Environmentalists jump on auditor’s report
Posted Oct 4, 2011 2:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The environmental auditor says federal goverment decisions about oilsands projects are based on weak or non-existent information.
Commissioner Scott Vaughan’s scathing report also says there is no way of telling whether Ottawa is on track to meet its targets for cutting greenhouse gasses.
John Bennett with Sierra Club Canada says he’s not surprised by the findings, accusing the federal environment minister of being in the dark.
“Wilful blindness,” says Bennett of Ottawa’s practices. “How does he” (Environment Minister Peter Kent) “know he’s on track? There’s no way to know that if he’s on track or not, because as the Auditor General points out they’re not actually keeping scores.”
“The goals that he wants to achieve anyway are useless,” Bennett continues. “It’s like saying, well you know, we’re” (going to) “make sure the Titanic is going to sink in 45 minutes instead of 30. It’s not useful to have a goal that’s so small that doesn’t actually address the problem.”
So what’s the solution?
Bennett says, regulation — not monitoring — is the answer.
“I think that what this shows is that if you try to go after major changes to protect the environment, you’ve got to do it through regulating industry,” he says. “Therefore you do have all the data” (that) “will come back, if industry will report they have obeyed the law.”
Vaughn’s report says the federal goverment has spent almost $10 billion on dealing with climate change, but can’t effectively track what is being accomplished.
On a positive note the environmental auditor did acknowledge the goverment has recognized it’s monitoring systems have significant shortcomings and is pursuing a plan to fix them.
