Layton Threatens Non-Confidence Vote Over Environment
Posted October 31, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Talk about a strange irony.
NDP leader Jack Layton is so worried about global warming causing humanity to become extinct, he’s willing to let another species die – the hanging-by-a-thread Tory minority government in Ottawa.
The party boss calls the Conservatives Green Plan “dead in the water” and is using his leverage to try and force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to make the changes he wants or face a confidence vote in the House of Commons later this week.
The private member’s bill, tabled Tuesday ahead of a planned meeting between the NDP chief and Harper, sets five-year targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions with a commitment to cut them by 80 percent (compared to 1990 levels) by the year 2050.
“Our actions must be rooted in scientific fact, not ideological fiction,” Layton said. “Research indicates what measures must be taken, and also the environmental and economic costs of inaction.
“For the last 13 years Liberals and Conservatives have bickered and dithered. It is time for action. It’s time for climate change accountability. This bill will ensure that the job gets done.”
The minority Conservative government’s Clean Air Act, put forth earlier this month, has been widely criticized by opposition parties. It includes a promise to cut emissions 50 percent by 2050 but doesn’t contain any short-term targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
The government vows to set industry-specific targets in 2007, and also suggests goals aimed at reducing smog would be set in 2020.
But Layton contends that’s not good enough and says the new proposal, if adopted, would mean short-term goals and new regulations in place within a year.
And he hints he could make it a confidence issue, which could mean bringing down the government.
But Layton can’t do it without the help of the other parties, and they don’t seem interested in pushing it right now. “I think this is the mouse that roared,” comments Liberal MP John Godfrey. “I think this is crazy talk.”
“We’ll vote against their proposal even if they make a motion of confidence out of it,” adds the Bloc’s Gilles Duceppe.
Harper and Layton headed into a closed door meeting on Tuesday to try to work out a compromise. But before both men shut out the press, Harper had one word of warning for his opponent.
“At that meeting we will not rewrite the budget,” he vowed.
The reference: to Layton’s now infamous move in getting the Paul Martin Liberals to make a $4.6 billion budget concession that temporarily saved the Grit government from falling.
If the talks between the two don’t go well – and there’s reason to believe they won’t – Layton could try to introduce his non-confidence motion as soon as Thursday. But judging by the early reaction, that, too, may be “dead in the water”.
