The chair of the Intergovernmental Liaison Committee wants City Council to send a letter asking the Prime Minister to rethink his decision to withdraw Canada from the Kyoto Protocol Agreement.
Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo, who is also the chair of the Intergovernmental Liaison Committee, will ask his fellow councillors to vote in favour of sending Prime Minister Stephen Harper a letter at Monday night’s meeting. Virdiramo’s letter would express concerns to Harper and Environment Canada Minister Peter Kent about the move to withdraw from Kyoto and ask about other agreements such as the Durban Platform.
Kent announced in January Canada would not make a second commitment to Kyoto, which would have run from 2013 to 2017.
Jean Chretien's Liberal government signed the Kyoto protocol in 1998, but was heavily criticized by opposition for taking little action to meet Canada's targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Conservatives haven’t been able to dodge that same criticism, as opposition has been accusing the Harper government of also ignoring Kyoto ever since taking power in 2006.
But since then the Conservatives have made dramatic changes to environmental policies in Canada.
Some of these changes were the streamlining environmental assessments for development projects. One of the ways the government wishes to accomplish this is through changes to the federal Fisheries Act, which critics say will weaken habitat regulations.
The government also recently closed the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Reports from other media say it was because it was promoting a carbon tax something the Conservative government doesn’t want.
Virdiramo told Tbnewswatch.com that it’s important to keep the environment in mind.
He said it’s important to determine the future status of Canada as a signatory on like-minded international environmental agreements.
Having withdrawn from Kyoto, it’s also important to show leadership and commitment to environmental initiatives and agreements in order to undo the damage to Canada’s reputation, he said.
“We think it’s important that we remind Harper that our planet is important and to keep it safe,” Virdiramo said. “Whether Kyoto worked or not is one person’s opinion. I think we need to alert the citizens that it is important and we keep the environment safe and clean. Whether it is Kyoto or not we just want to raise the bar.”
He added he felt confident that council would approve it on Monday.
