Michael Ignatieff pulled his Liberals away from a coalition with NDP leader Jack Layton. Now Liberals are hinting they may no longer support Mr. Layton's climate change bill.
Liberal MP and environment critic David McGuinty said he and his party have yet to decide what they will do Wednesday when the bill, C-311, comes to a vote.
Originally introduced in the last Parliament by Mr. Layton, the bill would put into law deep targets for reducing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. The bill calls for reductions of 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 and interim targets starting in 2015.
When Stéphane Dion led the Liberals, the three opposition parties worked together to move the bill through the House, agreeing on amendments and consulting with environmental groups, but the bill died when the 2008 election was called. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois also worked together to pass a Liberal bill into law calling on the government to publish reports on how it was complying with the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
In an interview, Mr. McGuinty said a lot has changed since the last Parliament. His list of new factors includes the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, the change in Liberal leadership and the fact that his party was defeated in the last election after releasing a detailed environmental plan centered around a carbon tax.
"I think we've learned from that," he said.
He said Mr. Ignatieff will announce a new environmental policy in time, but that it won't be rushed simply because of the upcoming vote on Mr. Layton's bill, which is now sponsored by NDP MP Bruce Hyer.
Though he supported the bill in the past, Mr. McGuinty now suggests its targets are fiscally irresponsible because there is no accompanying plan to accomplish them.
"We might as well be sitting at a table with Monopoly money and Tidley Winks," he said.
The bill's sponsor, Mr. Hyer, said he was "hugely disappointed" by Mr. McGuinty's comments. He said he hopes the Liberals do some "soul searching" before Wednesday's vote.
"I'm beginning to wonder if they have an ethic that they stick to on anything," Mr. Hyer said. The first term NDP MP did say however that he thought it might be good for the NDP if the Liberals change their position.
"To be honest, it will probably be really good for the NDP and me if the Liberals vote against this," he said, "because I think they're going to wear it."
