Law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson has published a detailed analysis of last week’s election win as regards the environment and energy policy.
With regard to energy and renewables, and climate change in specific, the analysts had this to say:
Climate Change
Mr. Trudeau has promised to “provide national leadership” and work with the provinces to take action on climate change. In the short term, he plans to attend the Conference of the Parties in Paris this December, and within 90 days establish a cross-country framework on climate change. A specific action item is the creation of a Low Carbon Economy Trust, which would provide funding to projects that materially reduce emissions. The Liberals have pledged 2 billion dollars in funds to this Trust.
This approach recognizes that the provinces hold significant power to shape climate initiatives. While the Liberals have promised a Pan-Canadian approach and a Canadian Energy Strategy, the new government has not promised that all measures adopted will be consistent across Canada. However, the federal government does have the jurisdiction to implement certain changes related to emissions. For instance, in the medium-term, Mr. Trudeau has promised to phase out subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, in keeping with G20 commitments. He will also work with the USA and Mexico to develop a North American clean energy agreement.14
The Liberals are also focused on creating more jobs, specifically in the clean technology sector. The Liberals plan to invest 100 million additional dollars in clean technology producers, and 200 million more each year to support the use of these technologies in Canada’s natural resource industries. Another aspect of their approach is to establish the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, which will provide low cost financing to new projects, with a specific interest in supporting renewable energy through the issuance of Green Bonds. These financing instruments are intended to “level the playing field” with fossil fuel energy sources.15
The Liberals, in short, have promised to kick-start a green economy, one with more jobs and funding for clean technology, and greater integration of these techs into Canadian industry. The federal government has promised to “lead by example” and increase the government’s use of these technologies such as through expanding the federal fleet of electric vehicles.16
Our hope is that they closely examine the Ontario experience, and determine that blindly following ideology without cost-benefit or impact analysis as Ontario has (despite advice from two Auditors General) is perhaps not the wisest course of action.
8 Comments
Barbara
Another link to the above article is: http://www.gowlings.com/KnowledgeCentre/article.asp?pubID=4190
Canadians will get what they voted for as provided in this article.
The only hope now maybe that the American people can stop this from happening in North America.
Trudeau has indicated that he is for the Keystone project which he full well knows won’t happen until at least sometime in 2017 if at all, and depends on the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election.
Politicians promise “green” jobs but never say what these “green” jobs will be.
Barbara
Paul Ryan has been elected, today, U.S. House Speaker and so far he has not been a friend of the climate change agenda.
Barbara
Wikipedia, Paul Ryan, Wisconsin
Scroll down to: Social, environmental and science issues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ryan
Gord Schneider
This does not bode well for our major industries. We’ve always been a natural resources supplier to the world. Now the cost may well become so prohibitive to make any investment in these sectors very unattractive. More than ever we need to be protecting our green spaces, an absolute priority that urbanites don’t want to think about. We need our farms and we need to support our agricultural industries any way we can. Green energy in Ontario has been an absolute disaster for agriculture and small town rural Ontario.
Beware and be properly informed, Canada. It’s 5 minutes to midnight.
Mike
With Mike Crawley, former head of the Ontario liberals and now president of the federal liberals (As well as CEO of AIM Generation/IPC/GDR Suez) and Gerald Botts, now former advisor to McGuinty now adviser to our new prime minister on board what could possibly go wrong? Destroying Ontario’s economy was not enough, now its time for bigger and better scams.
alice
Mr Crawley was president of the OLP for one year, and same for the federal party, not now. He is no longer with AIM PowerGen, later GDF Suez, now Engie. And it is Mr Butts, not “Botts.”
Sommer
Hopefully, before Paris, Canadians will wake up and realize that large scale industrial wind turbines do not belong near rural homes and that in fact, this whole experiment has been a failure.
Once awake, they will let it be known loudly and clearly that further investment in this fiasco is a sheer waste of money.
If Trudeau is sincere about listening to all Canadians, we’ll see the end of this soon. Then we can focus our energy on seeking justice for all who are still left with turbines that are causing adverse impacts.
It’s probably too much to expect that the IPCC credibility issue is fully exposed in the next 4 weeks…but we can try our best.
Wind Concerns Ontario
Mr Trudeau’s top advisor is Mr Gerald Butts, who was Dalton McGuinty’s advisor, and one of the architects of the renewable energy push in Ontario. The Financial Post described Mr Butts as a “graduate of the Dalton McGuinty school of unprincipled power.”