Trevor Hancock: The inconvenient facts Carney and the premiers ignore |
Prime Minister Mark Carney wants Canada to be an energy superpower, including in “conventional energy” (read fossil fuels).
Far from being the climate-action champion we expected him to be, he seems to have swallowed his principles in a rush to get short-term gain at the expense of long-term pain.
His “dismal” record was summed up recently by Anna Johnston, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law: “In just a few months, Carney’s government has walked back key federal climate policies, including the consumer carbon price, the electric vehicle mandate, and — alarmingly — Canada’s commitment to its 2030 emissions reduction target.”
Add to that other policies that are supportive of the continued expansion of the fossil industry, and it is easy to see why Johnston concludes that for Carney’s government “climate action is no longer a priority, even as the climate crisis worsens.”
The premiers are no better. Danielle Smith is, of course, in a class of her own — there isn’t a fossil-fuel expansion proposal she hasn’t fallen in love with.
But in general, the provinces provide various forms of support for fossil-fuel extraction,........