Chretien's a man who's lacking a plan

Calgary Sun ^ | December 11, 2002 | Licia Corbella

[Clive]

"We need a plan. I'm not going to just throw money after a problem, not knowing what the results are going to be."

Take a wild guess who said that?

You're going to fall over in shock, but those words were uttered just a couple of weeks ago by Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Unfortunately, the PM was NOT referring to the Kyoto Protocol, which his government voted in favour of ratifying yesterday after invoking closure in Parliament on Monday.

Rather, Chretien was commenting about the $15-billion infusion of cash Roy Romanow prescribed in his report on the future of health care in Canada.

Romanow, as all Canadians who aren't dead or in Arizona will know, was the commission chairman who spent 18 months travelling around the country talking to Canadians and studying health systems around the world before writing up 47 recommendations in his 356-page report.

A few weeks before Romanow came the Kirby report, named after Liberal Sen. Michael Kirby.

Those reports and many others besides are not enough of a "plan" for Chretien when it comes to the No. 1 priority of Canadians -- health care.

But when it comes to reducing carbon dioxide emissions -- an essential part of our air -- Chretien is willing to push ahead with no plan and no clear understanding of the costs.

"It was an incredibly stupid decision and without precedent to adopt an international accord with enormous economic ramifications potentially for this country and to do so without a plan," said Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper following the trained-seal vote by the federal Liberals -- in which Alberta MP Anne McLellan not only stood to vote in favour of the protocol but made a determined effort to give a congratulatory shake to Environment Minister David Anderson's hand to boot.

"Already with the rhetoric we have a significant investment chill in some parts of this economy," added Harper.

The Kyoto protocol requires that Canada reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 6% below 1990 levels by 2012.

Since Canada's GHG emissions have spiked substantially since 1990, what Kyoto means is Canada must cut about one-third of its projected GHG emissions.

To put this in perspective, it means that if no plane, train or automobile were to run again in Canada ever again, we would still not meet our Kyoto commitments, or just barely.

In a country where much of our industries already adopt best practices, any possible improvements will be incremental. And since we produce only 2% of the world's GHGs, our reductions will apparently reduce the world's total by somewhere between 0.4 to 0.6 % -- the proverbial drop in the bucket.

Last week, federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser described the Liberal government's "astronomical cost overruns" of the gun registration program and the secrecy surrounding it as "inexcusable."

She said the Department of Justice provided many reasons for the dramatic increase in the registry's costs -- from $2 million to $1 billion -- including delays in making regulations, the opting out of provinces and wrong assumptions.

Ring a bell? It sounds identical to Kyoto.

As Harper has said: "How can Canadians trust the government on Kyoto -- which is on a much larger scale than the gun registry -- when it is running 500 times over budget on the gun registry?"

Already Chretien says Kyoto will only cost a few billion dollars and about 100,000 jobs. Let's hope we won't be multiplying those numbers by 500.

What's more, the feds will try to tell you they do have a plan. Here is, in part, is what that plan says: "n Step-by-step and evergreen; n build on actions already underway; n assess progress, learn as we go, make adjustments, capitalize on new developments/ opportunities; n further prudent and responsible actions as needed."

It's not a plan. It's gibberish.

The uncertainty of Kyoto that has already cost jobs in the oilsands hasn't decreased because of yesterday's vote. It's only just begun.

[Clive]

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[Clive]

Damn, I did it again. Used the Zim ping list when I meant to use the Canada list.

Apologies

[Clive]

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[headsonpikes]

Of course Chretien has a plan-- the age-old Liberal plan of retaining his absolute and 'rightful' power.

No one can say that Canada hasn't been a full and active participant in the socialist delusions of the past century. Canadians actually believe Medicare is a defining characteristic of nationhood, apparently.

The socialist/Liberal plan has worked for a long time.

Heads on pikes.

[Snowyman]

"We need a plan"

Said with the same intelligent deliberation and conviction as "A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven."

Or is that just plain old desperation?

[backhoe]

No sweat, Clive- I needed to see this anyway.

[Aura Of The Blade]

Romanow, as all Canadians who aren't dead or in Arizona...

LOL!

[Aura Of The Blade]

It's hard to believe Cretin actually graduated law school with his absurd public statement of proof.