The Conservative government will be making deep spending cuts to programs designed to fight global warming in order to fund tax cuts, according to cabinet documents obtained by CTV and The Globe and Mail.
The documents show that the government will slash spending on Environment Canada programs designed to fight global warming by 80 per cent -- and the savings will help fund a Tory campaign promise of tax breaks for people who buy transit passes.
The text reveals that the tax break promise would amount to a cost of $1 billion. However, the documents also show the government has no evidence the plan will increase ridership or help the environment.
"A wide range of data suggests that people are not very responsive to changes in transit fares," said a memo prepared for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose last week by officials in the office of her deputy minister.
". . . while the ridership impacts of the tax incentives are not known with precision, analysis suggests they will be low."
The six-page memo outlines five transit tax-incentive options, making it clear that the government prefers the pass holder tax break.
But its benefits to transit users may be invalidated, the memo states, because "it could be quite easy for the transit authorities to raise their fares to absorb the benefit of the tax credit" -- thus leaving no benefit to people who ride the buses, subways and trains.
"You have no guarantee that ticket prices are going to be low in order to be attractive to get people onto city transport buses," said Liberal MP Wayne Easter told CTV News.
Programs the Conservatives plan to chop to fund the tax break include:
- The $250 million dollar Climate Change Fund for renewable energy;
- Scientific and research programs; and
- The One-Tonne Challenge program that asks Canadians to reduce their use of fossil fuels.
Ryan Sparrow, a spokesperson for Ambrose, refused to confirm or deny the details in the leak, adding that the government hasn't finalized its decisions on climate change.
"Once there is an announcement to be made, we'll make one," Sparrow told The Globe.
The documents bolster previous claims that large-scale cuts to climate-change programs are planned, and further reveal that while spending cuts are expected, staff positions will be retained.
"Only $375 million was approved for climate spending, with most of the dollars covering staff salaries until the new government determines next steps.
"What is clear is that staff will have little to do and that they will have no budgets to spend over the next year and that more cuts are coming."
According to the documents, the programs are being eliminated to also help fund tax cuts including the GST reduction -- a key plank in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election campaign.
The cuts drew fire from environmentalists such as John Bennett, a spokesman for the Sierra Club of Canada, who accused the Tories of having a "slash and burn campaign."
The details from the leak were published one day after Climate Action Network Canada made public its accusations the government plans to cut funding to climate change programs.
David Coon, policy director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, encouraged the government to make the fight against climate change a priority.
"Canadians need a vision of hope in the face of the frightening consequences of rapid climate change," Coon said at the press conference on Wednesday. "For that hope they look to their government, and their expectations are high."
Canada's Kyoto targets were set in 1997, but Ambrose recently said they were unrealistic and dismissed any hope that the goal of reducing Canada's emissions by six per cent from 1990 levels could be reached by 2012.
Citing unpublished government figures, Ambrose said emissions are up by almost 30 per cent since 1990. She said the increase is "very disconcerting," but said Canada is not alone in its situation.
Ambrose is expected to express her concerns when she presides over the next round of Kyoto talks on April 15.
John Godfrey, a Toronto MP who recently dropped out of the race to lead the Liberal party, said the rumours are evidence that the Conservative government needs to adjust its priorities.
"That seems to me that they have it completely wrong. Government is there to lead and to respond and to anticipate, not simply to cut back and give tax cuts," Godfrey told CTV Newsnet.
The Climate Action Network is encouraging Canadians to contact their MPs, the prime minister, and local media to voice their opposition to the alleged plan.
With a report from CTV's Robert Fife
