Defend Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, Will Canada Enact 1st Carbon Fee & Dividend Policy? and more.

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  CCL Canada Newsletter
   
 
   

 

Table of Contents:
Defend Environmental Bill of Rights
Will Canada Enact 1st CF&D Policy?
9/20 CCL Edu. Call with Kevin Taft 
Conference Announcements
Dr. David Maenz Opinion 
Journalist Defends Carbon Pricing
Letters this month
Defend Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights
 

On July 18, 2018, the Canadian Environmental Law Association submitted an Environmental Bill of Rights application requesting a review of Premier Doug Ford’s July 6th application (EBR Registry Number: 013-3221) to dismantle Ontario’s Cap-and-Trade program without consulting the people, which is in contravention of section 30 of the Ontario Bill of Rights.  

It is law that Ontarians have the right to comment on environmentally significant government proposals.

Contravening the Ontario Bill of Rights is not the action of a government that calls itself the ‘People’s Government.’ They should be listening to the people. Their current dialing back on changes to the Ontario sex education curriculum shows us that they are open to listening, and we thus have hopes that they can change their mind on cap-and-trade as well … Read  the full media release.

What can you do if you are in Ontario? Call your newly elected Member of Provincial Parliament and tell them you want open consultations as provided under the Environmental Bill of Rights. Get your friends and neighbours to sign a petition and give it to your MPP to read at Queen’s Park. Here is a suggested petition and instructions in a Word doc. And if you’re on twitter please tweet:

 

TWEET TO PREMIER FORD

 

 

 
Will Canada Enact the First Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy?
 

In 2018, the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act became the law in Canada. Provinces and territories can choose their own carbon pricing policy, and the federal government will "backstop" any province that doesn’t have a system in place by Sept. 1, 2018 with a revenue-neutral carbon pricing policy.

Ontario's new Premier Doug Ford has begun dismantling cap-and-trade. Thus, Ontarians will receive the federal backstop carbon pricing policy. On July 5, Prime Minister Trudeau said, "Ontario residents, and not the newly elected Progressive Conservative government, will receive the proceeds of a carbon price issued on the province by the federal government.”

The big question now: Will the prime minister give out cheques or enact income tax shifting? To empower Prime Minister Trudeau to send Ontarians cheques, we’re asking Canadians to retweet CCL Canada’s post or email Trudeau and implore him to return carbon fees collected in a dividend cheque: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca. 

RETWEET CCL CANADA POST
 
SAVE THE DATE - Thursday, September 20 - Author Kevin Taft
 

We are excited that Kevin Taft, best-selling author and former leader of Alberta Liberal Party, will be our guest speaker on our September education call. His latest book “Oil’s Deep State” is eye opening and will help prepare us for our fifth annual conference and lobbying in October. 

WHEN: Thursday, September 20, 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET (note your time zone)
WHERE: On the CCL Canada Zoom Line (link will be sent in September; please see registration link below)
PLEASE READ THE BOOK THIS SUMMERhttps://amzn.to/2urvnIY
WHY ATTEND? Because knowing how our democracy has been compromised by some players in the oil industry will help you in your work.
REGISTER: Please register here to receive the information necessary to join our call. (Not necessary if you are CCL Canada Group Leader.)
 
CCL Canada National Conference Update
 
There is no doubt that the closer we are getting to our goal the more difficult the work is becoming. Thus, we are doing something different at our conference this year. We are going to have a 4-hour Motivational Interviewing session on the Saturday, October 14, 2018 with Vince Shutt from Environmentum. Vince has ran Motivational Interviewing workshops for CCL USA. Note, this session will not be broadcasted nor recorded. Thus, if you really want to get to the core of how to motivate change in your riding it is crucial to attend our conference.
 
Previously we announced guest speakers Dr. David Maenz, author of The Price of Carbon, and Mollie Anderson, the National Director of Put A Price On It Canada (PAPOI) -- who will be on our youth panel, and that Angie Nussey will be our conference musician.
 
We are excited to announce two more youth panelists:
  • Sarah M Mah from Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution She will make the links between climate change, carbon pricing and women’s equality.

  • Steven Lee from the  3% Project, who has reached over 1,000,000 Canadian youth, will make the connections between empowering youth, the Sustainable Development goals, climate change and voting.

 
Please note the hotel room registration deadline is September 12. They are hotel suites with a full kitchen for $189 night. Our hotel is the Marriott Residence Inn. It is near the corner of Elgin St and Laurier Ave in downtown Ottawa. Conference details, including lodging, can be found here.
 
Register for the conference by September 1 and save money.

 

REGISTER
 
Dr. David Maenz Opinion in the Regina Leader Post
 
Dr. David Maenz, one of our keynote speakers at our national conference, had an opinion piece published in the Regina Leader-Post on July 30, 2018. He did not mince words. Here is an excerpt:
 
"The recent show of solidarity between Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe in opposing the federal government’s carbon pricing backstop provision within the Pan Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change can only be ascribed to either ignorance as to the design of effective climate action plans or outright climate change denial."
 
 
Journalist at Halifax Chronicle Herald Defends Carbon Pricing
 
Halifax: In November 2011, Joanne Light of Halifax heard Dr. James Hansen on the radio urging people to join Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Immediately afterwards at 10 pm that fateful November night, she emailed our national director, who was in Ottawa at that time. Cathy responded with a phone call to Joanne immediately upon receiving the email. The very next day Joanne got Cathy a meeting in Ottawa with her then Member of Parliament - the former NDP Environment Critic - Megan Leslie.

Since joining us, Joanne has faithfully sent every CCL Canada media release to all papers in Atlantic Canada, and her dedicated letter writing team in Halifax have been regularly submitting letters to the editor and getting them published. Here is a recently published letter to the editor from David Henry.  

Thus, it is with the deepest gratitude to our all of our friends and allies in Atlantic Canada, to read that Ralph Surette, a freelance journalist at the Halifax Chronicle Herald wrote such a powerful piece of the economic validity of carbon pricing in his editorial: “Carbon-tax showdown and the real lowdown.”  Here is an excerpt:

"Worldwide, economists overwhelmingly agree that carbon taxes are the way to go to cut emissions. But the way the public debate is rigged, a vast majority of economists, like a vast majority of scientists, is only equal in public opinion to a handful of cranks making the opposite argument."

 

READ SURETTE'S COLUMN
 
CCL Canada Letters this month
 
Mark Cameron, the executive director of Canadians for Clean Prosperity, a major conservative leaning environmental group, endorsed carbon fee and dividend in early July in his syndicated opinion piece:  Ford-Trudeau showdown -- Cut pump prices or send cheques to families.
 
In response to Mark Cameron’s syndicated opinion piece our volunteers across Canada wrote and recorded 36 letters to the editor in our database. Many thanks to  Cathy Lacroix (Toronto, ON),  Cathy Orlando (Sudbury, ON),  Greg Beal (Ilderton, ON),  John Stephenson (Etobicoke, ON),  Carole Lavallee (Chelmsford, ON),  Elaine Blacklock (Sudbury), and Judy O’Leary (Nelson, BC) for you concerted efforts.  Now that is teamwork!
 
Here is an excerpt from John Stephenson’s letter:
 
“Once transfers appear in bank accounts or debit cards, households will build their budgets on them and no politician dare mess with them. Policy stability — that, above all, is what is craved by business to get with the transformation to a low carbon economy. That’s the point.  Bravo, Cameron. Now, Ford, are you man enough to step into the ring and trap tricky Trudeau with his own tricks?”
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