Environmental Policy Under a Parliamentary System

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the election of a new government as Trudeau will have a brand new environmental outlook, bringing a different political approach to deal with environmental policy.

Since the Liberal party has taken office, there is a new plan for Canada’s environment and economy. This includes, but is not limited to, taking action on climate change, investment in clean technologies, creating clean jobs and investment, restoring credibility to environmental assessments, preserving and promoting national parks, and protecting freshwater and oceans. His environmental platform differs from previous prime minister Stephen Harper in many ways. As an example, he pledges to regulate the National Energy Board as one of Liberal party’s top priority. The board regulates construction and operation of oil pipelines as its mandate has been criticized for reducing public input while reviewing projects after the Conservatives amended its act. The liberals plan to “overhaul the NEB assessment process to include more consultation with aboriginal groups and increased and increased analysis of greenhouse gas emissions for proposed projects such as new pipelines” (Burgmann 2015). The liberal environment platforms also pledges to: work with provinces to reduce Canada’s collective carbon footprint by putting a price on carbon pollution, invite premiers across the country to join Trudeau at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, increase amount of protected marine and coastal areas by 5% by 2017 and 10% by 2020, and cancel admission fees at national parks in 2017.

Since the Liberal party has promised several improvements and amendments to Canada’s environmental policy, we see that they are going in a different direction and hopefully succeeds to bring a new era of environmental policy cooperation. 

"A New Plan for Canada’s Enviornment and Ecoonomy." (n.d.): n. pag. A New Plan for Canada’s Enviornment and Ecoonomy. Liberal Party. Web. <https://www.liberal.ca/files/2015/08/A-new-plan-for-Canadas-environment-and-economy.pdf>.

N Burgmann, Tamsy. "Justin Trudeau Unveils Liberals’ Environmental Platform | Toronto Star." Thestar.com. N.p., 29 June 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/06/29/justin-trudeau-unveils-liberals-environmental-platform.html>.

Online Discussion 2: The Lifetime Unachievement Fossil Award – Can Canada Improve Its International Reputation?

At the December 2013 United Nations Climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, Canada was awarded the Lifetime Unachievement Fossil Award after winning the Colossal Fossil award for five years in a row. The Colossal Fossil Award is given to the country doing the most damage to climate talks in a given year. While we didn’t win the Colossal Fossil in 2014, we still finished in third place behind Australia (first) and Russia and Belarus (tied for second). In this week’s discussion, let’s explore not only Canada’s climate policy efforts but all of its environmental policies by considering some or all of the following questions as well as any ideas relevant to this issue that you think of as the week progresses. As with the first discussion do not try to tackle all of the questions in a single post. Limit your posts to one or two well argued points.

Has Canada’s climate policy been any worse than that of the United States or other economies such as China or Russia?

Does our third place finish in 2014 indicate big improvements in our climate policy?

What can we do to improve our performance on climate change starting with the UNFCCC - COP 21 Paris Summit this December?

What are the provinces doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

How about other areas of environmental regulation in Canada; have we been performing any better in terms of our policies dealing with things like toxic waste, regulating air and water pollution, or dealing with municipal solid waste?

Post 1:

Everyone has contributed great points to how the provinces are doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, I have decided to focus my post on discussing two provinces that have been striving to tackle emissions, BC and Quebec. Canada as a whole aims to reduce emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by the year 2020. As for specific provinces, British Columbia has set an emissions target of 33% below 2007 levels by the year 2020. They are taking action to reduce the carbon pollutions produced by the public, conserve energy, engage and encourage more people into taking action and making a greater difference, transform the province into a new low-carbon economy, and demonstrate a successful approach to address climate change. Quebec is another province that has ambitiously set their target to reduce 37.5% of their emissions below 1990 levels by 2020, the highest target in Canada following Ontario at 37%. The environment minister wants to focus on transportation and construction, two key areas where reductions are required. Quebec wants to invest in more green technology and recognize how urgent it is to take action in fighting climate change. The Quebec government will present the emission reduction target at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. For legislation, they implemented a cap-and-trade system in 2013, invest in renewable energy sources, divert all organic material from landfill, and encourage using electric of hybrid vehicles. In conclusion, both provinces have set a bar for reducing emissions and are using different ways to approach this.

CBC News. "Quebec Sets Bold New Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets." CBC News. CBC/Radio Canada, 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2015. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-greenhouse-gas-reduction-1.3231951>.

"Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions." Province of British Columbia. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2015. <http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/policy-legislation-programs/carbon-neutral-government/reduce>.

Stastna, Kazi. "How Canada’s Provinces Are Tackling Greenhouse Gas Emissions." CBC News. CBC/Radio Canada, 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2015. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/how-canada-s-provinces-are-tackling-greenhouse-gas-emissions-1.3030535>.

Post 2:

You have all pointed out valid and distinct points on how Canada plans to improve their performance on climate change. To add to this, I have done some research and have found an interesting article on this topic. In the article Canada Shocks COP21 with Big New Climate