Another short sighted environmental move by Canada's government!!

I am at a loss for words to describe my distaste for our goverment officials at this moment...

Ottawa plans cuts to green programs: documents

The new Conservative government will be making deep spending cuts to programs designed to fight global warming in order to fund tax cuts, according to cabinet documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The documents show that the government will slash spending on Environment Canada programs designed to fight global warming by 80 per cent, as well as cuts of 40 per cent to budgets devoted to climate change.

The text reveals that the Tory campaign promise of tax breaks for transit passes would amount to a cost of $2 billion over the span of five years.

However, the government has no evidence the incentives will increase ridership.

"A wide range of data suggests that people are not very responsive to changes in transit fares," said a memo prepared for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose last week by officials in the office of her deputy minister. ". . . while the ridership impacts of the tax incentives are not known with precision, analysis suggests they will be low."

The six-page memo outlines five transit tax-incentive options, making it clear that the government prefers the pass holder tax break.

But its benefits to transit users may be invalidated, the memo states, because "it could be quite easy for the transit authorities to raise their fares to absorb the benefit of the tax credit."

The section of the documents on the budget cuts, written by an unidentified government official after a cabinet meeting in late March that approved the reductions, also said the Tories want to try to claw back $260 million the Liberals had offered to the United Nations to fund its international climate-change programs.

Ryan Sparrow, a spokesman for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, refused to confirm or deny the details in the leak, adding that the government hasn't finalized its decisions on climate change.

"Once there is an announcement to be made, we'll make one," Sparrow told the Globe.

The documents, which were obtained by the opposition Liberals, bolster previous claims that large-scale cuts to climate-change programs are planned.

The documents reveal that while spending cuts are expected, staff positions will be retained.

"Only $375 million was approved for climate spending, with most of the dollars covering staff salaries until the new government determines next steps.

"What is clear is that staff will have little to do and that they will have no budgets to spend over the next year and that more cuts are coming."

According to the documents, the programs are being eliminated to help fund tax cuts, including the GST reduction, which was a key plank in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election campaign.

The cuts drew fire from environmentalists such as John Bennett, a spokesman for the Sierra Club of Canada, accused the Tories of having a "slash and burn campaign."

The details from the leak were published one day after Climate Action Network Canada made public its accusations the government plans to cut funding to climate change programs.

David Coon, policy director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, encouraged the government to make the fight against climate change a priority.

"Canadians need a vision of hope in the face of the frightening consequences of rapid climate change," Coon said at the press conference on Wednesday. "For that hope they look to their government, and their expectations are high."

Canada's Kyoto targets were set in 1997, but Ambrose recently said they were unrealistic and dismissed any hope that the goal of reducing Canada's emissions by six per cent from 1990 levels could be reached by 2012.

Citing unpublished government figures, Ambrose said emissions are up by almost 30 per cent since 1990. She said the increase is "very disconcerting," but said Canada is not alone in its situation.

 

Just another black-eye for us when it comes to nature.

 

Well we knew this was going to happen when Harper got elected, didn't we.

I too highly doubt the transit tax incentives will increase ridership cos transit passes in TO are so expensive I never get one. They are the equivalent of 6 round trips per WEEK, I only make 5 round trips a week and then there are times where I stay home, go on vacation, or get an alternate location closer to home, I do better to buy tokens.

 

Yeah, gotta love how even the "evil" US has better environmental and animal rights legislation than good old Canada, even if their's isn't great.