Posted: Thursday, 1 March 2007

Introduction

On behalf of the three million members of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), we want to thank you for affording us the opportunity to present our views. The CLC brings together Canada's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 137 district labour councils whose members work in virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy, in all occupations, in all parts of Canada.

The labour movement strongly supports effective and concrete measures to avert catastrophic climate change while building a stronger economy with good jobs. Our environmental and jobs goals are not in conflict, and good policies must address both.

Bill C-30 and measures in the next Budget must kick-start the serious national plan that is needed to deal with the most pressing issue of our times.

We should have moved from analysis to action long time ago. The science, as spelled out in the fourth international expert assessment, tells us clearly and unequivocally that we must move very quickly to make deep reductions to carbon dioxide and other emissions contributing to accelerating man-made climate change if we are to avert a planetary disaster. The Stern report told us that the costs of inaction far outweigh the costs of action, even ignoring the incalculable humanitarian consequences of rising sea levels, desertification, and increasingly violent and unstable weather patterns.

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