GREENPEACE CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER TO CUT CARBON SUBSIDIES

Yearly billion dollar break to oil patch fuels severe climate damage

OTTAWA, 4 November, 1997

The international environmental organization Greenpeace called on the Prime Minister today to eliminate its billion dollar subsidy to the oil industry as a first step in reducing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace has also written an open letter to all Members of Parliament highlighting the subsidy issue.

In 1995, the latest year for which figures are available, Ottawa handed out $336.6 million to the fossil fuel industry in the form of direct grants and equity and $259.3 million in the form of various supportive programs. Despite his concern with deficit cutting, Finance Minister Paul Martin also allowed the oil industry $362 million in tax breaks. (1)

"Ottawa's massive handouts to the oil patch are economically perverse and environmentally destructive, " said Greenpeace Atmosphere and Energy campaigner Kevin Jardine. "It's no wonder Canada's greenhouse gas emissions just keep going up and up, when the oil industry receives such financial encouragement from the federal government."

Calls for reform of Ottawa's oil subsidy program have been made repeatedly over the years, including in the present government's own Red Book. (2) In 1995 the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development also recommended that the federal government refrain from injecting any additional tax assistance into tar sands development. Nevertheless, immediately following release of the committee's report, the federal government allowed the developers of the Alberta tar Sands to write off 100 per cent of their expenditures.

"It's clear that Ottawa's policy is stuck in the past, in the mire of outdated energy sources like the Alberta tar sands. That's why this government must go to Kyoto with its tail between its legs," said Jardine.

Just four weeks remain until intermnational environmental talks in Kyoto, Japan where Canada will report its failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which have risen more than ten per cent since 1990. However, government sources are reporting that the federal government wants to put off reductions until past the year 2010.

This head-in-the-sand approach ignores the growing evidence that Canada will be among the countries most seriously effected by climate damage, especially in its northern regions. The Mackenzie Basin is heating up at three times the global rate, resulting in melting permafrost, increasing forest fires and coastal erosion. "When will Jean Chretien and Paul Martin realize Canada must shift its energy policy to alternative energy sources for the 21st century?" asked Jardine.

Editor's Note:

1) "Federal Subsidies to the Fossil Fuel Industry", 1995/1996, A synopsis by The Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, February, 1996 prepared by Greenpeace Canada.