Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday his government is ready to launch a new attack on air pollution, but has yet to work out the details of its battle plan.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday his government is ready to launch a new attack on air pollution, but has yet to work out the details of its battle plan.
The Conservative prime minister, who has criticized Canada's past support for the Kyoto treaty to curb greenhouse gases, promised his "holistic" plan will do more to protect the environment by setting realistic targets on cutting emissions.
"Canada's Clean Air Act will allow us to move industry from voluntary compliance to strict regulations," Harper told a news conference in Vancouver against a backdrop of Canada's Pacific Coast mountains.
Harper said the act will be introduced next week in Parliament, but details of the new regulations would have to be worked out over the next year through "extensive" consultations with the industries.
"Where we really want to make progress is making sure that there are regulations that encourage industry over time to make the technological changes to reduce emissions," Harper said.
Harper's political base is in the oil-rich province of Alberta, where emissions are rapidly rising as companies open up oil sands deposits. But he said that the oil industry will not be immune to the new requirements.
"They will be regulated. If we are going to make significant progress on some of these emissions... that will have to include significant progress in the oil sands," he said.
The government has already told the country's auto industry that it plans to impose fuel economy standards after a voluntary agreement expires in 2010.
Harper's opposition to the Kyoto agreement has placed his minority government in a delicate political position with polls showing most Canadians support the accord.
A coalition of 54 Canadian environmental groups sent a letter to Harper last week complaining it was not in the country's interest to abandon its international commitments.
Opposition Liberal environment critic John Godfrey complained about the lack of details in Harper's announcement.
"What they announced is that there will be an announcement next week -- an announcement of a Clean Air Act. And I was astonished that was what the whole content of their announcement was," Godfrey told reporters in Ottawa.
New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said the government already had legislation in place through which new regulations can be introduced, and that Harper's insistence on a new Clean Air Act would delay cleaning up the environment.
"What he has told Canadians to do with this Clean Air Act is to hold their breath," Layton said.
(With reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa)
Source: Reuters
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