Shooting the Messenger

Why tackle the problem when you can tackle those talking about it instead? Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice is going after the very cautious National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy for daring to suggest that Canada ranks near the bottom of the G8 countries when it comes to low carbon performance.

The problem Mr. Prentice has, though, is that it doesn't matter how many messengers you shoot if your record sucks. So far, all he has done in the positive column is to copy the U.S. on auto standards, because he had to.

Otherwise, he has successfully stalled any action on large polluters and cut programs that were helping renewable energy and housing retrofits. Our report shows that he is costing Canadians tens of thousands of jobs by failing to keep up with other countries in the transition to a clean energy economy.

Canadians can only be jealous looking across the pond at those other Conservatives who just took power in the UK. They just released their "programme for government" which in stark contrast to the Canadian Conservative government embraces a wide range of action on climate change. Do we shoot those Conservative messengers too?

Meanwhile, the Harper government remains stuck in its ideological bunker, keeping climate change off the G8/G20 agenda by saying that anything other than the economy is a "sideshow."

Yet, as David McLaughlin, president and CEO of the Round Table said: "...in a low-carbon world, the environment is the economy."

Until Harper and Prentice grasp that truth, Canada will continue to fall behind the rest of the world.

Matt Price
Policy Director
Environmental Defence