After years of debating and arguments and failed negotiations, Canada's premiers finally reached an agreement to move forward with a national energy strategy at last month's annual premiers conference in Charlottetown.
Highlighting the agreement is a move away from a strategy almost exclusively focusing on oil and gas development and transportation, to acknowledging climate change impacts and clean energy alternatives and planning for the long-term benefits of developing those alternative energies.
Although premiers from Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador, and the corporations operating in those provinces, still see potential huge economic gains from extracting and producing the oil and gas reserves, this shift in focus should not mean those plans will simply be shut down, rather it just means the energy strategy could be better balanced to address both development and environmental sustainability.
“We made the essential link between the environment and an energy strategy,” said Quebec's premier Phillipe Couillard, adding, “For Canadians, on top of having a greater guarantee of a sustainable environment, it's also that we want Canadians to have access to energy of all kinds.”
The majority of people are aware of the potential downfall for humans and other living species, should the same old energy strategies continue to be held up as anything other than warnings of what not to do to ensure long-term habitat and species health.
With the problem of pollution and environmental degradation very much out in the open, it's time to bring forward realistic and accessible solutions to these problems, and this potential shift to a more balanced energy strategy could advance that – not only here in Canada, but perhaps even globally.
“We actually add value with technology, with innovation in global reductions in other jurisdictions,” said Alberta's interim premier Dave Hancock, adding, “It's not all about what we're doing at home.”
The plans are to have a final draft prepared prior to the premiers meeting next summer.
Here's hoping they can stick to the plan and bring forward a balanced, thoughtful, long-term energy strategy that will still encourage Canadians' ability to be prosperous while also protecting our rights to a safe, clean and healthy habitat.
