In less than a week, three levels of government promised to release concrete plans in the near future on how to deal with the threat of global climate change. The federal budget, released March 19, included an indication that, pending certain discussions, the government would be releasing a clean air plan to clarify previous commitments about how it plans to go about regulating emissions of greenhouse gases. It also extended the qualification deadline for accelerated (50 per cent per year) capital cost allowance under Class 43.2 of Schedule II to the Income Tax Regulations for specified energy generation equipment.
A few days later, Ontario’s budget was released, with similar indications that climate measures would be announced in the near future. Just before the budget, the province announced that it was considering joining a state-level initiative on climate change – the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (See “Ontario considers joining US GHG initiative,' page 15.)
The City of Toronto, led by Mayor David Miller went even further, saying on March 23 that it was looking to become a world leader among cities at reducing its impact on the climate. He tabled proposals designed to achieve a 30% cut in GHG emissions from Toronto by 2020.
Each level of government is saying, of course, that the success of their plan depends heavily on collaboration from other levels of government.