Nothing doing

Remember back when Jim Prentice's installation as environment minister was supposed to serve as an indication that the Cons were taking the file at least somewhat more seriously? Because Prentice apparently doesn't.

Here's Prentice with the Cons' latest attempt to weasel their way out of doing anything about climate change:

(A)s Ottawa prepares to welcome Mr. Obama on his first presidential visit, Mr. Prentice maintains the two countries share a common approach.

Both countries seek to balance economic growth with environmental progress, he said. As well, both countries favour longer time periods for greenhouse gas reduction and the inclusion of all emitting countries in any global agreement.

Finally, Canada and the U.S. will both rely heavily on technological solutions.

“If you look at the principles that President Obama has put forward ... they are virtually identical to the principles that we have spoken about as Canadians,” said Mr. Prentice...

“It's in everyone's interests that as this thing unfolds, we end up with a system that isn't broken up into a series of sub-national approaches. In the interests of what we need to do as a society in terms of investments and technological change, it's important that we have a national approach.”

However, any common policy on the environment or climate change is a long way off, said Mr. Prentice.

“It's early days yet.”

So, to sum up Prentice's message...

Despite all appearances to the contrary, Prentice is keeping up the fiction that the Cons' no-cap, no-regulation, no-effective funding non-solution is exactly the same as Obama's plan to set up real caps with associated regulations and investments.

But just to make sure that Canada doesn't take a single step beyond what the Obama administration insists on, the Cons plan to keep doing nothing until they actually get pushed into a bilateral deal.

And that in turn serves as an excuse for Prentice to complain about any province which tries to take the lead by signing on to regional initiatives to fill the gap they've left. (Not to mention to claim that because it's "early days yet", a government which has accomplished less than nothing after holding power for over three years should stay on the sidelines while waiting for a new U.S. administration to take the lead.)

All of which should make it clear that the Cons' sole intention when it comes to climate change is to do as little as possible as late as possible. And that's a reality which the Obama administration should bear in mind as the Cons try to sell continued inaction on both sides of the border.