More Hot Air from Ottawa

The House is back in session today, and with it came yet another example of how Ottawa is full of hot air when it talks about dealing with the tar sands pollution problem.

 

When Environment Minister Peter Kent pledged this spring that new rules to limit the greenhouse gas emissions from the tar sands would be brought forward before the end of this year, it was hard not to take it with a grain of salt. We’d heard it before – Turning the Corner in 2006, promises to implement cap and trade in 2008 and other failed starts at limiting pollution from big industries like the tar sands. 

 

This time, however, seemed a bit different. With the international controversy over tar sands development growing, the Harper government has been lobbying other countries to take our polluting oil on the promise that new rules are coming.

 

But today, Minister Kent backtracked on his pledge, saying that no new rules will be forthcoming this year. This means that tar sands companies can keep spewing increasing amounts of greenhouse gas pollution into the air without any limits. Environment Canada predicts that emissions from the tar sands will triple from 2005 to 2020, from 30 million tonnes to 92 million tonnes.

 

Carbon isn’t the only ball being dropped. Caribou are also falling prey to government inaction. Despite setting a goal in 2007 that “boreal caribou are conserved, and recovered to self-sustaining levels, throughout their current distribution”, the plan released by the federal government last month allows business as usual for the oil industry operating the habitat of Alberta’s most threatened herds. In a bizarre twist of logic, the strategy opts to kill wolves rather than protect caribou habitat. In addition, recent cuts to Environment Canada threaten air pollution monitoring in the tar sands region, at the same time the government is touting a new and improved monitoring program.

 

It’s bad enough that the government keeps trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Canadian citizens, promising action and then doing nothing. Now, though, it cuts to the core of Canada’s reputation with other countries. Canada can’t bully the U.S. and Europe into taking more tar sands oil on the promise of measures to reduce the impacts and then do nothing.

 

The controversy has been building, with more than 1,200 people arrested in opposition to a new tar sands pipeline in the U.S. and Europe is watching Canada closely as it develops its new fuel directive. It will keep building, too, unless Canada acts to reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases and other pollution coming from the tar sands.