Who Needs the Federal Government!

Last night on the CBC show The Hour [which by the way, if you have never seen it is worth catching] there was an interview with Terry Tamminen the environmental advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzengger. While initially I did not have much interest in this interview, as the conversation continued I became more and more captivated by some of the idea's being expressed.

The key idea that made me sit up and adjust my pillow was that it does not matter all that much what the US or Canadian federal governments do or think about climate change because so much the lower levels of government at the Provincial and Municipal levels regardless of the Federal policies. Tamminen was in Canada to meet with Premier's Campbell [BC]; Doer [Manitoba] and McGuinty [Ontario], not Prime Minister Harper, to discuss solutions to the environmental issues we all face.

When one considers that policies and regulations such as building codes, power generation and conservation of green spaces often fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial, state or municipal governments, does it really matter all that much if the Federal government[s] are just providing lip service to things such as the Kyoto Accord? As Tamminen mentions, more important then Federal policies is that the States and Provinces enact legislation and policies that support and work toward Kyoto targets, as at the end of the day, this will have just as much, if not more impact then Federal policies.

For proof of how Provincial/State environmental legislation can have an impact regardless of the Federal politics, one only has to look as far as the State of California and the landmark bill AB 32 -the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 legislation that will result in a decrease in CO2 emissions of 25% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. This action was happening while the Bush administration is still questioning if global warming was even an issue!

An example of how the Ontario government is starting to form their own alliances and environmental policies can be found in the recent announcement that Ontario is interested in joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, two US state-level strategic partnerships looking at ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Perhaps it is time we stop exerting energy trying to change the Federal government[s] and instead use this same time and energy to work with the Provincial and Municipal governments, on both sides of the border, to make real change happen.