By Dene Moore, March 22, 2007.

MONTREAL — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will be as green as Canadians want it to be.

Harper, who is poised for a possible federal election this spring, reiterated Thursday that his government will announce mandatory targets to reduce emissions in the coming weeks.

“Canada will, for the first time ever, create national, mandatory emissions targets for greenhouse gases and air pollution across major industrial sectors,” Harper told delegates at an environmental trade show in Montreal.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivers a speech at the International Environmental Technology Trade Show and Conference Thursday, March 22, 2007 in Montreal.

Harper said consumption must be balanced with conservation.

“Yet, no population of any country will support an environmental plan that robs them of their jobs and destroys their living standards, even in the short term,” Harper said.

The prime minister said the government has an important role to play in resolving the current environmental crisis.

“But business and government can only do so much,” Harper said.
“In the long run, Canada will be as green as Canadians want it to be.”

Polls show the environment, and climate change in particular, were among the most important issues to Canadians and the minority Conservative government has undergone a green revolution since taking power.

The Conservatives have been working hard to paint themselves green and Monday’s budget included $4.5 billion for environmental spending.

Last month, Harper announced a $1.5 billion eco trust fund to help provinces pay for environmental projects and his Conservative government tabled its own Clean Air Act.

Now the act is stalled in the House of Commons, with all three federal opposition parties demanding amendments before they’ll help it pass into law.
Chief among the demands is that the bill enshrine the emissions targets set out in the Kyoto protocol, which the Conservatives have rejected as impossible to achieve.

The only reduction target included in the bill is a 40-to-60 per cent emissions cut by 2050.

In Toronto, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called the act “a joke.”

Appearing before a Commons committee in Ottawa on Thursday, Environment Minister John Baird dodged questions about whether he could accept the Kyoto targets.

Baird said he’s looking at what can be done to cut global emissions after 2012, when the treaty is set to expire.

“I support continuing efforts to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions,” he said, without mentioning Kyoto.

Baird said the upcoming emissions targets will be more stringent than other countries.

Hugh Wilkins, a lawyer for the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, said Canada needs absolute emission caps — an option the Conservatives have rejected before.
But Wilkins said Canadians know that failing to act poses a much greater threat to their economy and way of life.

“People realize that if we don’t take strong action now, we’re going to suffer the types of economic and lifestyle problems that Harper’s talking about.”