|
For Immediate Release Green Budget Coalition
Disappointed OTTAWA (May 2, 2006) The Green Budget Coalition today expressed disappointment that the 2006 federal budget ignored prime opportunities to protect Canada's air and water, and to reduce climate change risks. "There is virtually nothing in this budget to make good on the government's Throne Speech commitment to 'tangible' reductions in pollution and greenhouse gases," said Stephen Hazell, Coalition spokesperson, and Acting Conservation Director for the Sierra Club of Canada. "Their most tangible action has been to cut climate change programs. The transit pass tax credit is expensive and will do little to clean the air or reduce greenhouse gas emissions." The Green Budget Coalition submitted five priority budgetary recommendations, which would simultaneously strengthen Canada's economic competitiveness, clean our air and water, and improve Canadians' health, and could all be implemented at no net additional cost. (Download PDF.) "Furthermore," added Hazell, "the federal government missed a great opportunity to announce the phase-out of the $1.4 billion in annual subsidies to the oil and gas sector, and the over $150 million annually to nuclear power. For decades, these 'pollution subsidies' have contributed to market failure, industrial inefficiency, unsustainable energy consumption, and unnecessary pollution and health damage." "Canada's future prosperity depends on phasing out such subsidies, maintaining our current environmental programs, and better integrating economic, environmental, and human health considerations into federal policy-making." "We do, however, commend the Government for immediately exempting donations of ecologically sensitive land from capital gains tax." The Green Budget Coalition brings together the collective knowledge of 21 of Canada's leading environmental and conservation groups, to submit priority recommendations for each annual federal budget, and to advance the understanding and use of ecological fiscal reform. The Coalition firmly believes that Canada's future prosperity depends on the effective integration of environmental, economic, and human health objectives. The Green Budget Coalition's members include Bird Studies Canada, Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, Canadian Environmental Law Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Centre for Integral Economics, David Suzuki Foundation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Environmental Defence, Équiterre, Friends of the Earth Canada, Greenpeace Canada, International Institute for Sustainable Development, MiningWatch Canada, Nature Canada, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Pembina Institute, Pollution Probe, Sierra Club of Canada, Sierra Legal Defence Fund, Social Investment Organization, and World Wildlife Fund Canada. -30- CONTACTS:
|