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For release: July 18, 2008

Provinces throw out flawed federal climate strategy

Ontario joins other provinces in rejecting “intensity” approach in favor of hard caps for industry


(Quebec City) A coalition of Canada's leading environmental groups declared the federal government's weak, intensity-based plan for tackling climate change dead today after Ontario announced that it will join the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The WCI is a coalition of provinces and U.S. states developing a regulatory system to cap and reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is breakthrough in the fight to reduce industrial emissions in Canada,” said Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation. “Today's announcement is a fatal blow for the federal government's weak approach to reducing emissions from industry.” Industrial emissions make up approximately half of Canada's total.

Provincial governments representing 25 million Canadians - almost 80 percent of the country's population - have now committed to placing a hard cap on industrial emissions that will be ratcheted down over time.

“Leading states and provinces taking part in the WCI are doing what the vast majority of Canadians support, placing a hard cap on greenhouse gas pollution,” said Keith Stewart of WWF-Canada. Ontario joins British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba, who are already members of the Initiative.

As part of the agreement Ontario has committed to lobby the federal government for strong fuel-efficiency regulations. Twelve of 13 premiers support California standards, the strongest in North America.

“The Ontario government should now be pushing the federal government to adopt the California standard,” said Arthur Sandborn, Greenpeace Canada. “This is the most effective way to reduce emissions and help Canadians deal with higher oil prices. Otherwise, this is a missed opportunity.”

"The Maritime Premiers need to get off the fence and join Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and BC to establish hard caps for industrial emissions to make this a truly pan-Canadian effort, " said David Coon, the New Brunswick-based Chair of the Climate Action Network.

Under the WCI system, participating states and provinces will agree to a hard limit on emissions on industries within those jurisdictions. The proposed federal regulatory framework for large industry uses a weak, emissions intensity approach (based on emissions produced per unit of production.) As a result, total annual emissions under the existing federal proposal are likely to continue to rise over the next decade. This announcement further isolates Alberta and Saskatchewan who have refused to seriously address industrial greenhouse gas pollution.

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