March 29, 2005

Conservatives threaten to vote against legislation

Government expected to introduce Kyoto-related changes in budget bill

OTTAWA

The federal government wants to control greenhouse gases by changing existing legislation rather than bringing in a new law — a move the Conservatives are threatening to oppose.

It’s expected the changes, rumoured for weeks, will be included in budget implementation legislation, even though there was no reference to them in the budget tabled in February.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said his party may vote against the legislation if the expected changes are included.

“I’m not very keen on Liberal hidden agendas. We will not support something we don’t regard in the public interest, especially if it doesn’t come clean on what the government’s plans actually are on Kyoto.’’

If the budget legislation was to be defeated, it could bring down the government, triggering a snap election.

But it’s expected the NDP and Bloc Quebecois will back the government, averting such a situation.

The Liberals want to change the wording of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), sources say.

The changes will make it possible to regulate carbon emissions from large industrial emitters much more quickly than could be done if new legislation were introduced.

The changes would remove the word “toxic’’ from certain sections of CEPA, to head off critics who argue that greenhouse gases are not toxic.

“What this will allow them to do is more easily bring greenhouse gases under the act,’’ John Bennett of the Sierra Club said in an interview.

CEPA has until now been regarded as a tool for dealing with substances that are directly toxic to human beings or wildlife.

The major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, is not toxic in that sense, since its presence in the air is vital to the life of plants.

However, most scientists say rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere threaten the global climate and therefore are indirectly dangerous to life.

Neither Environment Minister Stephane Dion nor other ministers were available to comment.

An environmentalist who spoke on condition of anonymity said the expected changes are largely semantic and the far more important question is the size of emissions cuts to be required of large industrial emitters that account for about half of Canada’s greenhouse emissions.

Conservative environment critic Bob Mills said he sees the expected changes as a back-door approach that would circumvent the House of Commons.

“It’s pretty tough for even a Liberal to argue that (carbon dioxide) is a toxic substance,’’ he said.

“That isn’t what CEPA was designed for.

“I think it will be the start of a very slippery slope where we can start taxing carbon.’’

Under CEPA, polluters could be fined for releasing excessive carbon, which Mills considers a type of taxation.

The Canadian Press

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