Provinces must be at the table

GHG Reductions Initiatives Forum Report 3

“If ever there was a time not to read too much into the polls, that time is now.” So said Ron Stevens, Deputy Premier of Alberta and Minister of International & Intergovernmental Relations, during a speech to a Conference Board forum on greenhouse gases.

He was commenting on recent public opinion surveys which suggest that the economy is Canadians’ “top of mind” issue, but insisted that the environment in general and climate change in particular were still key concerns in Canadians’ psyche.

“They want to see action, especially when it comes to climate change,” he said, adding that Albertans and their provincial government were clearly onside in trying to minimize their oilsands’ carbon footprint without losing the economic drive from the second-largest reserve of crude in the world.

Stevens said he has “never seen a greater need for leadership” by the federal government but that the provinces had to be partners as the debate is moved aggressively ahead in a world in which a continental climate change accord will figure prominently in how energy is provided.

While Ottawa obviously had the lead, he pointed out that the Canadian Constitution requires provincial consent when international agreements affect provinces. The climate change debate was fundamentally about energy and how best to use natural resources, both of which fell squarely within provincial legislative and regulatory jurisdiction.

The Deputy Premier agreed that provincial jurisdiction could be used more effectively in terms of the scope and pace of resource development, building codes, energy efficiency, fuel standards and environmental responsibility, and all provinces have existing frameworks for industrial pollutants. “There is much we can bring to the table.”

He said Alberta has never sought a “free pass” on climate change. “Far from it” It was the first and still only North American jurisdiction with comprehensive GHG emissions caps for large emitters and that its carbon capture and storage (CCS) investment, enshrined in law, was already paying off.

“We intend to do more; we must do more, “Stevens said. “We can’t work in isolation; we need national consensus to bring certainty to our industry and stability to our economy.”

Bodies such as the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had acknowledged CCS to be a major part of the climate change solution and that recent support by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper was encouraging.

Asked whether interprovincial consensus was possible, he said there had to be “a basket of solutions” because “there is no one solution that fits all.” As for cap-and-trade as an option for Alberta if that was the North American trend, he said it is “one of the tools in the toolbox.”