Climate plan may take ‘months’

Ontario minister lowers expectations of meeting

OTTAWA— Ontario’s environment minister says no one expects that a highly anticipated meeting next month between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the premiers will conclude a new climate plan for the country.

“You’re seeing the federal government trying to build a pan-Canadian framework,” Glen Murray, Ontario’s minister for environment and climate change, told The Canadian Press in a recent interview. “That’s going to take many months — that’s not going to happen in a week or two.”

Trudeau’s promise to convene a first ministers meeting to work out a climate plan within 90 days of December’s Paris climate conference set high expectations.

But Murray said a meeting two weeks ago of the provincial and territorial environment ministers and their federal counterpart, Catherine McKenna, directed officials to spend the next six months establishing a common framework of key elements that all parties agree upon, as well as a list of issues that still need to be resolved.

Those unresolved issues, he said, include matters such as trade and capital outflows resulting from climate-change policies and how common carbon pricing can be approached, given the various models already established by provinces in- cluding British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.

The Liberal government attracted a lot of criticism for going to the Paris climate summit with national carbon-reduction targets set by the previous Conservative government.

McKenna has said the Conservative target is a “floor.” But she has also conceded the country is currently not anywhere close to being on track to meet the existing national emissions target.

Meanwhile, the federal government is promising new funding for environmental projects with municipal grants and loans to 20 cities and towns across the country.

McKenna said the $31.5 million in federal money will help communities improve local standards for air, water and soil quality.