She told them so.And now Alberta’s Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz is laughing out loud at her federal counterpart Steven Guilbeault over his attempts to impose Ottawa’s demonstrated level of emissions competence on Wildrose Country.On Tuesday, the Auditor General released what Schulz called a “scathing” report on Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction plan she says “should serve as a great embarrassment” to Guilbeault over his own department’s inability to establish a meaningful downward trend in emissions since the Liberals were elected in 2015..In fact, the report found Canada would have to abate four times as many emissions in the next six years than it has in the previous 20 combined in order to achieve 40% reductions by 2030, on the way to net-zero by 2050 under the Paris Accord.“Chief among the findings, the commissioner found that the federal government will fail to reach its own 2030 emissions target. He went further, pointing out that the federal government uses poor modelling with faulty assumptions, little analysis and no peer review,” Schulz said.“The bottom line is clear: this is a federal government that is setting itself and Canadians up for failure through bad and unserious policy, designed purely for international photo ops and grand announcements.”.It didn’t help Canada’s emissions reduction plans when Prime Minister Trudeau gave home-heating oil in Atlantic Canada a three-year pass.That prompted Guilbeault to double down on what already is a hard line, even among his caucus colleagues. “As long as I’m the environment minister, there will be no more exemptions to carbon pricing,” Guilbeault told The Canadian Press.“It’s certainly not ideal that we did it and in a perfect world we would not have to do that, but unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world.”It still doesn’t change the fact Ottawa has blown every emissions target it’s ever made — eight of them going back to 1988.Among the report’s other findings: The federal government has made almost zero progress on its plans to make 80% of its vehicle fleet net-zero by 2030. The commissioner found if progress continues at the current rate, it will reach only 1% of the target by 2030.The report goes on to find not only are there not enough electric vehicle chargers, but the federal government doesn’t even know where EV chargers are needed.By contrast, Alberta has reduced methane emissions by 44% and saved some $600 million for industry, even without heavy handed “top-down federal targets.” Moreover, electricity emissions are down 53% and per barrel oil emissions are down another 21%. “The Alberta way is working, and we aren’t done yet,” Schulz said. “To whatever extent this federal government tries to implement these policies, it will end up hurting Canadians, destroying economic growth and worsening the affordability crisis in the process.”“I’d like to reiterate our government’s invitation to Ottawa to work with us toward an achievable 2050 goal of carbon neutrality.”
