12 will require the country to figure out the “how,” formulating and following an emissions plan aimed at the key dates of 2030 and 2050, a blueprint for the accountability of our national leaders.

Debating the bill’s principle, I submit three thoughts for your consideration as to how we as a country deal with climate change: first, Indigenous leadership and traditional knowledge around environmental protection; second, the need to consider regional and community differences, and available options in government planning; and third, the need for massive investment in green jobs in Western Canada.

On the first point, Bill C-15 received Royal Assent last week, meaning that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will become national law through changes to federal statutes. This shift will require further legal recognition of Indigenous jurisdictions and self-governance in Canada, breathing life into section 35 constitutional rights, including treaties. This shift will encourage similar measures in other countries.

With Indigenous peoples’ inherent rights now recognized in Canada, the country has unlocked huge opportunities for Indigenous leadership to contribute to both environmental protection, and sustainable development and resiliency. Indigenous nations and ideas can positively influence Canada’s laws of general application, as well as bring responsible decision making to managing ancestral lands and waters.

The preamble of Bill C-15 states:

. . . the Declaration can contribute to supporting sustainable development and responding to growing concerns relating to climate change and its impacts on Indigenous peoples . . . .

Senators, Indigenous peoples around the world have generations of values and traditional knowledge based upon environmental respect and stewardship, values and knowledge that can benefit all societies, practically and spiritually. Important aspects of reconciliation will involve sharing and learning Indigenous knowledge and laws, and interpreting ancient wisdom into modern policies and practices.

This is a practical example of reconciliation where all Canadians can benefit from the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and Western science combined to help shape our nation’s plan to address climate change.

We have heard Indigenous values about nature referenced in this chamber by our colleagues. Examples include Senators Francis and Christmas discussing the Mi’kmaq principle of Netukulimk around fisheries management, and Senators McCallum and Boyer speaking on the concept of “all my relations” in debates on animal cruelty. Indeed, the preamble of Bill S-218, the “Jane Goodall Act”, would acknowledge the concept of “All My Relations” in federal law.

As the current sponsor of that important animal-protection bill based in Indigenous values, I look forward to our productive deliberations and debate in the fall, and to sharing updates from work under way.

As a legislator, I view reconciliation and environmental stewardship as being inextricably linked. From that viewpoint, Bill C-12 is an important advancement in reconciliation — or it has that potential.

As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report states:

Reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, from an Aboriginal perspective, also requires reconciliation with the natural world. . . .

. . . Indigenous laws stress that humans must journey through life in conversation and negotiation with all creation. Reciprocity and mutual respect help sustain our survival. . . .

In 2020, Mongabay, an environmental science publication, reported that Indigenous people currently manage or have tenure on 40% of the world’s protected areas and remaining intact ecosystems. With meaningful jurisdiction, you can imagine the difference that Indigenous leadership can make around the world in preserving biodiversity and critical ecosystems, and in mitigating the effects of climate change.

In Canada, many Indigenous people live in communities in remote areas. With generations of traditional knowledge around natural cycles and geography, these communities are best positioned to monitor and manage resources in collaboration with modern science.

Such systems of stewardship have increasingly become formalized, such as through the Guardians land and water management programs. Those programs have shown excellent returns on investment in terms of social benefits, as demonstrated by studies in the Northwest Territories and northern B.C. These programs can help to protect Canada’s natural carbon sinks, to restore areas impacted by logging and extractive activities, and to bolster the resilience of wildlife populations against climate change.

Here are a few examples of Indigenous-led conservation efforts that contribute to Canada’s environmental protection goals. In 2019, Thaidene Nëné came into existence as a 14,000‑square-kilometre national reserve park in the Northwest Territories, co-managed by the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation and the Canadian government. Other examples include the 64,000‑square-kilometre Great Bear Rainforest in B.C.; the 29,000‑square-kilometre Pimachiowin Aki in Manitoba and Ontario, being the largest protected area in the North American boreal shield; and the 108,000-square-kilometre Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area in Nunavut.

Another interesting Indigenous environmental innovation has come through collaborative efforts in Quebec between the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the regional municipality of Minganie. This year, these jurisdictions collaborated to recognize the Magpie River as a legal person with nine legal rights, including the rights to flow, to maintain its biodiversity and to take legal action.

Bodies of water have also received legal rights in New Zealand, India, Bangladesh and Ohio. Bolivia and Ecuador have legally protected the rights of nature.

In thinking about Bill C-12, and Canada’s climate plan and environmental goals going forward, I would urge colleagues to contemplate that Indigenous leadership and jurisdictions will be huge advantages towards a mutually beneficial shared success.

