Canada greener, but not at the expense of Canadian jobs

“We have to consult the industry and ultimately come up with targets that make progress on the environment while being achievable for industry in a way that doesn't jeopardize Canadian jobs," said Mr. Harper. "We're in the process of target setting and we hope to do that in the weeks and months to come."

President Bush, in his State of the Union Address expressed the intent to reduce oil consumption by 20% in Middle East oil imports over 10 years (effectively reducing American dependence on oil from the Middle East by 75%). The Bush administration will seek to alleviate part of that by importing more oil from Canada. While the US approaches the issue from a security point of view and is mostly concerned with its energy (in)dependence, energy-abundant neighbor Canada has no such problem. As Mr. Harper commented;  "Our need and our desire to deal with these things and set targets is really in the context of environmental improvement and environmental preservation and less in terms of energy security."

The Canadian government has also committed over $1.5 billion to developing renewable energy, said Harper earlier this week during a visit to Lester B. Pearson College in Victoria. "The incentives […] are projected to boost the production of clean, renewable Canadian energy by up to 4,000 megawatts a year. In terms of greenhouse gas reduction, that would be the equivalent of taking one million cars off of the road." The program would harness wind, solar, biomass, small hydro and ocean energy and create incentives for energy saving.

While the Conservatives seem to have hijacked the environment agenda, the Liberals say the government is doing too little, too late. A liberal government would allegedly deliver 12,000 megawatts in clean energy. Opposition leader Stephane Dion seems to be actively pushing green as an election issue, which in the end can only benefit the renewables sector in the Great White North.