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New emissions standards still won’t be enough...for the feds

The provincial government has released new industry standards as part of its Prairie Resilience Climate Change Strategy.

 

 

The provincial government has released new industry standards as part of its Prairie Resilience Climate Change Strategy.

And while the standards are being lauded by the various industry groups, and will likely be supported by the bulk of the people of this province, it still won’t matter to the federal government, who criticized the provincial government’s Prairie Resiliency plan when it was initially released last year.

You can be sure the feds won’t be fond of these new standards for industry, no matter how effective they might prove to be.

And so we will seemingly continue to move towards the inevitable: a forced carbon tax for Saskatchewan that will affect everyone in this province, hinder the provincial economy, and have no negligible impact on carbon emissions.

We keep waiting for the federal government to blink on the forced carbon tax issue, especially now that the provincial government in Ontario is balking at the carbon pricing system imposed by the former Ontario provincial government. A conservative government seems destined to be elected in Alberta next year, and they’ll quickly do away with that province’s carbon tax.

With nearly half of the country’s inhabitants living in provinces that won’t have a carbon tax, you have to figure the federal government will eventually decide a forced carbon tax is not the way to go.

As of right now, however, we can look forward to a carbon tax in Saskatchewan, regardless of whether the people of Canada support a carbon tax, and regardless of how many alternatives the Saskatchewan government comes up with through Prairie Resilience.

Efforts to reduce emissions should be applauded, regardless of whether it’s a company that trims the emissions generated by its practices, or whether it’s an individual who takes steps to be more environmentally friendly. Reduce emissions. Live a more environmentally-friendly life. Help improve air quality.

But do it within reason.

The earth muffins can say we should be moving away from oil. That’s fantasyland talk. Not only do we need oil for vehicles and other forms of transportation, but we need it for a variety of other products which use oil.

We still need oil. We still need to extract oil from the ground. We still need ways to get from Point A to Point B. And we still need our mobile devices and a litany of other products that are made possible in part because of oil.

If you want to leave the oil in the ground, then that’s a waste of a resource. Same goes for potash, coal, uranium and other resources this world is blessed with.

At the same time, if the oil and gas sector can operate in a more environmentally friendly fashion, and cut back on emissions, particularly as technology improves, then it’s potentially a win-win as we try to find a balance between the needs of the economy and the environment.  

The federal government needs to move away from its narrow-minded approach to climate change. It has to realize that there are better options out there than a carbon tax (or a carbon price, as they try to spin it), or a cap and trade system.

Perhaps more stringent emission standards would be the way to go. Or perhaps we need to spend money on innovation.

Does Prairie Resilience go far enough? It’s hard to say.

But it beats the alternatives. We can’t afford to do nothing. And we can’t afford to impose a carbon tax that will only serve to take money out of the hands of Canadians, and make this country less competitive on a global scale.