The Ecology Action Centre “applauds” premier Rodney MacDonald in a press release issued this morning, for MacDonald’s participation in the New England Governors / Eastern Canadian Premiers meetings held in Bar Harbor, Maine this week. The govs and premiers approved a Transportation and Air Quality Action Plan, with the following commitments:
By 2020, at least double the overall public and alternative transport mode share from current levels; By 2020, shift 10 percent of existing road-carried freight to intermodal road/rail or short sea transportation by 2020; Provinces and states will work with municipalities and other planning entities to encourage higher density, compact and mixed-use development; and Seek a partnership with our federal governments to develop a market-based policy (e.g. cap and trade, carbon tax) to send uniform greenhouse gas price signals to the transportation sector as soon as possible.
All well and good, except Rodney is doing absolutely nothing to achieve any of these goals.
On the first point, MacDonald says he wants $300 million spent on twinning highways around the province, and has allocated next to nothing for mass transit (Nova Scotia spends just $4 per capita annually on mass transit, compared to an average of $20 spent by other provinces), which will only serve to increase, not decrease, the use of private cars.
On the second point, Rodney has just approved a “long combination vehicle pilot project”—in other words, made legal the use of double trucks, which will vastly increase the amount of freight hauled by truck.
On the third point, well, there’s no provincial planning strategy at all, so far as I can tell. Simply doesn’t exist.
On the last point, MacDonald has done the 180-degree exact opposite: he has spoken against a carbon cap and trade system:
I’m not convinced the cap and trade system is the best for Nova Scotia. Our climate change action plan will be a Nova Scotia-based solution.
and has dissed a carbon tax:
Premier Rodney MacDonald ramped up his fight against the carbon tax plan proposed by the federal Liberals on Thursday, saying Nova Scotia would be hurt by it because the province relies heavily on fossil fuels.
Remember, these four points are what the EAC is praising MacDonald for. I understand they’ve got to work alongside provincial staffers, but come on…
Moving on, the governors and premiers also talked about adopting California emission standards. You’ll recall that this discussion has been on-going since at least 2001, and the Nova Scotian legislature, with Rodney at the helm, even passed the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, which establishes as law the requirement that:
(2)(b)the Province will adopt emissions standards for greenhouse gases and air pollutants from new motor vehicles, such as the standards adopted by the State of California by the year 2010;
Well, great! But….
New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers have endorsed tougher California vehicle emission standards as a way to reduce greenhouse gases.
However, they admitted Tuesday that motorists shouldn’t expect to see them in place any time soon.
The leaders backed the idea during their annual meeting in Bar Harbor, Maine, although some indicated they want to proceed cautiously.
But environmentalist David Coon, policy director for the New Brunswick Conservation Council, said the provinces have so far been more talk than action.
“On the Canadian side we’ve taken no action, and we need to,” he said.
“It’s important to deliver on those commitments and actually implement the regulations to set the standards for new cars that would apply to car lots across Eastern Canada.”
Let me point out that 2010 is just 15 months away. If Nova Scotia is to meet the legal requirement to adopt California emission standards by that date, the regulatory machine has got to be fired up and running. There’s barely time to meet the target, even if everything goes well. But with Rodney and the rest of the premiers playing “you first,” it doesn’t look like it’ll happen at all.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
