http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Ottawa+cutting+public+input+into+climate+change+policy/2126254/story.html
Ottawa is cutting off public input into climate-change policy
All Canadians and their offspring have a massive stake in this debate
By MATT PRICE, Freelance October 21, 2009
Montreal Gazette
Environment Minister Jim Prentice recently appeared in these pages arguing
that Canada is fully engaged in addressing climate change ("Canada is
doing its part to fight climate change," Opinion, Oct. 19). If that's
true, it's too bad he hasn't let the Canadian people in on it.
We commissioned a poll last summer asking Canadians several questions
about global warming and Canada's response to it. The biggest consensus we
found was on the question of whether Canada's system of carbon cuts should
be worked out in the open or behind closed doors. Not surprisingly, more
than 70 per cent favoured working it out in the open.
But, transparency is the opposite of what we are now getting. Instead,
Prentice has been meeting behind closed doors with industry to consult
about the shape of a cap and trade plan for Canada. He has also met behind
closed doors with the premiers. Nothing gets written down. Nothing gets
disclosed.
Prentice is saying he will release his plan before going to the UN climate
summit in Copenhagen in December where he will share it with other
countries. Presumably, then, the Canadian public gets no input. We are
just told the way things are going to be.
The tragedy here is that this will be perhaps the most significant piece
of economic and environmental policy in the history of the country. It
will either chart the course for Canada to be a leader in the next
industrial revolution as the world economy decarbonizes, or it will fall
short and leave Canada in its current last-place position in this regard
behind our competitors. All Canadians alive today and their offspring have
a massive stake in this initiative, and they are being shut out.
Rather than present a proposed plan for Canadians to comment on, Prentice
seems content to dribble out little bits of it to friendly audiences who
won't ask the tough questions. In this vein, he just revealed to the
editorial board of the Calgary Herald that he will ask each of the
provinces to take on the 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020 target for
emissions cuts.
Set aside for now that these cuts are much less than is needed to stop our
climate from deteriorating, the significance is that it could be seen as
an answer to the key issue of whether the system will be equitable across
Canada. This is critical to the Quebec and Ontario economies in
particular, since exploding tar sands pollution in Alberta is currently on
track to take up all the room under future national cap on emissions,
thereby forcing other industries out. Just a few days ago a tar-sands CEO
said that other industries should do more so that tar sands pollution can
continue to grow.
So, is Prentice standing up to the tar-sands industry? We don't know,
since the problem with not putting something out for proper scrutiny is
that the probing questions don't get asked. Or maybe that's the point.
We must ask, for example, whether the loopholes built into past proposals
by the Harper government will still exist in the new system, loopholes
that would enable tar-sands companies to dodge actual pollution cuts by
paying into a fund or even by simply planning to invest in pollution
control sometime in the future. Such loopholes could not only undermine
the equity issue across Canada, but also put us offside with the Americans
who will be watching that we don't give breaks to polluters that they
don't give, at the risk of trade sanctions.
Overall, cap-and-trade design is a complicated task with huge
implications. Debate about Canada's design belongs in the light of day
where the motives of the government can be examined properly. We've got
about 50 days left until the UN climate negotiations open in Copenhagen.
Let's use that time to get Canada's position right, with the benefit of
public debate.
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