"It's time for a brand new approach to the environment," she told the committee.
"This approach is going to address the real priorities of Canadians in a tangible and accountable way."
She was short on details of what the "approach" will include, saying the fine points will be revealed "very soon."
"Our approach will deliver clean air to Canadians to protect their health while also making genuine progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as other contaminants that are harmful to our health," Ambrose said.
There was a plan, remember the Tory bluebook that touted the "Made in Canada Plan", but okay it's an approach now. All we know of the approach to date- there will be a substantial period of talks aimed a clarifying the approach. Apparently, we will be approaching 2012 before we know where the approach is headed. Ambrose has approached industry to "work together" on emissions. The fact Buzz Hargrove left the auto industry meeting and said he "felt alot better" after learning of the approach, speaks to the empty rhetoric. Why did Ambrose bother showing up to committee if she wasn't prepared to offer anything concrete? All we are approaching is absurdity.
12 comments:
Wanna know why there were very little details...because very few care. The attempt this week at California type emmisions for Ontario was met with anger and tons of rhetoric. You cant win elections by hurting the economy and cleaning up the air, you cant if you move too quickly. Koyoto cant be met. It will never be met. Liberals knew it, and, Conservatives know it. The trick is to move slowly while giving the appearance that your moving quickly.
"our pollution problems worsened".
bud, this was in large part due to the development of the Alberta oil industry, (Conservative country) where the fuels used and subsequent pollutants to get the oil out of the ground surpassed the oil energy itself. Thankfully, more energy efficient ways are now being discovered and used.
Can we stop blaming the Liberals sometime soon and take responsibility? Anyone care to comment on the eight months wasted while the Conservatives try to formulate something to look relevant? What were these people doing the last years in opposition? If the Liberals were such failures, where was the alternative in the last election? The NDP had a plan, how come the Conservatives had nothing? Canada can't wait while incompetents get up to speed.
The Liberals and NDP "approached" the environment problems with research and developed a "Plan".
Sierra and other environmentalists including the Environment Minister said we could reach 80% of the Kyoto targets. 80% is better than 0%.
With all the time Harper had in opposition and as PM to develop a "Plan" instead of now approaching it things might have been started now.
I saw the Environment Minister in an interview and she said that although the Liberals didn't succeed they were on the right track and some programs initiated were good programs. The Liberals had met with her and she set out their errors and they came up with a "PLAN" that was to start February - but we all now what happened don't we - the Liberals were brought down before the plan was to be implemented.
Now we're back to an "approach". An approach is not a plan.
I meant to say "Environment COMMISSIONER" not minister.
Anon 12:58
A plan is not an implementation.
Signing onto something is not the same as making it happen.
Saying you can reach 80% is not the same as even coming close to reaching 1% which the Liberals didn't (not couldn't) do over the course of 10 years.
Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. The Liberals had over a decade and achieved... wait for it... absolutely nothing in terms of actual results in emissions curbing.
So keep spitting from the peanut gallery folks. If Kyoto was achievable, wouldn't we have seen even a single percentage movement in that direction? And you can't blame this on the oil industry as there was nothing stopping the majority holding Liberals from doing something about the oil industry, now was there?
Don't make the non-Liberals laugh.
Honestly... can anybody here explain how the Liberals could have been held back with doing something to curb the oil industry in Alberta while they held a majority in BOTH houses? Anybody?
Please... you can't answer that question because you know it is the one sign of how the Liberals had no intention of doing so. After all, there was not ONE single thing that could have stopped them from doing whatever the hell they wanted to do at any point in the past decade. So don't make a fool of yourselves and blame the minority holding Conservatives for that one.
And you can say that the Conservatives don't have a plan. But how is that different from the Liberals? If they had a plan, they could have passed it at any time. Saying that they came up with something just before the election is pretty sad on you guys, isn't it? Does that mean that everything done by the Liberals in the decade before the election just doesn't count anymore?
Liberal party sheep like to take credit for all the good things they say the previous governments did. And then they call cry to mommy when somebody points out the things they didn't do saying, "We were just about to get around to that, but... but... but..."
Yeah... but. About that...
And as the Opposition votes through a motion to (try and) force the Conservatives to meet the Kyoto expectations, it will be the epitomy of, "Do as I say, don't do as I do."
And thus we have the final proof that Liberal = hypocrite.
"So don't make a fool of yourselves and blame the minority holding Conservatives for that one."
Opposition parties generally have their own philosophy on issues. Can you please cite the Conservative environmental platform tenets, apart from the two lines in their bluebook?
Blah, blah, blah.
