Tomorrow, the bill to pass the Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311) goes to the House of Commons. I'm urging everyone I know to write to their MP and ask them to support the bill. Here's a copy of the letter I sent to my MP Irwin Cotler, and copied to the heads of the four sitting parties as well as the Minister of the Environment. Feel free to copy, cut, paste, dissect, disagree and do whatever you like with the text you see below.
Dear Mr. Cotler,
It is time to change the unfortunate direction that Canada has moved in when it comes to both climate change policy and international leadership on issues of global concern. Bill C-311 presents a made-in-Canada mechanism to hold the government responsible for failures to meet the international climate change obligations it agrees to. This will end the current practice of saying one thing around the negotiating table and then taking no meaningful steps to back up those words with action. Our credibility and, more importantly, our way of life (admittedly beyond the next election cycle or two) are at stake. I wish this was hyperbole, but it is not.
I have next to no knowledge of Parliamentary procedure, so this may or may not be of immediate concern: I see one item that should be amended for clarity in the proposed bill. The "Minister" is defined as the Minister of the Environment. From what I understand, cabinet posts exist at the leisure of the Prime Minister. Abolishing the Environment Ministry and folding its operations into a different portfolio would leave this Act toothless, at least in terms of cabinet-level responsibility. Better that the definition be expanded to include any single minister who, now or in the future, is responsible for monitoring emissions.
I urge you to support passage of this bill.
Kindest Regards,
Name and Address here
cc Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper, Scott Prentice, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe
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