With less than 40 days remaining before the governments of the world convene to hammer out a save-our-species style of agreement on Climate Change, there is a lot of bustling going on in Ottawa. For one thing this is an especially busy time for the staffers behind our politicians. I’m talking about those brave unheralded souls running around Ottawa buying plane tickets, planning dinners, and ensuring the business-attire economy remains recession-proof. Oh yes, the assistant armies of Ottawa are working all hours to ensure that our Government’s representatives are going to look good, eat-well, and rest comfortably while discussing the future of the planet in Copenhagen (COP15).

Good for those assistants: doing their jobs and taking the COP15 climate talks seriously. If only our Conservative Government and the official Opposition could do the same.

Bill C-311, otherwise known as the Climate Change Accountability Act, would have been a good opportunity for Steve and Mike’s boys and girls to begin to address Canada’s currently negligent role in international climate talks. The Bill, sponsored by the NDP’s Bruce Hyer, would see that the Government — no matter which party is in power — be on the hook to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gasses by 25% of 1990 levels, by the year 2020. Going forward, the Bill aimed to lower emissions by 80% of 1990 levels, by the year 2050.

It could have been a ROM-COM: the Canadian Government, realizing the error of its ways and the damage its out of control lifestyle was causing its loved ones, passes the Climate Change Accountability Act right before the big dance in Copenhagen to prove, once and for all, that ‘Planet, Canada has always loved you.’

But alas, in this enormously important moment the Conservative party and the majority of Liberals teamed up to say, ‘We’ll deal with this later”. The vote to ratify Bill C-311 will be delayed 30 more days, making it impossible to be signed before the COP15 summit. It was only the Bloq, NDP, and a few dissenting Liberals who expressed a taste for good timing by voting to have the Bill advanced, not reconsidered.

The Conservative and Liberal’s reasons for this are the usual ones. On October 22nd, Conservative Environment Minister Jim Prentice was paraphrased in a Globe and Mail article as saying that Canada will have to wait and see what the United States is going to do before we decide our own path. Along the same lines, Liberal Environment Critic David McGuinty told CBC news, “we need to hear more about the American position, the European position, the Chinese position before considering the bill”.

There is one thing you say for our extremely patient Government and the official Opposition: they have refreshingly small egos. Most other great countries would make the mistake of trying to lead by example.

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Tags: bill c-311, climate change, climate change accountability act, cop15, copenhagen

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