Last week a report was published that finally admitted Canada was not on track to meet any of its many climate goals that have been imposed over the past few decades. That’s right, not even one. Unfortunately, this report was not given the kind of coverage in the legacy media it deserved, likely because it makes the Carney Liberal government look bad and the legacy media dearly want to continue their massive subsidies with billions of our tax dollars so nothing negative can be said about the Liberals.
Most of the supposedly binding climate goals were set during the Trudeau Liberal government years although others came into being prior to that. After all, it was back in 1998 that then-prime minister Jean Chrétien signed the Kyoto protocol and got all kinds of credit for doing so. Chrétien went on to do absolutely nothing to implement the policy, although Liberals continued to boast about how they had signed this climate agreement. Despite no follow-through, it sure did make a very nice photo-op and had the environmental crowd singing Chrétien’s praises for basically doing nothing.
The report that announced all of these failures was done by the Canadian Climate Institute (CCI), a largely government funded body that most objective climate policy observers view as extreme if not radical. By publishing this report, the Institute is likely attempting to encourage policy makers to toughen up on climate policies so more progress can be made on goals in future. In fact, the conclusion notes, among other things, that “The further Canada veers away from its climate targets, the steeper the path forward. That puts critical economic opportunities at risk – especially as our non-U.S. trading partners are rapidly decarbonizing their economies and looking for solutions.”
Nice try, but our non-U.S. trading partners are actually backing off their climate policies as they’ve seen how destructive they have been to jobs and their economies. We have been told for years that the environment and the economy go hand in hand, but the facts indicate exactly the opposite. Germany is a good example, as their foolish shutting down of nuclear power plants and massive construction of unreliable wind turbines greatly increased the price of electricity and left them excessively dependent on Russia for natural gas at a time when Russia was invading Ukraine. The rapid increase in electricity costs has driven many large manufacturers out of Germany, which used to be viewed as the economic powerhouse of Europe but is now struggling to compete and keep its citizens warm in winter.
The CCI report itemizes the extent to which Canada has failed to meet its various climate targets. For instance, the report concludes Canada will not meet its 2035 emissions target and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. It estimates that instead, national emissions are on course to be about halfway to the 2030 emissions goal. As of 2023, Canada has only managed a nine per cent emissions reduction. Even the U.S., often viewed as worse than Canada, had cut emissions by 17 per cent – almost twice that of Canada.
Some climate apologists claimed the failure of Canada to meet targets was because Prime Minister Mark Carney had lightened up on some of the green policies. That was merely a lame excuse. It’s been clear for some time that targets were not going to be reached, and Carney has actually done very little to reduce the climate policy-related red tape stranglehold on Canadian industry. As we heard from the CEO of Enbridge, Greg Ebel, just last week, there are far too many regulatory, political and development risks in building a major energy project in Canada. All Carney has done is soften or pause some climate policies, while leaving most of the bad laws that are holding Canada back in place. Canada’s current reputation as a place where nothing gets done will not change based on a few non-binding Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs).
The findings of the CCI are by no means unique to Canada. All over the world, countries have been signing various climate protocols so that they can appear to be doing something, while producing nothing other than press releases and photo-ops. If they try to implement even a portion of these punitive policies, they find they destroy many more jobs than they create and render economies uncompetitive. Trillions of dollars world-wide have been spent on useless climate policies, when they could have been helping lower-income countries find their way out of poverty, saving lives and improving living standards globally.
The CCI recommendations – typical for an ideological climate group – are to double down on these policies and make things even more difficult for average citizens and businesses in an attempt to achieve unrealistic and damaging goals. At this point in time, when so much research is showing what an abject failure these policies are and how much they ruin economies, why not just abandon them completely?
In Canada’s case, another farcical element is that since Canada only represents 1.5 per cent of the world’s emissions, even if we met all of the targets we wouldn’t make a dent in global emissions. China, the largest emitter by far in the world, is currently given credit for making electric vehicles in manufacturing facilities powered by coal. It’s gotten laughable how ridiculous the climate thrust has become. Yet here in Canada, we still have a Liberal government that, while slightly tweaking various restrictive climate policies, still has the most damaging ones on the books to discourage investors, reduce economic growth and lower our standard of living. What is perhaps most amazing is that, despite the overwhelming weight of evidence, any Canadian still supports a government that promotes what is clearly a giant, expensive and harmful boondoggle.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
