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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:13 pm Post subject: Canada: Federal Tories outvoted on pro-Kyoto bill |
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Yippee!!! 
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Federal Tories outvoted on pro-Kyoto bill
Oct. 4, 2006. 06:55 PM
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA � A bill that would oblige the government to respect its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol passed second reading Wednesday, as the three opposition parties outvoted the government. The 152-115 vote in the Commons is an embarrassment for the Conservative government, which has declared the emissions-cutting targets of the climate treaty to be unachievable.
The bill's stated purpose is "to ensure that Canada takes effective and timely action to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and help address the problem of climate change." Conservative MPs found themselves in the awkward position of voting against a bill which calls on them to uphold a treaty which they claim to support.
But the Conservatives weren't showing any discomfort, cheering and gathering around Environment Minister Rona Ambrose as she voted. The private member's bill, introduced by Liberal Pablo Rodriguez, now goes to the Commons environment committee for study. After that it goes to third reading, possibly with amendments, and then to the Senate.
The vote is nevertheless significant, said Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank. "It shows once again that the government is pursuing a policy that is not only contrary to the opinions of the majority of (Canadians') opinions but contrary to the opinions of the majority of MPs," he said. |
And please...don't tell me the Kyoto Protocol is "bad for Alberta". The prairies are a dryland ecosystem, and the region of Canada most sensitve to the impacts of climate change, after the Arctic. For the past 10 years thousands of Alberta farmers have been wiped out by droughts caused by some of the hottest summer temperatures on record. And the federal government (including taxpayers in Ontario, Quebec and the East) has had to pay out billions of dollars in disaster relief assistance those prairie farmers. Even the premier of Manitoba is onboard with the Kyoto Protocol. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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I was impressed to read on yahoo.ca (the headline) that the tories wanted to talk about "drastic auto emission reductions". But it is pretty baffling to me why they go head on against individuals and not have businesses take some accountability. I mean, I'd bet that industrial emission triple or quadruple private ones.
I SWEAR I remember harper's "Pro Kyoto" platform before the elections...anyone else? |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:52 am Post subject: |
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| khyber wrote: |
I was impressed to read on yahoo.ca (the headline) that the tories wanted to talk about "drastic auto emission reductions". But it is pretty baffling to me why they go head on against individuals and not have businesses take some accountability. I mean, I'd bet that industrial emission triple or quadruple private ones.
I SWEAR I remember harper's "Pro Kyoto" platform before the elections...anyone else? |
About 10 years ago I was living in Ottawa, and the newly-elected (right wing) Mayor of Ottawa wanted to scrap all of the city's programs for energy conservation and waste regulation. Instead, she wanted to create a new, 'volunteer' program, 'so that people on their own could choose to live more environmentally friendly lifestyles'. It was a smokescreen; promote voluntary sustainability as an excuse for cutting government programs and easing up on the corporate sector polluters. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:04 am Post subject: |
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Canada wasn't even close to meeting her requirements before Harper took office. He isn't responsible for the mess (unless the idea is that he has less than a year meet the requirements).
Canada will never meet the Kyoto targets. Kyoto is a the ultimate gesture. It is meaningless. The problems of emissions, likely aren't.
As I have said many times on this site, a wholesale change in the way we tax is necessary. Productive activities that we want should not be taxed at all (income tax) and those things that we don't want should be taxed (pollution, drugs, smokes etc). The carrot/stick is the only way to go. |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:21 am Post subject: |
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One of the reasons many (not all) Albertans were suspicious of the Kyoto provisions is that people worried that Ottawa would simply institute a 'carbon tax' or 'gas tax' on oil flowing out of Alberta in order to support non-polluting industries or other initiatives, and that all of the money would end up in the pockets of Quebec golf course owners. Memories of the NEP run deep and are very raw there.
True or not, perhaps Harper is half-right in arguing that the way Canada has thought of Kyoto is a ham-fisted way of handling global warming that claims to solve the problem without doing so. Of course, we could trust Harper's motivations more if the PCs had a clear proposal for reducing pollutants such as specific funding for alternative energy.
Ken:> |
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