OTTAWA -- NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is digging his heels in, gearing up for a battle on the Alberta oilsands that he's ready to take on the next campaign trial.
"This is a fight we've been looking for," Mulcair said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark. "We see this as a defining element of the next election campaign in Canada."
But the fight is not with premiers of the Western provinces, as recent remarks from provincial leaders and the Conservative front bench would have some believe.
The fight is over the lack of enforcement of Canada's national environmental laws, especially in the context of oilsands development, Mulcair said.
"I never connected with (the premiers) in any way shape or form," he said. "My fight is with Stephen Harper's Conservatives. So when some of them started suggesting I was anti-Western Canadian, which, of course, I've never even talked about, my reaction was, 'Look - let me deal with the person who's responsible for the problem I'm describing."
The problem as Mulcair sees it, is a federal government that's not enforcing environmental legislation, and effectively downloading the environmental and economic costs associated with development on future generations.
"We're living off the credit card of future generations," Mulcair said, noting a recent report from the auditor general's office that found Canadians currently pay $1 billion to clean up the tar ponds in Sydney, N.S. -- a waste site he described as a mistake made a generation ago. "We believe strongly in development, but we want it to be sustainable development."
The NDP leader is looking to the government to muster the "political will" to enforce existing regulations.
"The pollution has to be paid for now. It has to be part of the (development) process," he said. The "polluter pay," as Mulcair calls it, would cost companies some money in the immediate term, and save Canadians money in the long-term, he said.
"There are countries that enforce polluter pay, and there are countries that don't. And in the countries that don't enforce polluter pay, unfortunately like Canada under the Conservatives, it leads to environmental and economic problems. And, ultimately, it leads to societal problems as well."
As the New Democratic Party looks for ways to hold the Conservatives' feet to the environmental fire, the government is painting the challenge as anti-Western Canadian, divisive and insulting.
The attacks stem mostly from Mulcair's recent talk about "Dutch disease" -- his belief that resource development in the West is hurting the manufacturing sector in the central provinces.
The term is drawn from the situation in the Netherlands in the late 1950s, when large natural gas deposits were discovered in the area, increasing the value of the national currency, and eventually causing the manufacturing sector to fall apart.
Without forcing developers to pay a higher price for environmental tolls on oilsands development, the Canadian dollar is being held artificially high, Mulcair argued in a Policy Options article that set off the Conservative line of attack on the party's new leader.
Although some experts disagree with Mulcair's read of the situation, he is neither the first nor the only observer to propose it.
He dismissed the attacks from the Conservatives as "their usual bully-boy tactics."
"They've picked the wrong guy," he said.
Original Article
Source: global news
Author: Tom Clark
"This is a fight we've been looking for," Mulcair said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark. "We see this as a defining element of the next election campaign in Canada."
But the fight is not with premiers of the Western provinces, as recent remarks from provincial leaders and the Conservative front bench would have some believe.
The fight is over the lack of enforcement of Canada's national environmental laws, especially in the context of oilsands development, Mulcair said.
"I never connected with (the premiers) in any way shape or form," he said. "My fight is with Stephen Harper's Conservatives. So when some of them started suggesting I was anti-Western Canadian, which, of course, I've never even talked about, my reaction was, 'Look - let me deal with the person who's responsible for the problem I'm describing."
The problem as Mulcair sees it, is a federal government that's not enforcing environmental legislation, and effectively downloading the environmental and economic costs associated with development on future generations.
"We're living off the credit card of future generations," Mulcair said, noting a recent report from the auditor general's office that found Canadians currently pay $1 billion to clean up the tar ponds in Sydney, N.S. -- a waste site he described as a mistake made a generation ago. "We believe strongly in development, but we want it to be sustainable development."
The NDP leader is looking to the government to muster the "political will" to enforce existing regulations.
"The pollution has to be paid for now. It has to be part of the (development) process," he said. The "polluter pay," as Mulcair calls it, would cost companies some money in the immediate term, and save Canadians money in the long-term, he said.
"There are countries that enforce polluter pay, and there are countries that don't. And in the countries that don't enforce polluter pay, unfortunately like Canada under the Conservatives, it leads to environmental and economic problems. And, ultimately, it leads to societal problems as well."
As the New Democratic Party looks for ways to hold the Conservatives' feet to the environmental fire, the government is painting the challenge as anti-Western Canadian, divisive and insulting.
The attacks stem mostly from Mulcair's recent talk about "Dutch disease" -- his belief that resource development in the West is hurting the manufacturing sector in the central provinces.
The term is drawn from the situation in the Netherlands in the late 1950s, when large natural gas deposits were discovered in the area, increasing the value of the national currency, and eventually causing the manufacturing sector to fall apart.
Without forcing developers to pay a higher price for environmental tolls on oilsands development, the Canadian dollar is being held artificially high, Mulcair argued in a Policy Options article that set off the Conservative line of attack on the party's new leader.
Although some experts disagree with Mulcair's read of the situation, he is neither the first nor the only observer to propose it.
He dismissed the attacks from the Conservatives as "their usual bully-boy tactics."
"They've picked the wrong guy," he said.
Original Article
Source: global news
Author: Tom Clark
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