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Canwest News Service
Environment ministers from Ontario and Quebec arrived Sunday at the UN's climate gabfest in Copenhagen — whereupon they almost immediately set about throwing Alberta under the environmental bus. Describing Alberta's oil sands as an "embarrassment," Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen asserted that his province would not permit its own efforts to reduce emissions to be used to cover off increased emissions from further oil sands development. His sentiments were echoed by his Quebec counterpart, Line Beauchamp, at a joint news conference.
"Our biggest fear," Mr. Gerretsen said, "is that the feds may try to use the good work that's been done by [Ontario and Quebec] as part of their overall goal, and thereby allow the tar sands development to proceed without hesitation." Then he and Ms. Beauchamp demanded emissions "fairness" from Ottawa. If during the Copenhagen negotiations, Ottawa agrees to tougher emission caps, they decreed, it cannot be at the expense of their provinces, which they claimed already have made mighty environmental sacrifices. Instead, they demanded, make Alberta pay through carbon taxes or emissions trading.
But what sacrifices are the Ontario and Quebec governments talking about? So far, all either has done is make sanctimonious promises of deep cuts. Neither has made much progress in actually limiting emissions from industries or residents.
Ontario is pledging to reduce emissions by 15% below 1990 levels by 2020. Quebec is pledging 20%. But a pledge is not the same as an actual cut. Neither province's emissions have come down appreciably, unless one counts the shuttering of a few manufacturing plants due to the recession.
Making big, sweeping promises is easy. Living up to them is the harder part. The Ontario government, for instance, remains the owner of four large coal-fired electricity plants, including Nanticoke, on Lake Erie, which is the largest coal-fuelled plant in North America.
Never mind that when the Liberals were in power in Ottawa, the Liberal government of Ontario extracted a pledge from the feds not to include emissions from automakers in the national caps required to meet our Kyoto commitments, and to put a larger burden on energy-producing provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan. We don't recall Ontario and Quebec squawking about emissions "fairness" then.
Ontario and Quebec are merely being opportunistic, using the current bad publicity for the oil sands to pile on Alberta in hopes of increasing the taxes that province pays to fund the federal equalization scheme, of which both central Canadian provinces are recipients.
Alberta's contribution to Confederation is already three times higher than Ontario's on a per capita basis. Albertans paid an estimated $21.1-billion — or $5,700 per person — more to the feds than they got back in federal services in 2009. Quebec, on the other hand, receives nearly half of all the equalization dollars Ottawa doles out. Much of the money that Quebec uses to fund "free" college and university tuition and cheap daycare comes from Ottawa's taxes on the oil sands. Ditto the money used to bail out Ontario automakers.
So here's a suggestion for eastern Canada's two big, self-righteous provincial governments: If you want none of the "embarrassment" of the oil sands, fine; forego all that dirty oil sands money, too. That would effectively mean saying no to the billions on offer from equalization — but that's the price of high principle, right?
Oh, and Ontario and Quebec should find other, "morally superior" sources for their oil, too — such as Venezuela, Iran and Russia. To do otherwise would be to share in a Canadian "embarrassment."
About a year ago, in Vancouver's Gastown district, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff gave a speech praising the oil sands as the engine of Canada's economy. It is. Energy is Canada's No. 1 export and biggest source of foreign income. Ottawa avoided deficits for years before the recession thanks largely to revenues from oil and gas activity in Alberta.
In other words, the oil sands haven't just made Alberta rich — they've made the rest of the country wealthy, too. If Ontario and Quebec want to turn their back on that wealth, let them say so forthrightly –instead of making a display of their hypocrisy on the world stage.
