In what was obviously a trail balloon floated this week, a memo was leaked from federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose’s office stated that the new Conservative government was planning on cutting funding to programs to fight climate change by 80%. I say obviously a trail balloon because this is the government, you will remember, that doesn’t have leaks. It controls the spin.
This comes on the heels of news a few weeks ago that the program made famous (or infamous) by Rick Mercer, the One Tonne Solution, was being discontinued. And while many will agree that the program had its share of pitfalls, cutting the only federal program that made any sense to Canadians seems a back-asswards way of tackling what many now believe to be the most pressing challenge humanity has ever faced. Also, Minster Ambrose has stated that Canada can’t reach the Kyoto targets. That they are “impossible.” No “little engine that could” effort from this fledgling Minister. Just acceptance of defeat. Very sad.
Kyoto, for all the fuss its created around trading carbon credits, is still the only program the international community has been able to agree on to curb global warming. And remember, its just, well, a warm-up to what must be a massive undertaking to reverse climate change, not merely control it.
The Stephen Harper conservatives were elected on a 5-priority platform, of which fighting climate change wasn’t in the top tier. They stated that they weren’t interested in the Kyoto Protocol, but that they were going to move slowly on the climate change issue. Now, just a couple months in office, they are threatening to gut the federal government’s response to this slow-motion catastrophe. A day after the trail balloon drifted into the national papers, Stephen Harper was back-peddling, saying that his government doesn’t have plans to cut program funding, only to relocate money spent on poorly performing programs to those that are fairing better.
To be fair, the Harper government inherited a suit of programs that has allowed Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to raise by 24% rather than fall, as they should be if we’re to have any hope of reversing the perilous trend we’re currently authoring.
Environmentalists have feared since the advent of the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party that should they ever come to power, among their first undertakings would be to slash funding for programs that protect Canada’s environment, cow-towing to Calgary’s oil and gas elite. Those fears seem well founded.
Now what? Give up on the government? If only we could. But there is some wisdom in following the lead of organizations like the Pembina Institute and the BC Sustainable Energy Association who forge ahead, building relationships with businesses big and small, and with industry, in the hopes that they will demonstrate the leadership that governments, federal and provincial, do not.
What seems obvious to me is that if we are going to tackle climate change, we need far greater organizational resources across Canada, and around the world, which is why I am so critical of the World Wildlife Fund’s “give me your money and we’ll solve the program for you” campaign (see previous Blog posting).
What are those resources? Sigh. Big question. I’m working towards some answers. My thinking on a sea change in Canada’s environmental community (it’s not a movement by a long shot) is developing. What do you think is needed to thwart the new threat posed by the Conservative government. How can Canada’s environmental groups work towards a conserver society?
What I know for certain is this: my children are going to grow old in a world very different than the one we know today. I feel a terrible fear, and an anger that as a country we are playing politics with my children’s future. And I know that I must clear my head of that fear, and that anger, if I’m going to come up with solutions.
About Me
- Stephen Legault
- Stephen Legault is a writer, activist, organizational development consultant and fundraiser who lives in Victoria, BC and Canmore, Alberta. Stephen started writing in 1988. Kicked out of his high school biology class, he bought a notebook and sat down in the woods near his Burlington Ontario home and wrote some really awful, angst ridden poetry. Since then, Stephen has written for the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Wildlife, and dozens of other periodicals and newspapers. His first book, Carry Tiger to Mountain: The Tao of Activism and Leadership was published in April of 2006 by Arsenal Pulp Press. The Cardinal Divide is the first in a series of environmental murder mysteries featuring Cole Blackwater. It will be published by NeWest Press in November of 2008. The series will combine gritty, action-oriented stories and rich human drama with real environmental and social justice conflicts. Stephen is a runner, photographer, and father of two beautiful boyz: Rio Bergen and Silas Morgen. He and his partner Jenn travel and explore the natural world of the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains.