http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070315.CLIMATE15/EmailTPStory/TPNational
Government eliminates directorate with key role in forming climate-change policy ALEXANDER PANETTA Canadian Press OTTAWA -- The Conservative government has eliminated a section of Environment Canada that played a key role in shaping climate-change policies now being announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, The Canadian Press has learned. Frustrated bureaucrats said the move is an example of the government's zeal to wrest control from public servants over an increasingly politicized issue. A memo sent to Environment Canada officials this month announced a new organizational structure for the department -- and it no longer includes the Climate Change Policy Directorate. The memo came just as the Prime Minister embarked on a national tour to announce a series of green initiatives that were largely prepared by the division now being dismantled. The directorate consisted of a handful of experts responsible for implementing new policy, co-ordinating climate-change efforts among different government departments, and analyzing their potential impact. Government spokespeople said the number of officials working on climate policy will not decrease. They cast the change as a simple structural move aimed at greater efficiency. "The work [on climate change] has not stopped. It has continued and is ongoing," departmental spokesman Mark Colpitts said. "The number of people working on the file has not decreased." But a pair of Environment Canada bureaucrats said they don't even know who's responsible for climate-change policy any more. They said the now-defunct directorate was specifically in charge of overseeing all new climate-change policy, and that its 10 employees are being reassigned to various quarters. "Even the people working here say, 'Who's really accountable for making climate-change policy any more?' They don't even know," said one bureaucrat who requested anonymity. "Right now we don't know who's accountable." Another government spokesman said there are scores of bureaucrats at Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and other departments still working on climate-change projects. But departmental sources suggested the structural shift is motivated by a political desire: stripping power from a group of civil servants and consolidating it in the Prime Minister's Office. "People who used to work on climate-change policy are all being regrouped -- some into stakeholder engagement, some went into economic analysis. They're all being farmed off," the bureaucrat said. "The [policy] work now is being done by a very small handful of people under the direct supervision of [the Privy Council Office] and PMO." Mr. Harper has toured the country in recent days announcing transfers from a $1.5-billion national fund for climate-change initiatives. He has also promised to announce hard targets for greenhouse-gas reduction within a month, and was in Ontario to make an unrelated $225-million pledge yesterday to help preserve ecologically sensitive lands. But bureaucrats said many of the new measures were already in place under the previous Liberal government and were designed in large part by the office that's now being disbanded. Some of the measures include: An east-west power grid linking Manitoba to Ontario, for which Mr. Harper announced $586-million in funding at an event in Toronto last week. Federal funding of $156-million for carbon disposal in the Alberta oil sands, announced by Mr. Harper in Edmonton last week. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said that even yesterday's announcement is a rehash of a plan to create a $200-million Pierre Elliott Trudeau Nature Conservation Foundation when he was environment minister. The Liberals called the structural change just another rebranding exercise from a government that recycles old ideas and passes them off as its own. "They're pursuing a campaign of propaganda like we've never seen before at the federal level," Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said. "They're trying to simply discard all of the former climate-change programming . . . and trying to deny that there was a previous government." In a March 1 e-mail to staff from Environment Canada deputy minister Michael Horgan, the former head of the policy directorate -- Alex Manson -- was introduced as a new special adviser to the assistant deputy minister. Mr. McGuinty said the move will demoralize bureaucrats who worked on innovative or popular programs, like the One-Tonne Challenge. One of the bureaucrats who spoke on background agreed. "Almost word for word, everything being set up was already negotiated and ready to go. It's just being repackaged. "These are the same announcements being rolled out." -- Darryl McMahon It's your planet. If you won't look after it, who will? The Emperor's New Hydrogen Economy (now in print and eBook) http://www.econogics.com/TENHE/ _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
