Senate urges more support for renewable energies in Canada

OTTAWA, Ontario, CA, 2004-12-01 Refocus Weekly A committee of the federal Senate wants the government of Canada to provide a five-year moratorium on the 7% sales tax for purchases of all renewable energy equipment.

The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment & Natural Resources also recommends that the provinces introduce a similar moratorium on provincial sales tax, but discussions “should not be considered a reason to delay an immediate start to the federal tax realignment.” The federal GST moratorium should include surcharges on inefficient products to make the measure revenue neutral, suggests senator Tommy Banks in ‘The One-Tonne Challenge: Let’s Get On With It!’

The government launched the challenge as part of its Climate Change Plan published in November 2002, to encourage Canadians to reduce individual GHG emissions, which are estimated at five tonnes from everyday activity. The committee calls for an “overarching vision” to align fiscal and regulatory policies of all levels of government that will address climate change and reduce national emissions by 240 MT.

By 2006, the federal government should introduce Renewable Portfolio Standards for all its operations, and all provincial and municipal governments should adopt similar RPS targets to increase the percentage of energy from renewable, the report recommends.

“There are clear advantages to the use of (renewables) but there are also disadvantages associated with some of these sources,” it explains. “High initial costs are often correctly cited but, when long-term societal and environmental costs are mixed into the equation, those initial disadvantages become far less intimidating.”

The report calls for significant energy efficiency measures and rebates for energy-efficient vehicles, including a recommendation that government “ensure that energy prices more realistically reflect all the costs, including environmental costs, associated with the production and use of energy.” It wants government to re-examine all its fiscal policies to favour energy-efficiency and to introduce energy-efficiency standards by 2010 for all consumer goods that make Canadian standards “equal to, or better than, the most stringent standards found in other industrialized countries.”

The committee recommends that the reduction of GHG emissions be designated as an essential criterion for all relevant federally funded infrastructure projects, and that all levels of government introduce energy surcharges to fund stable, long-term energy efficiency programs. Space heating is responsible for 28.7% of individual GHG emissions and 11.1% from water heating. Almost half comes from passenger road transportation while electricity consumption is responsible for 10% of emissions, which means that Green Heat technologies could reduce 40% of GHG emissions.

“It would be pleasant to think that all Canadians were aware of the urgency of the problem” of climate change, says the report, “but this is the real world. Some of us need informing, some of us need coaxing, and some of us need to be pushed. To do this, the government of Canada will have to make full use of all its available tools, including fiscal and regulatory policies.”

“The One-Tonne Challenge is an essential component of Canada’s effort to meet our Kyoto objectives,” it concludes. “The first tentative steps have already been taken, but much remains to be done. Let’s get on with it!”

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