by Howard Scott
Dear Mr. Carney,
In about one month, I need to stand up in front of my University of Toronto graduate students in my Climate Change Policy course and undergraduate students in my Climate 101 course and explain this track record of backtracking on climate policy from the last six months:
- Suspended Canada’s Clean Electricity Regulations in Alberta
- Weakened methane regulations
- Scrapped the Oil & Gas Sector Emissions Cap
- Abandoned Canada’s consumer carbon pricing system
- Ended Canada Greener Homes retrofit program to electrify and improve household efficiency
- Ended Canada Greener Homes Loan Program to electrify and improve household efficiency
- Ended the Electric Vehicles (iZEV) program
- Delayed Canada’s Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate
- Passed bill C5 ‘Building Canada Act’ to allow government to override 12 laws and 7 regulations, including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, for designated projects
- Committed to clawing back Canada’s anti-greenwashing legislation
- Announced plans to eliminate a tax on private jets and yachts
- Weakened the Alberta industrial carbon price from the $170/tonne it should have been (if the federal government enforced its own policies) to $130/tonne
Would you like to come to speak to my class to explain this, Mark Carney? How about you, Julie Dabrusin*?
Every single semester, a student raises their hand in my class and asks: ‘Professor, is there any hope on climate change?’ How about this year when the new semester starts in January, you get to look them in the eye and answer.
Sincerely,
Dr. Laura Tozer
Professor of Climate Policy and Energy Transition
University of Toronto
* Julie Dabrusin is the new Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, since the previous one, who had put up with a lot when Trudeau was PM, but still has some integrity, resigned over Carney’s new direction.
Carney did an interview not long ago where he said with regard to climate policy “‘Too much regulation and not enough investments in clean energy and technology”, basically coming up with more ways to give public money to huge corporations, including the petroleum and gas extractors.
He’s touting nuclear and carbon capture, neither of which can deal with the problem to prevent even more disasters.
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