Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has released a plan to crack down on industry and impose tough new caps on greenhouse gas emissions by January 2008, but Conservatives have dismissed the idea as a tax scheme.
"This plan asks industry to take responsibility for its fair share of carbon emissions, and this plan encourages businesses to invest in tangibly reducing their own emissions," said Dion.
"It took a Liberal government to balance Canada's financial budget. Now it's time to balance our carbon budget."
Under Dion's proposal, companies that fail to cut their emissions would pay $20 for every ton of carbon emissions over their target. The fines, which would rise to $30 by 2011, would go into a special account to finance green projects.
The companies that went beyond their targets would be able to sell the extra credits they earn to other firms, a proposal that Dion called a "carbon budget."
Conservative MP Jason Kenney criticized the plan as nothing more than a carbon tax.
"This is obviously a tax scheme, and it's a tax scheme that won't necessarily result in any actual reduction in greenhouse gasses, because companies can essentially pay to earn the right to increase their greenhouse gasses," Kenney told CTV's Mike Duffy Live.
But Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said describing the plan as a tax was misleading.
"When you pay a tax, you don't get it back," said McGuinty.
"This is basically a plan for Canadian companies to deposit money for the surplus tons they emit of greenhouse gasses beyond their 1990 levels. They then have the right to access all of that money back, just as a citizen does with the Canada Pension Plan. All that money comes back to them to help them reduce their greenhouse gas emissions."
Some environmentalists have praised Dion's plan, saying big industrial polluters must pay because they are the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses.
"If the corporations in Canada obey a law like this, it will work and we will meet our Kyoto targets," said John Bennett of the Climate Action Network.
Dion's plan targets electric power plants, the oil and gas sector and other energy-intensive industries.
He said 700 large industrial emitters produce 50 per cent of the country's greenhouse gases and must be reined in.
In the past, Canada has been a leader in the fight against climate change, Dion said but has lost that standing under the current Conservative government.
"It is time for us to be a leader again," Dion said.
"Climate change is the most pressing ecological challenge of our time. But it also presents a rare opportunity by encouraging energy efficient and clean technologies today. Canada can be a leader in the economy of tomorrow."
He said he was releasing a "white paper" that is just one component of the Liberals' environmental strategy.
"We can no longer use our atmosphere as a garbage dump," Dion said.
"This plan asks people to take responsibility for their fair share of carbon and it asks businesses to invest in tangibly reducing their own emissions."
Other features of the plan announced on Friday:
- Companies would be able to buy international credits through the Kyoto Protocol to offset up to 25 per cent of their excess emissions;
- The account that holds the fines paid by companies that exceed their targets would be managed by an independent agency;
- Companies could freely access the funds in the GIA to invest in green projects and initiatives at a rate of $10 per ton every year that would contribute to tangible reductions in GHG emissions;
- Firms could get money from the account to invest in green projects;
- Any funds that are not allocated to a project within two years of their deposit would be administered by an independent operating agency to be invested in other green projects and initiatives;
- At least 80 per cent of the funds would be invested in the province where the facility of the depositing firm is located.
With a report by Craig Oliver
