Trudeau takes ‘new approach’ to climate summit

Liberal leader wants opposition rivals to join him at UN conference

Thestar.com
Oct. 24, 2015
By Ben Spurr

Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau is reaching across party lines in an effort to rehabilitate Canada’s tattered environmental reputation ahead of a major climate summit in Paris next month.

Trudeau intends to invite the leaders of the opposition parties, as well as provincial and territorial leaders, to accompany him to the UN conference, The Canadian Press reports.

At the Paris talks, the international community will try to hammer out a new agreement to slow global warming.

Even Green party Leader Elizabeth May, the Greens’ only candidate to be elected Oct. 19, will be part of the delegation at the summit, which begins Nov. 30, the report says.

The invitation “shows a new approach, an inclusiveness,” from Trudeau, said Julian Morelli, a spokesperson for the Greens. “This is a first step, and certainly it was a good step.”

Trudeau’s decision to take a multi-party group to Paris is in stark contrast with the approach of his predecessor. The Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper was often accused by the other parties of shutting out their representatives from major conferences.

The inclusion of the country’s premiers is also significant, as Trudeau has promised not to take action on climate change without buy-in from the provinces. The Liberal party has declined to set national emissions targets ahead of the summit, pledging to “end the cycle of federal parties ... setting arbitrary targets” without first getting agreement from the provinces and territories.

Instead, the party has promised to meet with provincial and territorial governments within 90 days of the summit to “establish a pan-Canadian framework for combating climate change.”

Douglas Macdonald, a senior lecturer at the University of Toronto’s School of Environment, praised Trudeau for showing willingness to work with the provinces.

He said the cost to reduce emissions will be much greater for provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, which have larger greenhouse gas outputs than other provinces. Crucial to successfully implementing a national plan will be reaching an agreement that spreads the costs of cutting pollution fairly between the provinces, he added.

“So (Trudeau is) taking the right approach,” Macdonald said. “If all he can do by the end of November is get the provinces to agree that, yes, we would be willing to sit around a table and negotiate a national program, then he could go to Paris and say: ‘Hey, it’s a new day in Canada. We’re working together.’ ”

Canada’s reputation on the environment took a battering under Harper. Under the Conservatives, Canada was criticized in 2011 for being the first country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. In 2013, environmental activists gave the Harper government the satirical “Lifetime Unachievement” Fossil Award for what Climate Action Network International described as its “long-standing failure to make meaningful contributions” to the environmental cause, and “stalling progress at the UN climate talks.”

During the election campaign, the Conservatives defended their record on the environment, pointing out that greenhouse gases declined during the early part of Harper’s tenure, and claiming that proposals to cut emissions through carbon pricing would severely weaken the economy.

However, others argue that Canada’s economy is being held back by its reputation on environmental stewardship. U.S. President Barack Obama has blocked approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry oilfrom Alberta’s oilsands to Texas refineries. The decision was backed by U.S. environmental activists, who charge that the oilsands are a major driver of climate change.

Earlier this month in a speech to a Bay St. audience, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who like Trudeau recently deposed a Conservative government, made the business case for stiffer environmental regulation of her province’s energy sector.

“If we don’t get it right on this issue, a solution is going to be imposed upon us ... by others - by a federal government, by our markets, who will increasingly insist that energy products that they buy be mined and processed responsibly,” she said.

Taking action on climate change isn’t the only looming file on the incoming prime minister’s agenda. During the campaign, in response to an outcry over the deaths of refugees from the Middle East trying to reach Europe, the Liberals promised to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by the end of the year.

According to immigration lawyer Guidy Mamann, there’s no way the government can properly process that many refugees in such a short a time.

“Of course, you can go and grab the first 25,000 people you see, but ... that’s not processing, that’s potluck,” said Mamann.

Mamann, who agrees Canada should be welcoming more refugees than it is now, said he wonders if Trudeau has consulted agencies like CSIS, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency regarding his plan.

“I can guarantee you with anything that I can gamble, that those agencies are telling him, you are taking a huge risk,” he said.

“It is impossible to bring those resources to bear before January 1.”

Trudeau is sticking by his ambitious refugee target, however. “That’s something we’re getting cracking on right away,” he said in an interview with CTV’s W5 that aired Saturday.

Asked whether there would be 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by New Year’s Day, Trudeau was adamant: “I know this is a surprise to certain people within the political universe, but the commitments I made in that platform I’m going to keep.”

Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics at Ryerson University, said that whether Trudeau reaches his goal on refugees may not matter much, at least in the minds of most Canadians, who merely want to see a “more hospitable response” to the refugee crisis.

Resettling 25,000 refugees in less than two months “will be a challenge to achieve,” Siemiatycki said. “I don’t think Canadians will hold it against Mr. Trudeau if he demonstrates that he’s putting the elements in place for Canada to be more expeditious and to be more accepting of refugees.”