The Green Shift Plan
I've been thinking about the federal Liberal proposed green shift plan and doing some reading and listening to both sides of the issue. I do think we need a national plan to address the climate change/pollution problem but this is not it. I think that what needs to be done is a co-ordination of the federal and provincial plans and the development of a policy that is best and fairest for all. A policy developed at the expense of, and without input from the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan simply does not make sense.
posted by mamie @ 11:30 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:20 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi MM:
Not sure if you have checked out the NDP cap and trade plan but I would bet that of the two, there would be greater buy-in from SK and AB with the NDP plan. Cap and trade offers the opportunity for industry to purchase and trade emissions. It has a hard cap on emissions (unlike the LPC plan) which will obviously benefit the environment. The funds generated from the sale of emissions credits will help offset federal government support for greening Canadian industry as well as helping Canadian voters through increased funding to rail infrastructure, public transit and green home retrofits.
Most Canadians agree that their needs to be a price on carbon. Many provinces and some states have already taken the initial steps in establishing a carbon market.
Al Gore, who does support a carbon tax, is urging the US government to focus first on industry, in particular creating the legislative and regulatory environment for a carbon neutral national electrical grid in 10 years. The reason? It is ambitious but doable because their is a real focus to the effort.
Aside from my concern about how 'revenue neutral' the Dion plan would be for low income and working class Canadians, I am worried that a carbon tax is in fact a scatter shot approach that without hard targets could be all pain with little gain for Canadians.
Anyway - here are the links for the NDP plan for the environment as well as a link to a real national anti-poverty plan that will not pit regions against one another.
enviro: http://www.ndp.ca/node/4048
poverty: http://www.ndp.ca/page/4824
At 11:16 AM,
mamie said…
Hello "jaybird",
I don't often get comments on this little blog, so it was interesting to receive yours. Thank you for taking the time to post some very pertinent points. I think the Harper government and the NDP both favour some form of "cap and trade", do they not, but I guess the difference is on whether it is a "hard cap" or "intensity based? I think you are on the mark when you say "all pain for little gain" unless everyone is on board. In the "big picture" - Earth doesn't care about per capita emissions; it's just important for everyone to work together to cut down on emissions - and that includes the big polluters like the US, China and India. In Canada, the same argument applies: what is the point in carbon taxing the oil industry of Alberta and Saskatchewan and not putting a carbon tax on gasoline (for example? (Yes, yes, I know that would be political suicide.)
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