Thomas Walkom

PM moves quickly on refugees, cautiously on climate change,

Much attention is focused on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by year’s end.

It’s an ambitious promise that the new Liberal government seems determined to fulfil — even though some refugee-settlement organizations have urged Ottawa to slow the pace.

The government has set up a special cabinet committee to deal with these newcomers, many of whom could be housed — temporarily at least — on military bases in Canada.

It seems the Liberals want to be seen as actively engaged in this issue.

Yet Trudeau is moving far more cautiously on climate change, a file that is arguably more important.

Here the new government has been reluctant to be specific, saying only that it hopes to work with the provinces to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Trudeau is slated to attend a crucial climate-change conference in Paris at the end of the month, where world leaders will try to figure out how to slow carbon emissions in order to combat global warming.

But so far he has given little hint as to what position he will take there. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has told reporters only that the Liberals “want to try to do better” than former prime minister Stephen Harper.

But McKenna also said she sees no point in agreeing to emission targets that Canada can’t or won’t meet.

Why is the government so much more low-key about this than it is about refugees?

The answer lies partly in Trudeau’s style. The Syrian refugee crisis provides the new prime minister with an unparalleled opportunity to highlight his optimistic and politically seductive credo that better is always possible.

During the election campaign, his Conservative and New Democratic Party opponents said Canada couldn’t absorb so many needy refugees so quickly.

The always-competitive Trudeau now seems determined to prove them wrong.

More important, he seems determined to make the point around a very human story that most Canadians can easily comprehend.

There is nothing mysterious about families fleeing slaughter in search of a better life.

By comparison, climate change is complicated. The linkage between car exhaust fumes and catastrophic weather is not always clear-cut.

Torontonians may respond generously to the plight of Syrian refugees. But those who use their cars each day may be less well-inclined toward a carbon-pricing regime that pushes up the cost of gasoline.

Hence the Liberals’ desire to move carefully on climate change. The Trudeau government has not set a national target for greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, in a just-published ebook essay, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and economist Eloi Laurent argue that such targets can be counterproductive.

They say that the upcoming Paris summit should focus instead on establishing a global price for carbon that nations would agree to impose.

Beyond this, the Liberal plan is to work with the provinces. At one level, this makes sense since some provinces, most notably British Columbia and Quebec, are actively taking steps to reduce carbon emissions.

At another, it is only a partial solution. York University political scientist Mark Winfield points out that federal oversight, involving both incentives and penalties, is needed to enforce any climate change deal that Ottawa makes with the provinces.

Otherwise, some provincial pre- miers will succumb to the very human temptation of doing as little as possible.

What can Trudeau plausibly do at the Paris climate summit?

Winfield argues that he probably won’t be able to do much that’s concrete — in part because his government is so new.

Trudeau can, however, be expected to take the side of the angels. Those who want to reduce global warming will almost certainly find a firm friend in Canada, even if the details of what this firm friend plans to do remain disturbingly vague.

This doesn’t mean that the Liberals will do nothing on climate change. Like Trudeau, I remain an optimist, albeit one who is often disappointed.

But right now the government is focusing on issues that are easier — like resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada in the middle of winter. Thomas Walkom’s column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.