Sorry, I’m going to get a little political on this one.
So here it is everyone: one of the many things that have snuck by public attention with regards to the budget. While Harper introduced a classic diversionary tactic by proposing a change in the anthem, Canadians went crazy and rallied behind opposing that change. In effect, as I’ve said before, that change was never going to come to fruition (and recent news reports have stated that now it officially won’t) however it allowed Harper to distract Canadians from real issues such as the federal budget.
So what is one of the things that this budget includes? A spending freeze. I’m not qualified to give anything more than my own opinion on this, however, I find it interesting that this spending freeze didn’t include the 17 million dollars left as a post Olympics parting gift to Premier Campbell for building more roads and highways instead of fulfilling some of BC’s need for increased public transportation.
What this spending free does include is an ‘end of climate research lab’. This worries me greatly. Canada, under Harper and Prentice signed the Copenhagen Accord, therefore agreeing that they see climate change as a reality. Even though the government has signed this, Mr. Maxime Bernier of the conservative government still choses to say that: “it would be irresponsible to spend billions of dollars … to solve a problem whose gravity we still are not certain about” in regards to climate change. I worry that Mr. Bernier has shown poor judgement in the past with his political and personal activities, and this comment seems to show exactly why there is such a lack of action on environmental issues in Canada and across the world on behalf of our country. Now climate research is being cut.
Perhaps our federal government doesn’t actual believe in climate change. It has been made wholly clear that they don’t have any interest in actually acting on it…maybe they just don’t really see it as an issue. As David Mcguinty said in the above Globe and Mail article: “The funding crunch is unfortunate at a time when we should be investigating more, getting more evidence.”
Since when was learning more and discovering more ever a bad thing?
Filed under: COP15
