Papering over the cracks, again

Canada’s prime minister, premiers and three territorial leaders gathered in Vancouver this week to address the issue of climate change. At the end of the gathering they issued a communiqué indicating agreement. Unfortunately they do not agree on what they agreed on.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entered the session hoping to get consensus on a national system of carbon pricing, and indicated that’s what he achieved.

“The transition to a low- carbon economy will happen by a broad suite of measures, which will include pricing carbon,” he said as the gathering finished up. “That is something that we’ve all committed to.”

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall disagreed. “If there is a notion that comes forward that this is some sort of licence to pursue a national carbon tax, I’ ll be in disagreement with that, because that’s not my understanding,” he said. He hailed the document for “recognizing that fact ... that we don’t want a national carbon levy.”

The leaders of the three northern territories put their names to the document, but issued a joint declaration opposing a tax. “I believe a carbon tax would have a negative impact on quality of life in the North. Canada’s climate change goals must be conducted in a way that does not significantly impact northern costs of living, undermine food security or threaten emerging economies,” said Yukon Premier Darrel l Pasloski.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark perhaps came closest to acknowledging the reality, noting that the carbon declaration “can be interpreted pretty broadly.” In other words, the province scan each continue following their individual paths, as before.

It is clear that Canada’s economic well- being and trade prospects rely, at least in part, on being able to show we have a credible plan to reduce carbon emissions, and a national framework is economically preferable to a patchwork of overlapping sub-national plans.

The devil will be in the details, of course, and it is apparent we will be considering the details for years yet. What was announced this week was less a national carbon- pricing framework than a plan to get together later and talk about it some more. Yes, complicated deals require careful study and negotiation, but even agreements in principle must agree to some principles.

That does not appear to be what we have. Stephen McNeil of Nova Scotia worried about driving up hydro costs in his province. Alberta’s Rachel Notley seemed fine with a national carbon price, so long as there was also national support for pipeline infrastructure. Alberta also indicated it won’t be buying any additional hydro power from British Columbia until it gets a friendlier reception on the pipeline front.

Consensus, l adies and gentlemen, this is not.

There’s nothing new in this, of course, and that’s j ust the problem. Tough talk and lacklustre followthrough are eternal features of our politics. The Liberals came to power after accusing the previous Conservative government of being all talk and no action on climate change. They promised follow- through. They also pledged to improve relations with the provinces to bring about greater cooperation on issues of national importance. Instead, we got a carefully worded, pre- packaged document designed to cover over the divisions that remain and obscure the fact little progress was made.

Across the world, voters are indicating they are tired of governments that can’t even deliver on basic pledges, and rely on rhetoric and bafflegab to hide their failures. A federal official argued after the Vancouver meeting that just getting all the premiers to sign a document containing a reference to carbon pricing was an advance. Perhaps that’s the case in the ethereal world of federal- provincial politics, but any document can attract signatures if it’s vague and undemanding enough.

Canadians have had enough of communiqués in place of substance. Words won’t halt emissions. It would have been preferable had the premiers and prime minister issued a statement admitting their differences were far greater than expected and vowing to get to work to narrow the gap. At least that would have been honest. Which would be a change.