https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/environment-commissioner-julie-gelfand-disturbing-climate-change-1.5081027
Canada's failure to fight climate change 'disturbing,' environment
watchdog says
Commissioner's condemnation comes day after dire report about global
warming in Canada
The Canadian Press · Posted: Apr 02, 2019 10:37 AM ET
Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand says Canada is not doing enough
to combat climate change.
Gelfand delivered her final audits Tuesday before her five-year term
expires, looking at fossil-fuel subsidies, invasive aquatic species and
mining pollution.
But her final conclusions as the country's environmental watchdog say it
is Canada's slow action to deal with the warming planet that is most
"disturbing" to her.
"For decades, successive federal governments have failed to reach their
targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and the government is not
ready to adapt to a changing climate," she said in a statement Tuesday
morning. "This must change."
Gelfand's rebuke came a day after Environment Canada scientists sounded
an alarm that Canada is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the
world, causing irreversible changes to our climate.
Gelfand said neither Liberal nor Conservative governments have hit their
own targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Canada is not on track to hit its 2030 target, despite policies like the
national price on carbon that took effect this week.
'Inefficient' fossil-fuel subsidies
Gelfand's audit says the Liberals are not keeping a promise to get rid
of "inefficient" fossil-fuel subsidies, which are undermining efforts to
combat climate change, encouraging wasteful consumption of fossil fuels
and discouraging investments in cleaner energy sources.
Canada has pledged to eliminate inefficient subsidies by 2025 as part of
both the G20 and G7 economic groups of nations, and the Liberals also
campaigned on a promise to get rid of them.
Gelfand concludes that both Finance Canada and Environment Canada have
defined "inefficient" so broadly they can't decide what subsidies fall
into that category.
Finance Canada's work on the subsidies focused exclusively on fiscal and
economic considerations without giving any attention to the social and
environmental issues at play. For its part, Environment and Climate
Change Canada only looked at 23 out of more than 200 federal
organizations when it compiled an inventory of potential subsidies for
the fossil-fuel industry, Gelfand found.
Last year Canada began a peer review with Argentina that sees each
investigate and report on the other's fossil-fuel subsidies. Last week
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna started a public consultation on
the subsidies to aid that peer review.
The draft regulations she released last week say her department has
concluded that none of the federal non-tax subsidies for fossil fuels
actually is "inefficient."
The regulations identified just four subsidies at all, including support
to help Indigenous communities keep electricity prices down; funding for
electric and alternative-fuel vehicle infrastructure, such as charging
stations; and funding for research on clean technologies for the
oil-and-gas sector.
Philip Gass, a senior energy researcher for the International Institute
for Sustainable Development, said Tuesday using the World Trade
Organization definition of subsidies, his organization found several
that could or should be phased out.
The IISD list shows more than $1.2 billion in fossil-fuel subsidies from
the federal government, and an even greater amount from provincial
governments. Gelfand's audit looked only at federal subsidies.
Gass said the government's report on fossil-fuel subsidies is a good
step toward transparency but that the reasoning behind the conclusion
there are no inefficient subsidies is still confusing.
"We need a more ambitious approach and (to) have a better plan," he said.
Gelfand's audit is the second attempt to audit Finance Canada's
fossil-fuel subsidy programs. In 2017, the auditor general made an
attempt but was blocked when the department refused to cough up the
needed documents. Eventually the department gave in, resulting in the
audits released Tuesday.
Gelfand also looked at the current impact of invasive aquatic species,
most of which are accidentally introduced to Canadian waters on the
hulls of ships coming from international waters and many of which harm
native marine life after arrival.
She found that although Canada has made commitments to prevent invasive
species from taking hold in Canadian waters, neither Fisheries and
Oceans Canada nor the Canada Border Services Agency did what they
promised to do. She says a lack of understanding of whether provincial
or federal authorities are responsible is interfering with efforts to
prevent invasive species from getting established.
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