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Lost amidst allegations of canine crosstalk is the content of the Green plan Environment Minister Rona Ambrose was presenting when the pooch palaver is said to have occurred. Globe and Mail columnist Eric Reguly says the environmental proposal is more ambitious and far tougher than anything the Liberals ever offered.
Peter MacKay didn't get it entirely right. The House of Commons has more dogs than Belinda Stronach. Environment Minister Rona Ambrose qualifies too, but in the best sense. Never mind what the usual spate of critics say; her Green plan goes after industry like a Rottweiler. For this, the much-maligned lady deserves praise.
Ms. Ambrose rolled out the plan, composed of the Clean Air Act and tough regulatory amendments to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, on Thursday.
The Kyoto Protocol called for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions to be cut to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012, but the Ambrose plan mandates reductions of 45% to 65% below 2003 levels by 2050.
Opposition criticism only shows that they’re not paying attention. Given that the Liberals had almost a decade to implement an environment plan and did nothing, they have no business criticising at all.
The Liberals' criticism is rich. They signed an agreement, Kyoto, without the faintest idea of how to meet its reduction target. They made no commitment to regulate emissions beyond 2012. If the Liberals were still in power, greenhouse gas emissions would have continued to soar, end of story. The Liberals were so vague about their own greenhouse gas plans that industrial Canada had no idea what to do.
Mr Reguly says the plan demonstrates that the Conservatives are not “phony Greenies”. GHG reductions of that magnitude will be difficult to achieve. That the government proposes such large cuts must be based on a belief that they are necessary to avoid environmental consequences of climate change. So much for the phony charge that the Tories are “climate-change deniers”.
For access to the full column, click here.
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