EDITORIAL: Find savings in Grits’ climate boondoggle

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Since Prime Minister Mark Carney is seeking savings in the federal budget, we can think of no better place to start than the 149 programs costing more than $200 billion that the Liberal government has earmarked for climate change.  

Given its primary goal of reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions to at least 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, the Liberals’ green crusade has been a bust.  

The latest government data from 2023 showed emissions were just 8.5% below 2005 levels.  

Achieving the Liberals’ 2030 target will require the equivalent of eliminating all annual emissions from Canada’s transportation and building sectors in seven years, which would cause a massive recession.  

According to federal environmental commissioner Jerry V. DeMarco, Canada has the worst record of cutting emissions in the G7.  

When he audited 20 of the 149 programs, he found fewer than half were on track to achieve their goals.  

Out of 32 additional measures the government claimed would assist in reaching the 2030 target, only seven were new.  

DeMarco found examples where different programs were funding the same projects and reporting the same expected emission cuts, raising the possibility of double-counting.  

He said the government’s lack of transparency in reporting emissions made it impossible for the average citizen to understand its claims.  

The computer modelling used to estimate emissions was out of date, DeMarco said, and “recent decreases to projected 2030 emissions were not due to climate action taken by governments but were instead because of revisions to the data used in modelling.”  

Despite spending over $6.6 billion on programs to help Canadians adapt to more severe weather caused by climate change since 2015, Demarco said, the Liberals’ adaptation strategy, released in 2023, lacked essential elements to make it effective and progress since then has been slow.  

Auditor general Karen Hogan reported last year that in one of the 149 climate programs — the now-disbanded $1-billion Sustainable Development Technology Fund — there were 90 cases where conflict-of-interest rules were ignored in awarding $76 million in government contracts, plus 10 cases where $56 million was awarded to ineligible projects.  

Taxpayers are clearly not getting good value for money spent on these programs.  

It’s time to root out waste and find efficiencies in what has become a massive boondoggle.