Posted: Wednesday, 11 March 2009

The Harper government has failed Canadians on environmental issues. For Canada to even come close achieving our fair share of global greenhouse gas emissions reductions, boost our economy and create jobs; we needed large scale investments in mass transit, passenger rail, affordable housing, energy conservation through building retrofits, and renewable energy. These investments should be twinned to a "Made in Canada" procurement policy that would help support new jobs in manufacturing and services while reducing the distance between producers and consumers.

This did not happen. The Budget only once mentions the words "climate change" and only in the context of expansion of nuclear energy. It fails to consider the long-term consequences to the environment and is literally a short-term program only which expires at the end of 2010, and does not provide continuing funding to the cities and to major environmental investments.

Further, the biggest financial commitments are poorly allocated including $300 million to support nuclear energy, $250 million for research and development into unproven carbon capture and storage (CCS), and an inadequate $250 million over 5 years for the development of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

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