Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on a question I asked in the House in November about climate change. I feel that the minister's response to my question was inadequate.

To begin, I would like to provide some background about what has happened in the fight against climate change since I was elected to the House of Commons.

In 2011, as we all know, a very important decision was made. The Government of Canada decided to pull out of the Kyoto protocol and, from that point on, it would try to meet the targets set out in the Copenhagen agreement.

Some people began to ask the Canadian government questions. For example, a report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy in 2012 stated that Canada would not meet its target and that it would even have difficulty meeting 50% of its target by 2020. Consequently, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy told the Conservatives in the current Canadian government that they needed to make far more significant changes and take more substantive measures if they wanted to meet their weak targets.

I should explain that the 2011 targets were rather significant. After 2011, the Conservatives adopted the Copenhagen agreement targets, which were quite low. They will not be enough to prevent the Earth's average temperature from increasing by 2°C, the threshold at which the changes will be irreversible and the human race will be in jeopardy.

What did the Conservative government do? It is simple. It decided to abolish the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy because it was useless. This was truly absurd, because it was the only round table that brought together the environment and the economy to move our country, Canada, toward a more sustainable economy. Unfortunately, the Conservatives did not think that was a good idea.

That same 2012 report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy mentions that if we do not act, it will cost Canada $50 billion. It will cost Canadian taxpayers more to wait than to take immediate action and invest in fighting climate change and adapting to that change.

In October 2013, Environment Canada issued a report. Even Environment Canada issued a report to tell the Canadian government and the Minister of the Environment that they would not achieve their low Copenhagen agreement target. Even Conservative government officials are telling the government that it will not achieve its low target.

However, the Conservatives continue to say that everything is fine, that I should not worry, because there is no problem. On top of that, we are still waiting for the targets for the oil and gas industry, which were promised ages ago.

When will we get those targets? When will we also get real measures and more measures to achieve the Copenhagen agreement's low targets and do even better? Otherwise, it will be disastrous for our pocketbooks.

François Choquette

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