Federal environmental protection watchdog says he’s ‘disappointed’ and ‘frustrated’ to hear only hollow promises from Ottawa for decades to cut emissions and protect of biodiversity. And this, regardless of the color of the government.
“It’s been a series of failures for 30 years now,” Federal Environment and Sustainable Development Commissioner Jerry V. DeMarco dropped when filing five reports on Thursday.
Among his key findings, he questions the realism of the Liberal promise to plant two billion trees over the decade, and says Ottawa is doing too little to protect species at risk.
The commissioner is categorical: there are “gaps” with the Trudeau government’s plan to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs). Detailed two years ago, this plan calls for reducing the country’s emissions by 40% to 45% by 2030, compared to the level of 2005. Mr. DeMarco accuses the Liberal government of sharing the bad luck of its predecessors in replacing concrete actions with fine words.
“It has been a constant story for 30 years. Not enough, not enough action, a lot of good words, a lot of commitment, a lot of programs, a lot of plans, but we need the results now,” he told reporters.
The plan is working, says Guilbeault
Directly targeted by this criticism, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, claims on the contrary to have taken actions that have reduced GHGs by 53 million tonnes between 2019 and 2021, which corresponds to more than half of Québec’s annual emissions. “Our plan is working,” he repeated.
“It’s true that for 30 years or so, not much has been done, but since we arrived, we have put in place measures, the price on pollution, the investments in clean technologies, in electrification. Over the past two years in Canada, every year, sales of electric vehicles have almost doubled,” Guilbeault said Thursday.
The ex-environmental activist ran for the federal Liberal banner in 2019, and has held the seat of minister responsible for environmental protection since his re-election in 2021.
He agrees “there is more work to do” on the Liberal promise to plant two billion trees. According to him, however, there is “time left” for the government to keep its word. He further suggested that the commissioner’s reports released on Thursday do not reflect the latest available reduction data.
Bloc Québécois MP Mario Simard says he wanted to help the government fulfill its promise to plant two billion trees by putting it in contact with a Quebec company specializing in this field, without success. “If the goal was really to plant two billion trees, […] they are incompetent in this sense; but if their goal was not [que] to make a pitch politics, well they have just been unmasked today,” he said on Thursday.
NDP Deputy Leader Alexandre Boulerice also criticized the Liberal government, with which his party has reached an agreement that specifically provides for more GHG reductions. “We have a government that says one thing and does the opposite. If we wanted to have an automotive analogy, we don’t get very far if we weigh on the gas and on the break at the same time. »
Against this idea, the Conservative Party once again demanded in the House that the government get rid of federal carbon pricing. “Why is this coalition not doing the right thing to help Canadians? And does not she get rid of this scam? asked Alberta Conservative MP Jasraj Singh Hallan.
The federal government’s latest GHG emissions report, published last week, reports 670 million tonnes (Mt) of GHGs released in the country in 2021. This is 12 Mt more than in 2020, but less than the 724 Mt issued in 2019.