OTTAWA - Canada's top business leaders have endorsed a plan to combat global climate change that calls for government intervention and acknowledges that business, as well as the public, will have to pay a stiff price.
A task force of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which represents a wide cross-section of business interests, including oil producers, released a report Monday calling for a national strategy that produces real reductions in greenhouse gases.
The document will likely face criticism from environmentalists for not going far enough because it does not embrace a carbon tax -- although it does not reject one -- and calls for intensity-based targets rather than absolute reductions.
The proposals most resemble the Conservative government's green plan which was roundly criticized by opposition parties and environmental groups.
Council president Tom d'Aquino, a task force co-chair, said such criticism would miss the point that business leaders from every sector of the economy have accepted the responsibility of making greenhouse-gas reductions.
And he noted that while the report calls for the controversial intensity targets -- which would allow industries to increase emissions if they produce more products -- the chief executives also say that the intensity targets must result in absolute, economy-wide reductions.
"There isn't another country in the world that has brought together such a coalition of CEOs and business interests to pursue an environmental agenda,'' d'Aquino said.
"And the second point is that this is not businesses whining or whinging about global climate change. What we're saying is, if we harness the opportunities that the climate change offers us, ultimately Canada will emerge not only an energy superpower but also an environmental superpower.''
The task force, which was formed in March, includes such corporate heavyweights as Alcan head Richard Evans, Suncor chief executive Richard George, Imperial Oil chairman Tim Hearn, the Royal Bank's Gordon Nixon, Manulife Financial head Dominic D'Alessandro and Paul Desmarais Jr. of Power Corporation.
The most encompassing recommendation is that the federal government, provinces, industry and consumer groups join forces on an agreed-upon national action plan on climate change.
The report is most critical about the failure of provinces and Ottawa to agree on a common strategy and action plan.
"Since Kyoto, we've have policy chaos,'' said d'Aquino. "We've had provinces at each other's throats, opposition parties at the throat of the government -- we are all over the map on an issue that continues to elude any form of national consensus.''
The CEOs call on government to establish "price signals'' -- which could include a carbon tax -- but they lean more to an emissions trading system, to influence behaviour.
While the report says targets are important to trigger action, it adds that the most effective way of achieving environmental sustainability is through technological advances, and therefore governments should establish long-term technology funds to drive innovation.
Following such a path will not only help the environment, the task force says, but also make industry more efficient and improve Canada's global competitiveness.
"There is no question that taxation can be effective in changing business and consumer decisions and behaviour,'' the chief executives write. "They can encourage long-term investments in research and capital equipment by establishing a know rate of return.''
The report says taxes would have to be very punitive to drive behavioural change, but if governments do impose a carbon tax, it should be commensurate with a tax cut of equal value so as to be revenue neutral. As well, any carbon tax should not discriminate against any sector, the task force argues.
The report makes clear that the transition to a more clean and efficient economy will not be easy or without costs -- the key is that costs be borne broadly.
"Tackling our environmental challenge will have costs for governments, businesses and individuals, and we should not pretend otherwise,'' the report states. "We will not build a successful national strategy by downplaying the likely costs and impacts, for that would only breed cynicism and create a public backlash when the true costs become known.''
D'Aquino likens it to the battle to eliminate the deficit in the 1990s. There were painful reductions in government services, he said, but the end result is that now Canada's economy is among the strongest in the industrial world.
