Climate hearings reveal slow pace of government action

The first-ever hearings of the new legislative committee on climate change began on a hopeful note on Tuesday.

Officials from the Environment Department told MLAs from all four political parties that emissions-reduction targets were attainable — if government departments did their part on 118 commitments laid out in the 2016 climate change action plan. 

"Implementing those things will put us on a trajectory to meeting those targets," said Jeff Hoyt, director of the department's climate change secretariat.

Hoyt laid out a bleak picture of how a changing climate will affect New Brunswick: more extreme weather, including more severe rain and major floods, and hotter days in summer bringing new pests and invasive species like blue-green algae.

But at least the policy apparatus of the province was moving toward those targets, which were written into law by the previous Liberal government and later adopted by the Progressive Conservative government. 

While they're "aspirational" and not binding, "the fact that the targets are in the climate change action plan, and the climate change act, shows the importance of the targets to the province," said departmental deputy minister Kelli Simmonds. 

"That reflects really well on everybody, because both things have been approved by different parties of the legislature."

When it came time for details, however — when officials from individual departments appeared — a different picture emerged, of a civil service moving at a slow pace on implementing many of the 118 actions.

The December 2016 climate plan called for departments and Crown corporations "to assume responsibility" for emissions reductions and climate change adaptation "for specific economic sectors related to the department or corporation."

That was more than three years ago, and the Higgs government adopted the plan and its goals and commitments 14 months ago. 

But Tom MacFarlane, the deputy minister at the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, acknowledged that his staff have still not put together an energy strategy to guide policy decisions on lower emissions from electricity generation. 

"That's work that has certainly only been initiated or started and we're trying to put the elements of that work together, but I think as you can appreciate, it's a fairly extensive effort to do such a thing," he said.

"Not only is it a conversation with government, but stakeholders, First Nations and a number of parties who would have input into that." 

They can't do anything if there's no political direction, and that is the failure of this government, and the previous government, and the previous government.- Louise Comeau, Conservation Council of New Brunswick

He said the department hoped to lay out "how we're going to tackle that" early in the new fiscal year that starts April 1.

And he pointed out that NB Power has reduced emissions significantly since 2005.

"We continue to work at it in the absence of a truly defined or endorsed strategy," he said.

Green leader sees lack of urgency

Later that afternoon, Green Party Leader David Coon asked the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure about its plans to lower emissions from cars and trucks.

Those emissions have increased both in net numbers and as a share of the overall provincial output. 

Coon pointed out that the 2016 plan says departments should "consider climate change in all decision-making" and that it be included as a consideration in mandate letters from the premier laying out priorities for ministers and Crown corporations.

But the new deputy minister, John Logan, hadn't seen such a letter.

"We did receive a letter," he said. "The last deputy did. I personally didn't receive it so I'm going to have to go back and look at that."

"So you got a mandate letter but you just don't know what's in it?" Coon asked.

"The former deputy had a mandate letter," said Shannon Sanford, the department's policy director. "There's been some transition and I'm not aware of a new letter being sent to the current deputy."

Sanford managed to cite some policies that he argued are lowering emissions, such as an upcoming strategy for river ferries that will reduce "the detour distances that people have to travel."

A consultant had submitted proposals for a broader plan to be discussed at a workshop this spring, he said.

But Coon wasn't impressed.

"I do not get a sense of urgency whatsoever," he said.

Some of the departments and agencies that appeared at the committee had more robust presentations: Service New Brunswick, for example, laid out how it was mapping flood risks to plan for future extreme weather.

The Crown corporation also said its energy-efficiency work with departments had reduced emissions by 30,000 tonnes and saved $8.4 million. 

'There is no political will'

But overall, said climate researcher Louise Comeau of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, the three days of hearings painted a picture of climate policy lassitude.

"There is no political will, regardless of the government," she said. "I don't care what colour they are. They're all doing the same excuse-making, the same failure to say, 'This is real, we have to change our behaviours.'"

She faulted MLAs for not grappling with the big-picture climate issues facing the province.

There wasn't a single question about the proposed Maritime Iron plant for Belledune, which would increase greenhouse gas emissions by 2.3 million tonnes, past the province's targets.

No one asked if it was realistic, as both Premier Blaine Higgs and Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers have suggested, to use hypothetical emissions reductions in China to offset the Maritime Iron increase.

"We're not having an adult conversation," Comeau said. 

Hoyt acknowledged during the first day of hearings that the 2016 plan "was a bold plan and it's very challenging from an implementation perspective to do all of those things at once."

But Comeau said the civil servants in the spotlight this week were not to blame because they take direction from elected governments. 

"They can't do anything if there's no political direction, and that is the failure of this government, and the previous government, and the previous government, to do that."