My second point for your consideration today is to emphasize that the government should consider regional and local community differences and available options in formulating the climate plan. In this regard, I am encouraged by section 10(3) of Bill C-12, which provides that the plan can contain:

. . . information on initiatives or other measures undertaken by the governments of the provinces, Indigenous peoples of Canada, municipal governments or the private sector that may contribute to achieving the greenhouse gas emissions target.

To paraphrase, we need to pull out all the stops and consider all the measures available to us and double down on achieving our climate goals.

In Regina, Saskatchewan, in a 2018 survey report, local executives imagined an audacious vision for 2050. Respondents believe our city’s future economy will be driven by entrepreneurs and small business, with an increase in agri-value food processing and manufacturing sectors. Sustainable plant-based proteins represent one massive area of opportunity. Another area of economic focus and importance will be the information technology sector.

With climate goals in mind, the Regina of 2050 must be sustainable and resilient. In thinking about the transition to green energy sources, local executives saw entrepreneurs playing the most critical role. They viewed the keys to the clean energy transition as being the financial viability of green energy, the city’s ability to leverage its abundance of wind and solar energy, municipal leadership in green planning and construction, better education on the importance of renewables and better utilization of non-renewables in a more effective manner.

In approaching this part of the climate solution, with other jurisdictions and the private sector, the federal government should be sensitive to and prolific in building public acceptance in all parts of this country. The federal government needs to be mindful of the undeniable regional and community differences across this vast country and accept that one-size-fits-all solutions may not work. For example, some communities may fully electrify, while others may make progress with clean options like hydrogen, biogas and waste heat capture and usage.

The point here is that government needs to understand the importance of including and respecting people in all regions. This must be achieved by cooperative approaches, not top-down edicts. At the same time, all Canadians must acknowledge that climate change is a shared emergency, and all jurisdictions must contribute to a successful plan, as must the private sector.

In closing, the third point I submit for your consideration today is that the government should invest substantially in green jobs in Western Canada. On May 27, at the National Finance Committee I had the opportunity to raise this issue with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland.

I asked Minister Freeland about the language in the budget highlighting near-term potential to advance carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I also raised the point that the Fall Economic Statement 2020 mentioned projects like zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, restoring natural carbon sinks like wetlands, green farming investments and small modular reactors, including interest from Saskatchewan.

Specifically, in terms of gaining public buy-in in the West on a climate plan, I asked Minister Freeland whether the government will need to demonstrate major creation of green jobs in the West and whether the minister views this as important to national unity.

I was pleased to hear Minister Freeland’s response to this priority, as she said:

Canada will only be successful in acting on climate change if we have a plan that involves the whole country and that creates great green jobs across the country, and also . . . a plan which recognizes the diversity of our country.

In this way — and thinking as a business person — all regions of Canada need to see the economic opportunity in addressing climate change. The public sector needs to be there to make major investments in green jobs in the West. I am confident that our energy sectors will prove versatile and adaptable in becoming leaders in green options, as well as in technology to mitigate emissions from oil and gas.

Climate change is a problem that needs to be solved. Innovations in green practices and technology are going to generate a lot of wealth, and I would like to see that prosperity occur in Saskatchewan and right across Canada from coast to coast to coast. I am confident that Canadian businesses can compete and lead in innovation on the global stage.

The Financial Post reported last week that jobs in Canada’s clean energy sector are forecast to grow 50% to reach 640,000 positions by 2030, according to a report from Clean Energy Canada at Simon Fraser University. This sector already employs over 430,000 people, and is projected to grow at roughly 4% annually over the next decade.

The clean energy sector’s gross domestic product is also projected to increase by 58% between 2020 and 2030, reaching roughly $100 billion by the end of the decade, and 29% of Canada’s GDP.

As senators, in the critical years ahead, we can all be voices for our regions in the growth of the green economy. If Canadians can prosper while making valued contributions to saving the planet, I would call that a win-win.

Bill C-12 will give not only the current federal government, but any government in the coming decades, the framework for an organized national climate plan. Success through such a plan will require commitment and determination at all levels of society.

As parliamentarians, we can play our part through scrutiny of government actions, the contribution of legislative and other policy ideas, and public advocacy towards greater climate action when it’s needed. When it comes to climate change, we are all part of the problem, and we must all be part of the solution.

Thank you. Hiy kitatamîhin.

Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Senators: Agreed.

An Hon. Senator: On division.

(Motion agreed to and bill read second time, on division.)

Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the third time?

(On motion of Senator Galvez, bill placed on the Orders of the Day for third reading at the next sitting of the Senate.)