[3] On February 10, 2009, Bruce Hyer, then the New Democrat Deputy Environment Critic and MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, seconded by Layton, reintroduced it in the 40th Parliament as Bill C-311.
According to the summary, the purpose of this bill is: to ensure that Canada meets its global climate change obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by committing to a long-term target to reduce Canadian greenhouse gas emissions to a level that is 80% below the 1990 level by the year 2050, and by establishing interim targets for the period 2015 to 2045.
It creates an obligation on the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to review proposed measures to meet the targets and submit a report to Parliament.
These are the same emissions targets adopted by the European Union and announced as objectives of U.S. President Obama's New Energy For America strategy.
The Bill is noteworthy in that it was the first legislation in the world to pass a democratically elected parliament which mandated hard emissions reductions for the post-Kyoto Protocol period (after 2012).