OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he will guarantee that Canada is going to meet its latest climate target, because this time it’s accompanied by a plan that shows how to get there.
Since 1988, Canada has set its sights on eight different greenhouse gas emissions targets. Six of them have come and gone, and Canada never came anywhere close to meeting them.
The next target is set for 2030, and requires Canada to get emissions to 55 to 60 per cent of what they were in 2005. That’s a more-ambitious version of a previous target the Trudeau government set when it came into power.
Based on emissions levels in 2020, meeting the new target would mean cutting about 23 million tonnes of emissions a year, on average. That’s the equivalent of taking five million passenger cars off the road every 12 months until the end of the decade.
In a question-and-answer session at the Canadian Climate Institute’s conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Bloomberg News climate reporter Akshat Rathi asked if Trudeau would guarantee that Canada can do that.
His response? “Yes.”
“Every other plan was based on targets,” Trudeau said. “Any politician can put forward a target. Can you actually put forward a plan to do it?”
The Liberals’ first climate plan in 2016 set a course toward their initial 2030 target, but never included enough initiatives to actually get there.
Trudeau said Canada’s Emissions Reduction Plan, published in March, does provide a road map all the way to the new target established last year.
For the first time, the plan outlines the emissions that have to be eliminated to hit the 2030 target sector-by-sector, and spells out some, though not all, of the ways that can be achieved.
The oil and gas sector will be required to cap emissions at current levels and then ratchet them down 38 per cent by 2030. The specifics of that cap are in development now, with more details expected next year.
A new tax credit to help oil and gas producers install carbon capture and storage systems will be one of the heavy lifters to help the sector hit its goals. But the industry has been clear it thinks the government’s timeline is too ambitious.
Transportation needs to cut emissions 11 per cent, largely by replacing combustion-engine vehicles with electric versions.
The electricity grid, which is already about 80 per cent clean, needs to further cut emissions by 88 per cent, which will largely come by closing coal-fired power plants and installing carbon capture systems on gas plants.
But Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said at the conference Tuesday that to meet its climate goals, Canada also needs to double or triple the electricity we produce. And to do that, he said, the government is going to have to invest a lot more in renewable energy.
“It is going to need to be of a much more significant scale for us to move forward,” he said.
Trudeau wouldn’t put a timeline on when Canada will start to see a significant decline in greenhouse gas emissions heading toward 2030.
Between 2015, when the Liberals took office, and 2019, emissions went up about 0.7 per cent. In 2020, when COVID-19 shut down large swaths of the economy for weeks on end, emissions finally showed a sharp drop, declining nine per cent compared to 2019.
The 2021 numbers are expected to rebound, given that the economy was much more open.
Skepticism of Trudeau’s climate guarantee is rampant among his political opponents.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in question period Tuesday that “the Liberals have not hit a single, solitary climate target since they took office.”
He has promised to cut the carbon price and said Trudeau is a hypocrite for charging extra for “little old ladies” to heat their homes in the winter while he jets around the world on vacations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2022.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
