Recycled plans

Meanwhile on the home front, the CP reports that the Cons' much-ballyhooed environmental plan will take the general shape of...a plan which involves the environment in some way. Ordinarily I'd criticize any effort in reporting such glaringly content-free and self-serving leaks...except that it's not clear that some key parts of the plan will themselves be any more substantive:

Some elements of the proposed plan such as setting air-quality objectives for the long term but not the immediate future, mirror similar measures in the United States...

Pierre Sadik of the David Suzuki Foundation said environmentalists will be vigilant to ensure that the plan is not just a public relations exercise to boost Conservative prospects in the next election.

"We've seen this kind of green plan before, what with Mulroney's original Green Plan, and then the Liberal government had its Project Green, and in both cases, after the fireworks of the announcements and so on . . . the plans kind of fizzled.

"Unless this new plan has clear targets to quickly cut pollution in the short term, then the promised relief will always be just over the horizon, kind of just after the next election."

Sadik worries that the emissions-cutting targets will be set 10 or 15 years in the future.

"We'll be watching the government very closely to make sure the plan doesn't leave the government any wiggle room to get out of its environmental commitments to Canadians."

Needless to say, with several sources strategically leaking information on the issue as well, the Cons are trying to be seen doing something. But there's plenty of reason for concern Sadik's fears are well-founded. And it's worth pointing out now that the Cons won't be believed any more than the Libs in claiming that vague long-term goals are a meaningful substitute for real progress.