Andrew Scheer delivers climate plan with no targets

OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer delivered a climate change plan with no targets for emissions reductions Wednesday, focusing on tax credits and research investments instead of a national carbon price.

The Conservatives claim their plan will give Canada its “best chance” at reaching the Paris climate agreement targets by 2030, but provided no details on how much they expect their plan to reduce emissions.

Under the Conservative plan, companies will still be forced to pay for their pollution, but consumers will not pay a fuel levy directly at the cash register or gas pump as they do under the federal carbon price.

The party would put a cap on industrial emissions, forcing companies that emit more than 40 kilotonnes per year to pay unspecified amounts into research and development initiatives that are certified by the federal government. Examples in the plan include funding divisions of private companies that develop emissions-reducing technology, and paying into green technology programs at Canadian universities.

“You cannot tax your way to a cleaner environment. Instead, the answer lies in technology,” Scheer said as he unveiled his environmental plan in Chelsea, Que.

“Just as Conservatives will not leave our children a fiscal deficit, we will not leave them an environmental deficit.”

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The Conservative plan reiterated their commitment to the Paris Agreement, an ambitious international pledge to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 C by 2030. But Scheer’s plan lacks any detail about how much it will reduce Canadian emissions, despite recognizing climate change as a real and present danger that’s contributed to by human activity.

The environment and how best to fight climate change are expected to be major talking points in the upcoming federal campaign, with the Liberal government pitching its national carbon price and rebate system as the most cost efficient way to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

The Conservatives have long opposed any type of carbon pricing — despite most economists agreeing such a tax would be the cheapest and most effective way to curb greenhouse gas emissions — casting the Liberal carbon price as nothing more than a cash grab that will make gasoline and consumer goods more expensive.

But while the Conservatives point out existing measures proposed by the Liberal government — including the carbon price — would not meet the Paris targets, they provided no accounting for how their plan would do better. Their cap on industrial emissions would replace the Liberals’ carbon price for heavy polluters, which puts a price on emissions that exceed levels based on the average emissions per unit of production in each industrial sector.

The Conservatives and NDP have repeatedly attacked this part of the federal carbon price as an unfair break for big business.

The Conservative plan would scrap the fuel levy altogether and simply set an emissions cap that would require any company emitting more than 40 kilotonnes of greenhouse gases per year to make investments in green technology. The party says it would establish an “auditing function” to make sure major emitters are complying.

Canadians renovating their homes would also be eligible for up to 20 per cent off their income tax for “green” renovations between $1,000 and $20,000. The party estimates the program would work out to a maximum of $2,850 in savings per year and cost the government $900 million per year.

Scheer would introduce a “green patent credit” that would reduce the corporate tax rate to five per cent “on income that is generated from green technology and patented in Canada.”

The party would also commit $250 million for a venture capital fund for green technology companies. The plan says this would “leverage” $1 billion in private sector money for the development of green tech in Canada.

Scheer said his party would take a more global focus in the fight against climate change. Pointing to how Canada is responsible for less than 2 per cent of global emissions, the Conservative leader said his party would support the export of Canadian liquified gas, which he argued could replace more emissions-heavy sources like coal in other countries.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna scoffed at the Conservative proposals, calling the measures a “fake plan” that includes no details or any attempt to account for how it will reduce emissions. She also defended her government’s carbon price as the best way to signal to the free market that there is a cost to pollution that causes global warming.

Alexandre Boulerice, the NDP’s environment critic, questioned how the proposed cap on heavy emitters will reduce pollution if companies can simply apply to invest the penalties for excess emissions into their own research and development departments.

“We thought it wouldn’t be good, but we didn’t think that it would be this bad,” he said. “It’s absolutely not credible. There’s no chance they would meet the objectives of the Paris accord.”

Alex Boutilier is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @alexboutilier

Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga