The Liberals will this week table their most detailed plan to date for achieving Canada’s climate goals — after years of governments missing their marks.
“Canada has never reached any of its own climate targets,” said Caroline Brouillette, national policy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of more than 130 groups.
“This plan is an opportunity to correct this.”
In June 2021, the Liberals passed Canada’s Net Zero Emission Accountability Act (CNZEAA). It states, among other things, that the Canadian government must set regular incremental targets on the road to net-zero by 2050.
The government has agreed already to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030. It has committed to setting further incremental targets in 2035, 2040 and 2045.
The new act has built in a framework of checkpoints and assessments that include independent oversight. But the basic government reporting measures include tabling emissions reduction plans and regular progress reports.
Canada has had nine climate plans since 1990 and has failed to hit any of the targets in them. Federal Environment and Sustainable Development Commissioner Jerry V. DeMarco said Canada has been the worst performer among G7 nations on climate targets since the landmark Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.
“We can’t continue to go from failure to failure. We need action and results, not just more targets and plans,” DeMarco said.
The government hopes this week’s plan changes that trajectory of failure.
A climate plan is a lot like a household budget, said lawyer Julia Croome of Ecojustice, an environmental law charity — if you don’t pay attention to the details, you won’t achieve your goals.
“You need a plan. You need to break it all out — what are my expenses, what do I need to achieve. And without that, you are obviously not going to stay within your budget,” Croome said.
Climate Action Network Canada said this week’s emissions plan should set deadlines and show how much Canada’s climate commitments will cost, how progress will be measured, how data gaps will be closed and which ministers are responsible.
What do opposition parties want?
The Conservatives say they worry the plan could hurt the Canadian economy.
“We’ve got really tough issues with inflation, gas prices, other things. The last thing we need is for the net-zero plan to result in a job-zero plan,” said MP Kyle Seeback, the Conservative environment and climate change critic.
Seeback said Conservatives fear the government will exclude nuclear power and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada’s low-emissions plan, citing the Liberals’ decision to keep nuclear and LNG out of its Green bond purchasing program. He said the party also doesn’t want to see the price on carbon rise to the equivalent of 11 cents on a litre of unleaded gasoline.
The Green Party of Canada said consultations on the plan, which began in December and ended in January, were rushed.
“It is always unreasonable for the government to put forward any consultation and act as though Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s are not a factor in making it harder for citizens to respond,” said MP Elizabeth May, the Greens’ parliamentary leader.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said he was “surprised, if not shocked” to hear the Greens wanted more consultation.
“I would have thought that of all the organizations out there, the Green Party would be one of the first ones to say, ‘Let’s get on with implementation,'” he said.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault speaks to media at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)
The NDP, meanwhile, says it wants a transition plan to help workers in Canada’s energy sector get ready for an economy that relies less on fossil fuels.
“[We need to] take into account how we are protecting workers and ensuring that we support communities most impacted and include Indigenous people in the creation of the plans and the implementation,” said MP Laurel Collins, the NDP’s environment and climate change critic.
MP Charlie Angus, the NDP’s natural resources critic, called for an immediate cap on oil and gas emissions to 2019 levels.
“We need to say to the world we are serious,” said.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the oil and gas emissions cap the government is working on won’t be announced until after Ottawa finishes consultations. He said this week’s emissions plan will still address the sector that accounts for most of Canada’s emissions.
“The emissions reduction plan that minister Guilbeault will be bringing forward, and certainly he and I have been working actively and collaboratively together on it, will have projections for each sector, including the oil and gas sector,” Wilkinson said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
