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NDP unveils national climate plan

It doesn’t take a policy analyst to notice that governments can agree to all the climate change targets in the world and do diddly to implement them. Enter the NDP with its Jack Layton Climate Change Accountability Act. 

Named after the party’s late leader, the bill would make it mandatory for governments to establish “science-based targets to reduce greenhouse gases to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.” 

It was first introduced by Layton in 2007 and passed in the House the following year, but faded on the order paper when the next federal election was called. It was re-introduced in June by NDP Beaches-East York MP Matthew Kellway. And now NDP leader Tom Mulcair is officially promising to reintroduce the act if the NDP takes office. The NDP leader says the plan will help keep the provinces meet targets in Mulcair’s cap and trade carbon pricing scheme, which was further fleshed out at a town hall in Toronto on the weekend. 

The NDP’s plan comes with an escape clause: it would let provinces like BC, Quebec and Ontario opt out of its carbon pricing scheme “if their own carbon pricing plans meet or exceed federal objectives.” 

“You don’t reinvent the wheel,” says Mulcair. “I’m not going to tell the provinces to remove something that’s working.”

Under the NDP’s plan, the money raised from a national cap and trade scheme would be revenue neutral says Mulcair and would go directly to provincial coffers to help with stuff like transit. It’s a smart move that should help shield the scheme from further attacks that call cap and trade a cash grab.  

The Pembina Institute seems to like it. “These targets are much more ambitious than Canada’s current pledge,” said Erin Flanagan in a statement. “They would help ensure that Canada does its fair share to prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change.” 

ecoholic@nowtoronto.com | @ecoholicnation

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