The Oil Drum: Canada | The Round-Up: October 19th 2006

11 comments on The Round-Up: October 19th 2006

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GliderGuider on October 19, 2006 - 2:38pm

Regarding the new Clean Air Act (the Conservatives' made-in-Canada solution), here is an LTTE that my partner just wrote to the Toronto Star:

In order to comment knowledgeably on the Harper government Clean Air Act, I looked up the details on the Environment Canada website.
A made-in-Canada solution. Yeah. Right.
http://www.ec.gc.ca/CEPARegistry/documents/part/CA_NOI/CA_NOI.cfm
In Section 5. Scope of the Proposed Regulatory Actions:
"The Government intends to continue to develop and implement regulations to reduce smog- and acid rain-forming emissions from on-road and off-road vehicles, engines and fuels in alignment with the standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It also intends to explore opportunities between Environment Canada and the U.S. EPA to facilitate, to the extent possible, the administration of vehicle, engine and fuel regulations." (Emphasis is mine.)
Can you say Deep Integration, boys and girls?
What on Earth is going on here? Is Maude Barlow right?
It continues in Section 6.1 Action on Air Pollutant missions from On-Road and Off-Road Vehicles and Engines:
"The Minister of the Environment intends to continue harmonising Canadian emission standards for on-road vehicles and engines and off-road engines with those of the U.S. EPA. Consistent with this goal, the Minister will propose the following regulations in the next twelve months:
<snip>
The Minister of the Environment also intends to implement initiatives to ensure a more streamlined and efficient regulatory system. The Minister will initiate discussions with the U.S. EPA on possibilities for a coordinated approach to administering cleaner vehicles, engines and fuels regulations."
No other country but the US is mentioned in the document even though there are many in the world with higher standards to which we should be aiming our legislation. I am one very disappointed Canadian.

Needless to say, I fully share her disappointment/disgust/rage over our government's casual abrogation of its soverign responsibilities and promises. Shame on you Stephen Harper and Rona Ambrose.

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Syntec on October 19, 2006 - 2:48pm

Good letter. The name of the gorilla in the corner that no one is talking about has the initials T. for tar and S. for sands.

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porsena on October 19, 2006 - 8:00pm

To give credit where it's due, the "harmonization" was an initiative of the previous Liberal governments. The problem is that the Canadian vehicle market is not large enough to support the development of engines and their downstream emissions hardware for Canada alone. That's an economic fact that has nothing to do with politics.

So we have to adopt somebody else's emission standards. Aside from the US, the EU would be the only potential alternative. NAFTA, though, has its roots in the previous Canada-US autopact and is at least partly about trade in vehicles and components. So we get stuck with the US standards, and we can hope the government does its best to influence what they are.

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