Ontario's emissions an issue as ministers meet in VancouverVancouver -- Ontario is considered the major obstacle to a federal-provincial agreement on climate change as a key meeting opens here today.
Federal, provincial and territorial energy and environment ministers have mere months to devise Canada's domestic plan to reduce greenhouse gases. The most important international conference since the Kyoto protocol was signed is to be held in The Hague in November.
Going to The Hague without the country's domestic house in order would make it almost impossible for Canada to lobby effectively for controversial measures -- such as emissions credits for tree planting and nuclear technology exports -- to be adopted as legal methods of meeting Kyoto obligations.
Canada sees emissions credits and trading plans as the only way it can meet its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 6 per cent less than 1990 levels by 2010 without damaging the country's international economic competitiveness.
With the clock ticking, even industrial lobby groups that see the Kyoto target as too tight say they're disappointed at Ontario's lack of interest in dealing with the climate-change problem.
David MacInnis, spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the key to cutting emissions is getting average Canadians to change their consumption habits, which makes Ontario's participation a necessity -- it has more consumers than any other province.
"Until the provincial government steps up and takes a leadership role, it's going to be tough to convince Ontarians to take [global warming] seriously," Mr. MacInnis said.
To date, federal government sources say, that hasn't happened, and Ontario has replaced Alberta and Saskatchewan as the lead foot-dragger in dealing with the emissions quandary.
Environmentalists are similarly wary of the Progressive Conservative government's stance, especially in the wake of a comment by new Environment Minister Dan Newman, who said earlier this month that high gasoline prices are forcing people to car-pool. He said he would like to see prices come down so Ontarians can get back to driving their own cars, the opposite of what climate-change activists are trying to get people to do.
"The biggest single roadblock to making a deal on climate change is Ontario," said Robert Hornung, climate-change program director for the Alberta-based Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development. He called Premier Mike Harris's government "anti-environmental."
Mr. Hornung compared Ontario to some industrialized countries at the 1997 Kyoto conference -- mainly concerned about the economic cost of taking action. Meanwhile, the northern territorial governments are taking the please-help-us approach (much like low-lying island nations did in Kyoto), since it's clear they will feel the effects of climate change long before anyone else will.
Mr. Newman, however, said his government has already taken significant steps to deal with the issue, and will supplement its $10-million climate-change fund with "new ideas, new action and greater participation" after this week's meet.
Ontario has become isolated because resource-rich provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan have realized that consumers, not the oil industry, will bear the cost of dealing with global warming. They also realize that there is money to be made by developing eco-friendly technology to help meet emissions targets.
All the provinces, however, are concerned that Ottawa will ratify the treaty and impose emissions restrictions unilaterally. Some may fight for a veto, and all will likely try to have major decisions deferred until a second ministerial meeting scheduled for this fall in Quebec City.
Some observers, however, feel the delaying tactics have come with a price tag.
Yesterday, the David Suzuki Foundation released a study showing that Canada could save up to $2.2-billion a year in health and environmental costs by moving to regulate emissions, investing in public transit and slapping a fuel tax on small vehicles.