Eleven of Canada's largest green organizations recently banded together to produce a report to federal politicians on the biggest threats to this country's environment.
With an emphasis on practical recommendations, the report, entitled "Tomorrow Today: How Canada can make a world of difference," lists the most urgent environmental concerns according to the 11 contributors: Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, Environmental Defence, Equiterre, Greenpeace, Nature Canada, Pembina Institute, Pollution Probe, Sierra Club Canada and World Wildlife Fund.
In a recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development study that examined 25 key environmental indicators, Canada ranked 28th out of 29 developed nations in its efforts to address environmental issues.
With this in mind, Dr. Marlo Raynolds, executive director of the Pembina Institute in Calgary, talked with The Globe about the aims of the report and how 11 very different groups joined forces to send a unified message to Ottawa.
What was the genesis for this report?
In September, 2006, a group of executive directors of some of the larger environmental organizations in Canada got together. We sat down and talked about some of the things our organizations were working on, and some of the challenges we faced ...
Over six months we explored ideas of how we might bring together some of our thinking. The real attempt to try to crack this document started in May, 2007. Part of it was in anticipation of a federal election. Environment was at the top of the list for Canadians in terms of issues, and each of the political parties were starting to think about the environmental aspects of their platforms. We wanted to make sure that our group — which represented some of the largest non-governmental organizations in Canada — put down on paper what we felt really needed to be addressed.
Of course, an election did not happen and a year later we don't know when it could, but we are pleased that we were able to negotiate among our groups and pull the report together.
Why is the report important?
You've got a diversity of environmental NGOs ... [with] a wide difference of approaches and profiles in Canada. It is an important message to the Canadian public that we are working together and have a common agenda and perspective on what needs to be accomplished in this country.
The report discusses why it is particularly important to tackle global warming [and] the importance of Canada turning around a poor track record on environmental issues because the OECD consistently ranks Canada as "poor" on all of the environmental indicators.
Part of "Tomorrow Today" is that it is a bit of a wake-up call for Canadians. Canada really isn't leading on this issue in the world. But we want to stay positive on this. There are real policy solutions that can be done. Our recommendations focus on them.
This is very much targeted at federal government, at federal political parties. It is about public policy.
What are the key findings?
We chose to cover the many ranges that environmental organizations work on: energy, wildlife, water, toxic waste issues, economic issues, the world's oceans.
For each of those areas we provide core recommendations, but the common thread that does cross a lot of these areas is global warming and greenhouse-gas pollution.
All the groups identify climate change as our single biggest issue to tackle. It affects everything.
At the same time we don't want to lose sight of the issues surrounding toxic materials or habitat and conservation. It is about finding the right balance.
What has the response been?
Since the report was released in March, the group provided a briefing to all the political parties.
It was very successful in the sense that it got to lay out the different ideas.
Because of its policy nature, our target really was the opinion leaders and decision makers.
Often governments and the environmental movement seem to be poles apart. Was it your intention to lessen this distance?
Once the environment became part of the public consciousness in Canada — and opinion poll after opinion poll showed this — there was a lot of commentary on it all of a sudden.
You had academics, columnists, editorials, politicians who were suddenly well-versed in environmental rhetoric. There was a real movement growing and we felt that it was time to bring our voices back to the table and say what our perspectives and focuses were. That was the guiding principle: to allow opinion leaders to cut through and fully understand what the environmental community really felt about different issues.
What else was gained by working together on this report?
We have identified the pieces that are needed to guide our design of environmental policy in Canada. We need to build as much as possible on the idea that "the polluter pays," and not be giving subsidies to polluters. We want to make governments accountable for the state of our environment, and make us good global citizens. Canadians expect our leaders to be credible and to follow through on our commitments internationally.
The full report is available online at: www.tomorrowtodaycanada.ca
Special to The Globe and Mail
The Marlo Raynolds file
- Age: 35
- Position: Executive director, Pembina Institute, a Calgary-based not-for-profit environmental policy research and education organization
- Education: BSc, systems design engineering, University of Waterloo; master's degree, management and leadership for voluntary sector, McGill University; PhD, mechanical engineering, University of Alberta
- Career: Joined Pembina Institute in 1995, focusing on development and practical application of energy systems and strategies for sustainability. Became executive director in February, 2004. He is also an adjunct assistant professor of sustainable development at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.
Source: www.pembina.org
