Poll: Albertans want a healthy environment

Albertans torn between resource riches, protecting environment

Kelly Cryderman

Canwest News Service

Saturday, September 13, 2008

CALGARY — Albertans are torn between wanting to reap the full benefits of their natural resource wealth and protecting the environment, a new survey suggests.

“They’re very concerned about the environment, but they don’t want to mess around with the economy,” says Leger Marketing pollster Marc Tremblay.

More than half the Albertans surveyed in the poll for the Calgary Herald – 58 per cent – said governments should take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – even if it means limiting economic development or eliminating jobs.

Canadian Youth say Dion Carbon Tax a good first step but….

July 7, 2008 Green bonanza! Grit leader predicts his carbon plan will mean ‘megatonnes of money’ for Alberta

By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA

Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion brandishes a copy of his Green Shift carbon emissions reduction plan while addressing the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition conference at the University of Alberta yesterday. Dion fielded questions about global climate change from youth across the country. (JAMES MacLENNAN/Special to Sun Media)

A Liberal plan to tax greenhouse-gas emissions will mean “megatonnes of money” instead of economic disaster for Alberta, Stephane Dion vowed yesterday.

The so-called Green Shift tax proposal, which would slap a $40-per-tonne levy on carbon emissions, “will be good for a province like Alberta as it will be for the whole of Canada,” Dion, the leader of the federal Liberals, promised a crowd of dele-gates at the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition conference in Edmonton.

“Imagine Fort McMurray to be sustainable,” he told the audience. “We’ll have the know-how that we’ll be able to export around the world and we’ll make megatonnes of money with it.”

Dion, who has been touring the province in a bid to sell the carbon tax, said the advantage to Alberta will come from economic diversification fostered by the levy.

Greenjobs are the Future for Alberta and Saskatchewan

Dion’s plan targets oil-rich provinces

Tax to hit Alberta, Saskatchewan hard

CAROLINE ALPHONSO

From Friday’s Globe and Mail

June 27, 2008 at 4:00 AM EDT

TORONTO — Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says 40 per cent of Canada’s carbon emissions come from Alberta and Saskatchewan and the two western provinces will have to do the most to change their habits under his new green plan. But he said it will be good for them – and he’s taking that message to the Calgary Stampede next weekend.

“If we do this plan, Alberta and Saskatchewan will be better off 10 years from now than if we don’t do this plan,” Mr. Dion said. “Their economies will be more diversified, their universities will be at the centre of something big happening around the world, and investments will grow.”

He rejected the notion that the two highest polluting provinces having to contend with a greater carbon tax burden could result in Western alienation.

Enlarge ImageLiberal leader Stéphane Dion announces his carbon tax plan in Ottawa on June 19. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)

“To do the right thing will be beneficial for them,” Mr. Dion told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board. “I care about Alberta and Saskatchewan. I know many people who want to do the right thing. Many will know that it will create jobs there – green jobs.”

Big Oil talks Carbon Tax

OK, Alberta oil producers, start thinking carbon taxes

JEFFREY SIMPSON

From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail

June 25, 2008 at 7:45 AM EDT

You might have recently seen newspaper advertisements for Suncor Energy, the oil-sands producer, touting its record in fighting greenhouse-gas emissions.

Suncor, relatively speaking, has been one of the most environmentally conscious oil companies. Rick George, the company’s president and CEO, has spoken often about environmental challenges.

Suncor’s ads, and its recently released progress report on climate change, show it has decreased the intensity of its energy use, thereby reducing greenhouse-gas emissions while investing in several renewable energy projects.

Oil man calls Dion’s green plan “stupid’

Sat. Jun 21 – 4:32 AM
A Toronto philanthropist who made his fortune with investments in the Alberta tar sands has little praise for the federal Liberals’ new “green shift” policy.

Seymour Schulich said Friday that Stephane Dion’s plan to tax carbon emissions but cut taxes for the poor, the elderly and those living in rural communities “is one the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.”

“He’s committed political suicide,” Mr. Schulich said in an interview in Halifax before launching a renewable Dalhousie University scholarship worth more than $2 million.

“Everyone I know is already aggravated by high gas prices, and he wants to push them higher in pursuit of some mythical goal. It is ridiculous.”

Canada’s Transition to a Low Emission Future meets the Tar Sands (film at 11:00)

Sunday, 13 January 2008

Meanwhile in Canada

On Monday the Canadian National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy published its final report Getting to 2050: Canada’s Transition to a Low emission Future. Essentially, it makes the same recommendations as proposed in Hot Air: one of the authors – Mark Jaccard, is a round table member.

The Canadian government lost no time in rejecting the Roundtable’s recommendations. The sticking point for the Liberals is the proposal for a carbon tax, but only because they are in favour of cap and trade which the report suggests as an alternative; they did not reject the proposals out of hand. The National Post whittered on about communism and five year plans.