Thu, February 15, 2007
Harper will respect Kyoto bill Dismisses it as meaningless
By CP
OTTAWA  Prime Minister Stephen Harper says hell respect the Kyoto climate-change legislation forced through by the opposition, but he dismissed the bill as a toothless measure. The legislation, which gives the government 60 days to come up with a plan to meet Canadas obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, was passed by the opposition parties Wednesday over the strong objections of Harper and his minority Conservatives. The Tories have rejected the Kyoto targets  a six per cent emissions drop from 1990 levels by 2012  calling them unattainable and destructive to the economy. The prime minister said Thursday that he would respect the law, but in the next breath downplayed the legislation as useless. Of course, if and when that becomes law, the government would respect it, Harper said.
I would point out that the bill has no plan of action in it. The bill gives the government no authority to spend any money to actually have a plan of action. The prime minister says the government will bring in a national system regulations to control both greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in a way that will preserve jobs and the economy. The Tories repeatedly tried to kill the bill, attempting procedural measures to have it declared invalid up until the day of the final vote in the Commons. It was finally adopted in a 161-113 vote. Constitutional experts have warned that the government has no choice but to respect the legislation if it is passed by the Senate. The Liberals have said it would amount to a virtual coup detat if Harper were to ignore the law.
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The Conservative Canadian government have decided to obey the Kyoto bill which was a forced decision by the opposition Liberals. Prior to this decision, the Liberal opposition party said the government could be sued if they would ignore the law.

"If and when that becomes law, the government would respect it. I'll just point out ... that the bill has no plan of action in it, the bill gives the government no authority to spend any money to have a plan of action," Canadian PM Stephen Harper told the House on Thursday. "Of course, if and when that becomes law, the government would respect it."

The bill will be sent to the Senate of Canada for approval before it is actually made law. The legislation will only give the government 60 days to come up with a plan that meets with the Kyoto Protocol.

Kyoto wants to drop 6% of greenhouse gas emissions starting from 1990 to 2012. The Conservatives say it is bad for the Canadian economy.

Political experts are now saying that a federal election could come as soon as spring 2007. The Conservatives were elected on the 23 of January in 2006.