Ottawa making carbon policy in the dark

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/12/2009 (5790 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From a distance, it’s frustrating to watch the tense negotiations behind closed doors in Copenhagen, where the nations of the world are grappling with global warming.

But up close here in Canada, it’s even harder to make sense of the climate-change talks that have been taking place between Ottawa and the provinces — also behind closed doors.

How quintessentially Canadian that our own internal wrangling over carbon is as protracted as the arm-wrestling abroad. While we face off against other countries at the bargaining table in Copenhagen, we have yet to get our own environmental house in order.

Under the Conservatives, the federal government is using calculated ambiguity to address climate change — playing its cards close to its chest for fear of going out on a limb before Washington makes clear how far it will go in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

By deferring to the U.S., Prime Minister Stephen Harper is selling the national interest short. To be sure, Ottawa must be mindful of the integration of the Canadian and U.S. economies and must not put our manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. But policy-makers in Ottawa cannot treat Canada and the U.S. as interchangeable entities, with one-size-fits-all carbon policies. There are important regional, cultural and political differences that have to be worked out inside Canada — and the longer the federal government waits, the harder it will be to get our national act together.

The policy paralysis in Ottawa is leaving the provinces in the dark — and, increasingly, at each other’s throats. Ontario and Quebec are reluctant to make the costly sacrifices required to curb greenhouse gas emissions further if energy producers in Alberta and Saskatchewan are to lay claim to that new-found emissions room.

Harper and Environment Minister Jim Prentice — both of whom represent Alberta ridings — have consistently tried to downplay this internal debate for fear that taking a stand will hurt the Conservatives in one region or another. Instead, the Conservatives have doused any prairie fires by shouting down critics and environmental activists.

A report last month by the Pembina Institute and David Suzuki Foundation that attempted to map out the road to 2020 — detailing possible scenarios for meeting Ottawa’s stated targets for greenhouse gas reductions — was bitterly assailed by Prentice.

Prentice’s critique was echoed last week in a report by the Canada West Foundation, which condemned the work of the environmental groups and fanned fears that Alberta and Saskatchewan are about to be bilked of their energy riches.

Despite their diametrically opposed viewpoints, these recent reports share a common theme: Canada’s environmental policy is being drafted in the dark.

— The Canadian Press