On Friday, Dayle and David Laing, joined Bette-Ann Goldstein and Lead Now volunteer, Liz Garrison to visit Brampton North MP Ruby Sahota. The meeting’s purpose was to show support for the Government of Canada’s plan to impose a hard carbon emissions cap on the oil and gas industry as part of this county’s Climate Action Plan.
According to Lead Now, the oil and gas sector in Canada is responsible for 26% of this country’s emissions while only contributing 5% to the Canadian economy. Emissions have risen by 87% since 1990 and are projected to continue to rise despite implementing operational efficiencies.
The Federal government has indicated its intention to impose emissions caps on large polluters including oil and gas; the debate now is on when and how those caps will be implemented. Instead of a hard cap to be implemented next year, the industry wants more time and wants intensity targets, where the cap increases along with production levels.
If the government implements intensity targets it means other economic sectors would need to reduce their emissions even further for Canada to meet its global commitment of 40-45% emissions reductions by 2030. We believe this is both unfair and unrealistic.
MP Sahota listened to our argument and agreed to submit a petition to the House on our behalf. She indicated that “soft” signatures are considered more valuable than electronic ones so we are working to get as many as possible. Anyone wishing to physically sign the petition can let us know by sending an email to, info@bramptonea.org and we will arrange to get it to you.
Thanks to Liz Garrison for setting up the meeting with MP Sahota.