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Vancouver — Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams defended Alberta's widely assailed climate change plan Tuesday, saying it cannot afford to curb emissions faster because it will remain the engine driving Canada's economy for decades to come.
The climate change meeting, which opened in Vancouver Tuesday morning with 12 of the 13 provincial and territorial leaders in the room, was proposed by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to focus attention on how to adapt to climate change.
While Mr. Campbell hoped to steer the meeting to tackle the impact of global warming on Canada's forests and water resources, Newfoundland's Mr. Williams said the importance of jobs created by the energy sector can not be easily discounted.
“We have to be sensitive to that,” Mr. Williams said. “Obviously we can't do [anything] to the detriment of the environment, but we have to allow them time to adjust.”
A small group of protestors, some of them wearing polar bear costumes, demonstrate outside the meeting of the Council of the Federation in Vancouver on Monday. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
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Mr. Williams, who spoke to reporters for the first time since the premiers began meeting in Vancouver Monday, was asked about the impact a more aggressive plan adopted by Alberta to combat greenhouse gas emissions would have on other provinces.
He echoed Ed Stelmach's comments Monday, when the Alberta Premier noted that energy projects in his oil-rich province are providing jobs for Canadians commuting from as far away as Thunder Bay, Ont. And St. John's.
“I could be glib and say a lot of Newfoundlanders would come home to work because there are obviously a lot of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in Fort McMurray,” Mr. Williams said.
“But there is an overall effect; there is a domino effect on the economy. You can't slay the goose that lays the golden egg.”
With the exception of Mr. Stelmach, who left the two-day meeting Monday night, the provinces and territories were set to talk about what they are calling “adaptation” to climate change.
While the premiers made little progress on how to stem rising greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Campbell's proposal was to focus on the results of global warming, such as extreme weather patterns that can lead to floods, fire and drought.
“I would hope that we can move ahead and British Columbia will be moving ahead certainly with a water initiative with Alberta. We hope Saskatchewan and other provinces will join us,” he said moments before the closed-door session began,” said Mr. Campbell.
“We have a major initiative, I think, on forestry that will be beneficial to everyone.”
Mr. Williams said that if Alberta's contribution to the Canadian economy is not there, it would have to be replaced with something else.
“Canadians have to understand we have to strike a very, very delicate balance,” he said.
But Mr. Williams also stressed that every premier is concerned about climate change.
Mr. Stelmach was conspicuously absent from Tuesday's session on climate change. He attended Monday's portion of the meeting but returned home to Edmonton Monday night. Alberta's Environment Minister is taking his place at the table Tuesday.
“There's not just paying lip service because this happens to be a topic that's of general interest to Canadians,” Mr. Williams said. “Governments are very, very concerned about the implications of climate change and they're actually doing something about it."
Mr. Williams said his province can use its abundant hydroelectric resources to provide other regions with a clean source of electricity. But he said it will cost billions of dollars to develop hydroelectric projects on the Lower Churchill River in his province and then build the transmission lines to export some of the power to other provinces. He said it is imperative that the federal government get involved in helping to finance such an initiative.
Despite the desire by the premiers to grapple with climate change, in particular the impact on the country's lakes, forests and wildlife, he played down expectations of just how much his colleagues could achieve during the meeting.
“I don't think a memorandum will be produced that will lay out all the solutions,” he said.
