For those of your out there that say Canada has to follow Kyoto good, bad or indifferent, are you willing to loose your job for Canada to meet the Kyoto requirements. Or are you one of those who say yes lets meet the Kyoto requirements and if someone else looses their job will sorry but thats just too bad.www.canada.com
The government would have to drive the country into a recession and Canadians would be faced with unemployment and soaring gas and energy prices in order to meet Kyoto commitments, the environment minister said Thursday.
“Based on what we already know, Bill C-288 with its deep reduction in emissions beginning in January is not the answer we’re looking for,” Baird told the Senate committee. “The economics just don’t add up.”
The environment minister said that if C-288 became law, every Canadian family, business and industry would have to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by one-third starting in just eight months.
“There is only one way to make this happen, the government would need to manufacture a recession,” Baird warned.
He went on to outline some of the costs that he says would be borne by the entire economy and that would trickle down to every single Canadian.
Electricity bills, heating and gas prices would soar, businesses would have to scale back or cease production and that would lead to job losses for Canadians, according to Baird’s report.
“Our analysis shows that by 2009, over 275,000 Canadians working today would lose their jobs and become unemployed…I believe this is a massive and unacceptable cost for Canadian families,” he said.
He predicted that electricity bills would jump by 50 per cent after 2010, prices at the pump would shoot up by 60 per cent and natural gas prices to heat home would double.
He called the Liberal-initiated bill “reckless” and said his government is taking a realistic and responsible approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment.
The Conservatives’ have already taken considerable action in recent months, said Baird, and will “soon” be unveiling the industrial regulation component of its plan. The government has promised to impose mandatory greenhouse gas emission reduction targets on industry but has yet to make them public.
Despite his warnings of economic ruin, Baird said Canada remains committed to the principles of Kyoto.
Lets be realistic here people. While I agree that man is having an effect on the envirionment and we should do what we can to reduce and possibly even somewhat reverse that effect, we cannot change it over night and why should we destroy Canada in order to do so. We need to come up with a gradual plan that works for Canada. Also, until the US does something, anything we do here is not going to make much of a difference. That doesn't me we should do nothing, it just means lets make the rate of reduction realistic and attainable, and something that the average Canadian can live with.





