Foes Rap Baird on Kyoto-Borne ‘Recession’

Opposition leaders Thursday said Ottawa ignored economic benefits of green technology in predicting a recession if Canada implements the Kyoto protocol.

Every time that a new measure to protect the environment has been presented, there have been resisters predicting doom and gloom, Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said at a news conference. The truth is that we can afford to deal with climate change.

Environmental Minister John Baird of the ruling Conservative Party earlier Thursday told a Senate environment committee the Kyoto treaty to reduce one-third of Canada’s greenhouse gases by 2012 was bad economic policy that would result in 275,000 Canadians losing their jobs by 2009.

He predicted gasoline prices would jump 60 percent and natural gas prices would double, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

There is only one way to make (Kyoto implementation) happen: to manufacture a recession, he said.

McGuinty said Baird deliberately ignored Kyoto’s positive economic benefits, such as better energy efficiency, lower energy use and jobs related to the benefits of emissions reductions.

Conservatives want to bring the benchmark year for carbon cuts to 2006, instead of 1990, as prescribed by Kyoto, The Globe and Mail reported.