#FAIL, says new report from Canada’s environment watchdog

OTTAWA - The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development provides further evidence the federal government is failing to protect the environment, ^NOT meeting its climate change commitments and ^NOT cleaning up contaminated sites.

The reality is Canada will ^NOT meet its 2020 greenhouse gas emission target of 17% below 2005 emissions (it won’t come close with the current rate of expansion of the Tar Sands). Nor is there a plan (or the funding allocated) to clean-up thousands of toxic waste sites. Only a handful of contaminated sites out of over 10,000 are reported to be receiving adequate attention.

“The Commissioner’s report is further evidence the federal government is ^NOT doing its job, “says John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada.

In the Kyoto Protocol, Canada committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The commissioner’s report found that Canada will ^NOT meet these targets. The estimated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 is only 27 million tonnes; to meet its commitments Canada would need to reduce its emissions by an additional 805 million tonnes! Under the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act the Commissioner is required to produce an audit report every two years. The Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act was repealed in the 2012 Budget Implementation Act and therefore this is the third and final commissioners’ audit report.

Even Canada’s climate change commitments in the weaken-Kyoto-replacement the 2009 Copenhagen Accord won’t be met. Canada’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 will look more like a 7.4% increase above 2005 levels by 2020 according to projections. And without a plan in place to develop and established the necessary regulations, and without the required time, there is no chance Canada can even meet its insincere and unambitious Copenhagen targets.

The commissioner’s report also criticized the governments’ sector-by-sector approach to regulating greenhouse gas emissions (which lacks an overall implementation plan and economic analysis). For example, there are two greenhouse gas regulations in place for the transportation sector, proposed regulations for the electricity sector (which will ^NOT come into effect until 2015), and no regulations in place for the oil and gas sector.

Further, recent budget cuts will severely limit the government’s ability to manage (let alone clean up) the over 10,000 contaminated sites across Canada. While some progress has been made, as of March 2011 half of the contaminated sites have still ^NOT been assessed! Now the budget has been slashed by 60% and most of the limited financial resources have been dedicated to just four of the biggest risk sites. The reality is the remaining 10,000 contaminated sites will likely ^NOT be remediated. These toxic sites include abandoned mines, nuclear waste pits and old buried oil tankers.

“We have been given a wake-up call. Our government’s ^NOT getting the job done. Silence is no longer an option,” says Mr. Bennett. “Canadians need to get involved in the #BlackOutSpeakOut campaign and be heard on June 4^th. It’s time to take a stand and stop the war on the environment and democracy.”

To learn about the #BlackOutSpeakOut campaign visit: http://BlackOutSpeakOut.ca

For more information contact:

John Bennett, Executive Director
Sierra Club Canada
412-1 rue Nicholas Street
Ottawa, ON K1N 7B7
Executive.Director@sierraclub.ca
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P.S. - You can also donate $10 by simply Texting SIERRA to 45678. To donate $20 just do it twice! To donate $30 do it three times, etc.