“Stakeholders and media have questioned Canada’s ability to become a leader in clean energy based on the government’s support of oil and gas development,” said the strategy document, prepared for Natural Resources Canada’s top bureaucrat and released through access-to-information legislation. “With fewer incentives and therefore potentially fewer announcements, it will be challenging to communicate the benefits of energy efficiency.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of his caucus fanned out across the country Friday to promote an $82-million investment announced in a budget from two years earlier for dozens of clean-energy projects.
The federal government estimates it has spent more than $10 billion on programs to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change since 2006 when Harper was first elected. His minority government initially cancelled a number of the climate-change programs in 2006, including support for renewable energy and reducing energy costs in buildings. But it reintroduced them under different names in 2007, in response to pressure from opposition parties and the public.
The Conservatives ended most of the clean-energy spending after forming a majority government in 2011. But the government continues to provide more than $1 billion in annual subsidies or tax incentives for fossil-fuel companies, which are considered to be largely responsible for driving greenhouse gas emissions to their highest atmospheric levels in human history.
The October 2012 strategy, attached to an internal memorandum prepared for Natural Resources Canada’s deputy minister, Serge Dupont, listed some of the federal reductions in climate-change spending, including the cancellation of a popular subsidy program that helped homeowners do renovations to lower their energy consumption and utility bills.
The strategy also touted the benefits of previous policies, estimating that Canadians had saved $27 billion in 2009, due to efficiency improvements in the economy since 1990.
It suggested the government could boost its image by drawing up a list of “targeted media outlets” and proposing that they write stories about the department’s research work to promote energy efficiency in consumer products, including new fuel economy labels on cars.
“By describing and publicizing the science and tools behind energy efficiency, this framework will communicate the government’s balanced energy policy and its benefits for Canada’s economy and the environment.”
However, the department didn’t follow its strategy in the past week, preventing its own senior officials from speaking publicly about a plan to create environmental ratings stickers on new cars.
The department defended its public-relations strategy, sending Postmedia News some statistics and a list of results from cancelled programs. It also said that Canadians could get information about energy efficiency from its website and that they could benefit from information given to reporters.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Keith Stewart said the public-relations strategy looked like an attempt to distract Canadians from the growing environmental footprint of oilsands production in Western Canada.
“We need to invest in energy efficiency and green energy as the core of our strategy to stop global warming,” Stewart said. “So it is sad to see bureaucrats having to defend these programs against further cuts by pitching them to their political masters as part of a public-relations strategy that provides green cover for the government’s pro-tar sands agenda.”
The emerging details of the public-relations strategy also coincided with a new Finance Department notice requesting bids from advertising firms to take on a contract to promote the government’s economic policies over the next two years.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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