In an interview with The Hill Times, David McLaughlin said he is confident that the NRTEE’s reports on sustainable development would continue to influence federal public policy after the agency closes its doors next March.
“The changes that need to happen are going to take place over time. The best thing that we could do is give the information and advice, and it becomes a catalyst,” said Mr. McLaughlin, whose five-year term as president and CEO of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy will come to an end in August. At that point the remaining board of directors will select an interim replacement to oversee the agency's final study on Canada's transition to a low-carbon economy.
The federal government eliminated the sustainable development think-tank in the 2012 budget. The recently-passed Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38, requires NRTEE to sell off its assets and close its doors by the end of next March.
Established in 1988, the agency has been an in-house source for policy advice on sustainable development issues including water management, energy conservation and climate change mitigation strategies. Despite producing comprehensive research on key environmental policy issues, the Conservative federal government chose to eliminate the National Round Table, with an annual budget of $5-million, as part of its first budget as a majority government.
It was one of the first cuts to environmental research that was noted when the government released its initial budget outline on March 29. The move was slammed by the opposition NDP, Liberals and Greens as evidence that the government was abandoning its environmental commitments and silencing a source of inconvenient information.
“We were kind of the last man standing and I think that’s why there’s been such support for the work of the Round Table and gratefulness for our work,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “Our job was to give advice to government, not just feed the internet.”
But while opposition parties rallied around NRTEE in opposing Bill C-38, the NRTEE has been producing increasingly problematic reports for the federal government.
The Round Table’s latest report released June 13, Reality Check: The State of Climate Progress in Canada, confirms that Canada is not on pace to meet its Copenhagen emissions target of 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.
The report, which was authored at the request of current Environment Minister Peter Kent (Thornhill, Ont.), also provides a detailed analysis of provincial contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and reductions. Alberta, home to Canada’s oilsands, is the highest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 34 per cent of Canada’s total emissions in 2009. Ontario is the second greatest GHG emitter, accounting for 24 per cent of total emissions, followed by Quebec, accounting for 12 per cent of emissions.
Among its findings, the NRTEE study identifies the oil and gas sector as “an important source of emissions reductions opportunities,” and credits the provinces with contributing three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions reductions towards meeting the 2020 target.
In its conclusion, the report recommends a “collaborative, coherent, and considered” approach for the federal government to engage with provincial and territorial governments in meeting Canada’s 2020 emissions target.
Despite the fact that Mr. Kent requested the report, as well as an additional report on the life cycle environmental costs of industrial processes, last March, Mr. McLaughlin said that the Round Table has not heard anything from the Environment minister since either report was published.
“There’s been no formal response to us from the minister or the department on either the Life Cyclereport that we did in May, or on the climate change Reality Checkreport released in June,” Mr. McLaughlin confirmed. He also admitted that he had not formally met with the Environment Minister Kent since March, 2011.
The federal government has long described its strategy for cutting nationwide carbon emissions as a “sector-by-sector” approach based on regulating high-emitting sectors of the economy.
Rob Taylor, director of communications to Mr. Kent, defended the approach when asked to comment on the Round Table's latest report.
“We targeted the largest-emitting sectors first, and we are delivering on our promise, through our work on light-duty vehicle regulations, short-lived climate pollutants, heavy-duty vehicle regulations, and our finalized coal-fired electricity regulations that we will announce in the coming weeks,” Mr. Taylor responded in an email to The Hill Times.
Mr. Taylor also states that the NRTEE’s finding that Canada was nearly half way to meeting its 2020 target “supports our position that significant progress has been achieved since our estimate last year that we were a quarter of the way to 2020 targets.”
Other commentary on the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy by the government has been less diplomatic. Former Environment Minister and current Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird (Ottawa West-Nepean, Ont.) has accused the Round Table of repeatedly recommending a “carbon tax” in justifying the government's decision to cut the agency.
Mr. McLaughlin denied that NRTEE ever proposed a carbon tax, rather it looked at the logistics of a cap-and-trade carbon pricing system to help the government meet its 2020 emissions target. He added that the government’s current approach of regulating emissions sector-by-sector is itself costly.
“When the government regulates environmental outcomes, as they're doing with their “sector-by-sector” approach, that imposes costs. It's called shadow pricing, and that too is a form of carbon pricing,” Mr. McLaughlin explained.
“When you're a catalyst, you're meant to agitate through policy, research, advice and input” Mr. McLaughlin observed. “Right now, there's nothing in government that will fill that role. By definition, we were the only national public policy agency with a mandate from Parliament to study these issues. The only one,” Mr. McLaughlin said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kent said back in March in the House when questioned by opposition parties about the elimination of NRTEE: “Our government appreciates and has thanked the Round Table for its service over the years for any number of reports addressing environmental issues. However, the reality is that the Round Table was created a quarter of a century ago. It was created before the internet, when there were few such sources of domestic, independent research and analysis on sustainable development. That is simply no longer the case. There are now any number of organizations and university-based services that provide those services.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Chris Plecash
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