TORONTO - The roiling climate-change debate and what Canada should do about global warming will dominate the talk as provincial and territorial leaders sit down Tuesday to plot a strategy that could include an internal emissions-trading system.
The Council of the Federation meeting comes less than one week after Ottawa announced its new greenhouse-gas action plan, denounced as a "fraud'' by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore but steadfastly defended as "tough'' by Environment Minister John Baird.
Despite the intensity of the climate-change debate, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams said the meeting is not meant to be a platform for bashing the Conservative government's plans.
"We will obviously be discussing the Canadian plan, the new government plan, but it's not intended to be a critique,'' Williams, who is chairing the Toronto event, said in an interview Monday.
"It will all be with a view to coming out with our own plan, with our own suggestions (but) I don't mean that we're going to come out with a competing or conflicting climate-change plan.''
Fed bashing and provincial pleas for more cash from Ottawa -- staples of previous Federation of the Council meetings -- are not on the agenda, Williams said.
Instead, Tuesday's working session had its genesis in Banff, Alta., about 18 months ago, when the council decided to collect information on provincial energy issues and come up with a national energy inventory.
Working committees will be presenting draft papers on topics such as climate change, energy transmission and efficiency, renewable energy, and provincial roles in international energy activities.
"I believe the federal government is taking some steps in the right direction,'' said Saskatchewan Prime Minister Lorne Calvert.
"At least now we're not denying there's a problem. At least now there's some plan in place that we can actually debate and work with.''
New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham said he believes his province "can be energy leaders and at the same time good stewards for the environment.''
"We are committed to releasing a climate-change action plan in New Brunswick that is going to be complimentary to the federal plan.''
Following a caucus meeting in Montmagny, Que., Premier Jean Charest said Quebec will develop its own green plan while continuing to defend the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
"In my eyes it's fundamental,'' Charest said.
For his part, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty had two things in mind -- floating the idea of an inter-provincial emissions-trading system and a national electricity grid to move green hydroelectric power across the country.
"The smartest people tell you when it comes to tackling climate change, you've got to begin to put a price on carbon,'' McGuinty said Monday in Ottawa.
"One of the best ways to do that is to have an emission-trading system in place (but) the federal government has chosen not to do that.''
McGuinty noted that British Columbia is talking to bordering American states about such a system and that Ontario is doing the same thing regionally as well.
Baird said Ottawa is onside with working with the U.S.
"If the Americans, at the national level, are ready to move, we'll work with California and those on the West Coast,'' he said from Vancouver. "(B.C. Premier Gordon) Campbell's involved in a greater initiative with New Mexico and the three coastal states. We're prepared to work with California and the northeastern states.''
Provincial leaders should also ponder the idea of a national power grid in much the same way as the trans-Canada railway helped knit the country together, McGuinty said.
Such a grid would be particularly useful in moving hydroelectricity, which is clean in generation, from provinces such as Quebec or Newfoundland to others that are forced to rely more on coal or nuclear-generated power.
"The great thing about hydroelectric capacity is that it's a great renewable resource and it doesn't contribute to climate change,'' McGuinty said.
An election-minded P.E.I. Premier Pat Binns was sending his education minister to the meeting, while Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie was also not expected to attend.
