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Like those watching a good movie trailer, environmentalists were left wanting after news leaked out last week of a comprehensive package of green policies expected out of the federal government this fall.
But also like those watching a good movie trailer, those with the environment at the top of their minds – and according to recent polls, that’s a group that includes a growing number of Canadians – were left guessing at the details.
When the House of Commons meets again after the summer, the Stephen Harper Conservatives are expected to introduce what they are calling Green Plan II, the supposed sequel to the $3-billion Green Plan introduced by former prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1991.
In general terms, Green Plan II will establish long-term targets for cleaner air and water, will regulate toxic chemicals and clean up contaminated sites.
It’s also believed the plan will contain new money for national parks and revamp the environmental assessment process.
As yet, we don’t know how much this new package of environment policies will cost, nor do we have specifics on what each piece of the policy will entail.
But we do know it’s coming, an indication the ruling Tories see the environment as an area they need to shore up before time expires on their minority government.
Environmentalists and opposition parties have hammered the government for its departure from the Kyoto Protocol, even if Canada was failing to meet the targets it had agreed to.
Recent public opinion polls have also shown an increasing concern for the environment among voters. A Strategic Council poll released last week showed environmental issues now occupy the No. 2 spot among concerns with Canadian voters, behind perennial No. 1 health care.
It’s an issue increasingly important in Quebec, where the Conservatives feel they can make a lot of headway in the next vote. But our hope is Green Plan II is more than a tool to be used to woo voters.
As Pierre Sadik of the David Suzuki Foundation pointed out, the lofty targets of Mulroney’s Green Plan and the subsequent Liberal Project Green fizzled after the fanfare of the initial announcements.
“Unless this new plan has clear targets to quickly cut pollution in the short term, the promised relief will always be just over the horizon, kind of just after the next election,” Sadik said.
We share that concern.
There is no question our environment is in growing peril and the federal government has to play a leadership role to help this country correct its environmental course.
The Conservatives are fond of pointing out Canada’s emission levels were increasing under the previous Liberal government, despite our Kyoto pledge to reduce them.
Instead of that criticism, and despite pulling away from the protocol, we’d like to see how the Tories propose reducing harmful emissions in this country.
Long-term targets are fine and are useful to help us know where we are going.
Equally helpful will be knowing how we are going to get there, and that’s what we expect to see in Green Plan II.