The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Frustrated by Prime Minister Stephen HarperÕs inaction on climate change, Ontario and Quebec are just the latest provinces to try to tackle the problem on their own. At a historic joint cabinet meeting yesterday in Quebec City, Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest announced the outlines of an interprovincial cap-and-trade system aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The plan, which will be open to other provinces and could take effect as early as 2010, would limit the amount of greenhouse gases companies can produce. Heavy polluters would be allowed to buy credits from companies that come in under their quotas. Yet even before their plan was made public, federal Environment Minister John Baird dismissed it as Òall smoke and mirrors.Ó This, coming from a government whose own climate change scheme has been roundly denounced for lacking teeth. The move by CanadaÕs two largest provinces follows British ColumbiaÕs bold plan to phase in a carbon tax, and efforts by B.C., Manitoba, Quebec and several states in the U.S. (where federal leadership on climate change is non-existent) to establish a regional cap-and-trade program through the Western Climate Initiative. The provinces all deserve credit for acting in an area where the Harper government is Òsuffering from a lack of ambition,Ó as McGuinty generously put it. But by virtually abandoning the field to the provinces, Harper risks hurting Canadian industries trying to adjust to climate change, and leaving the country without a coherent strategy to do its part to combat this global problem. A confusing patchwork quilt of provincial rules is no substitute for a credible national plan. For one thing, businesses like consistency. In the absence of a strong national climate change strategy, companies operating in more than one province may be subject to different rules, further burdening many industries that are already struggling. Even more important, all provinces need to do their part if Canada is to curb its greenhouse gas emissions. But Alberta is unlikely to sign up voluntarily for any plan that would risk putting the brakes on its lucrative, but pollution-spewing, tar-sands development. In the absence of real leadership from Ottawa, provinces representing a majority of Canadians are stepping into the breach. Harper should see these plans for what they are: a resounding vote of non-confidence in his weak climate change policies.