As I said, actions speak louder than words... and you're still looking for the words my friend.
Need I say more to the fact that you cannot address the Liberal party's inaction.
"As I said, actions speak louder than words... and you're still looking for the words my friend."
Are you referring to Ambrose. BTW, why am I the Liberal apologist on the environment, I actually voted NDP last time out primarily for that reason. Get over the Liberal incompetence, I have. What have the Tories done, except kill programs, and is their "approach" anything concrete or just hot air? I don't have to defend the record, and frankly I'm sick of Conservatives using it as their crutch, to mask their own failures.
"What have the Tories done, except kill programs, and is their "approach" anything concrete or just hot air?"
The Commissioner of the Environment stated unequivocally that there was widespread problems with mispent money, no oversight and little to no reesults throughout most of the programs and departments that the Liberal government set up... and you're complaining that the Conservatives are now cleaning house?
No matter what, certain programs had to go. And without seeing the big picture, you in no way have any idea as to how the Conservatives might implement their environmental policy. My guess, simply from judging how the Conservatives set up their cabinet, is that they are going to tighten up the various programs to work more effectively in tandem, rather than having a different department for every little thing... like getting rid of the Energuide program as a seperate entity and putting its program entities under the portfolio of the Minister of energy and natural resources.
Unlike the previous government that would make up a new program and a new branch of government everytime something came up, I imagine the Conservatives are going to find ways of containing programs to their respective ministries to be more in tune with drafting legislation and implementing policies directly without all the "voluntary" nonsense that the previous government wished up.
But to simply say that the Conservatives don't have any idea or any plan is simply a sign that you don't know how government changeover works. Considering all of the surprises that have been reported in the news of what the Liberal government didn't let the public know while in office, especially in light of what the Commissioner of the Environment revealed last week, do you really think that a new government is going to come into power and right away be able to wave their magic wand and make everything run the way they want it to run?
The Commissioner said that the entire environmental portfolio was a mess! It's now plain to see that no matter who had formed government in January -- whether Conservative, NDP or whoever -- it is going to take a long time to pick up the shattered pieces of environnmental programs that Martin and Chretien left behind. To say anything else is simply partisan bickering.
The problem with you is that you are already setting yourself up to criticize the Conservatives' environment policy no matter what it ends up being. Hardly puts you in a position to have an objective opinion, doesn't it? It is plainly obvious that the Conservatives weren't going to stir up the bees nest that is public reaction to environmental policy until the Commissioner presented her audit because they needed an independent body to show that all of the programs were a mess and needed a drastic overhaul. You're proof positive of that fact.
Unfortunately it seems that even when an independent body says the boat is headed for the falls, some partisan hacks still want to see where it is going for themselves.
People forget that the "independent body" didn't exactly give the new government a passing grade either. Again, the NDP and Green Party have plans, without governing, so why couldn't Harper pen something prior to taking office? The Tories sure had prior plans for the GST, Arctic sovereignty, softwood lumber, mandatory sentences for violent crime, childcare cheques, fiscal imbalance, accountability, etc, beefing up the military, etc. The only thing that was said on the environment- we are against Kyoto. Whoa! Face it, the environment was never a priority, Ambrose was Klein's hack to kill Kyoto and big oil and gas funnels money to this Reform Party. You can blame the Liberals for eternity, but it only distracts from Ambrose's complete incompetence.
And, yes we do know quite abit about this "approach" now, so I am not pre-judging anything. Get back to me in 2013 when you guys are done consulting.
"People forget that the "independent body" didn't exactly give the new government a passing grade either. Again, the NDP and Green Party have plans, without governing, so why couldn't Harper pen something prior to taking office?"
The Commissioner of the Environment did an audit of programs that were in place. Every environmental program that was in place up to the end of the audit (June 2006) was set up by the previous Liberal government. Parliament opened in April of this year, less than three months from when the Commissioner's audit was complete.
It's kind of hard to give a failing grade to a government that had been in operation for less than 3 months and was still operating under the previous government's environmental policy, don't ya think?
No... I think you're not objective enough to concede that fact.
"Face it, the environment was never a priority, Ambrose was Klein's hack to kill Kyoto and big oil and gas funnels..." blah blah blah
Yes, yes... the grand old vast right-wing conspiracy theory. Oh, don't let me stop you... I've heard all this before from back when I supported more left-wing ideology.
I'm so glad I woke up.
But, I'll be glad to get back to you in 2013 when Stephen Harper's government becomes as revered a group of environmental saviours as the epitomy of Canadian environmental governments: Brian Mulroney's.
And the Mulroney statement was from an independent body too. :-)
Post a Comment