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Prime Minister Harper hearing from the wrong advisors on fossil fuel subsidies and financial taxes
Toronto (June 27, 2010) - Leading Canadian and international organizations questioned Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s priorities for taking time out of the G20 to hold private meetings with big polluters and banks as G20 leaders were to start discussing the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies and consider the levying of financial transaction taxes.
Sunday’s G20 meeting included consideration of a commitment made at the previous G20, in Pittsburgh, to phase out fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term. The Pittsburgh G20 tasked countries with preparing implementation plans and timelines to phase out their fossil fuel subsidies for consideration at the Toronto Summit. The OECD estimated recently that subsidies to the companies producing oil, gas and coal are worth approximately US$100 billion a year.
According to media reports of a leaked memo from the department of finance, senior officials recommended to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty that “leading by example” in phasing out fossil fuel subsidies was the best way for Canada to respond to the Pittsburgh commitment. Canada’s current tax breaks to the oil and gas sector are estimated to total $2 billion/year.
However, the memo also included an option of “minimizing” the phase out commitment and failing to remove any additional tax breaks. The memo suggested justifying this position by arguing that Canada “has already removed significant producer tax preferences, and must be given credit for its early action.”
"We'll find out whether Canada and the G20 will attempt to wriggle out of a clear and important commitment," said Mark Fried from Oxfam Canada. "The terrible impacts of the Gulf oil disaster highlight the insanity of giving billions of taxpayers' dollars to subsidize dirty oil and coal. Sadly, what is obvious to everyone else does not seem obvious to world leaders."
“Leaders like Prime Minister Harper can choose to move their countries toward a safe future or a dirty and disastrous one. The Canadian government is clearly making the wrong choice consulting the very businesses who have a financial incentive to continue along the path to a dirty future,” said David Turnbull, Director of Climate Action Network–International.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister used the hours between the G8 and G20 summits to meet with corporate leaders at a “Business 20” summit. The appointed Canadian delegates included representatives of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Suncor and the Royal Bank of Canada.
“As chair of these summits, Stephen Harper has made his shameful environmental policies crystal clear,” said Dave Martin, climate policy adviser for Greenpeace Canada. “By taking valuable time to meet with Suncor's CEO Rick George, the cozy relationship between Canada and the tar sands industry has never been more apparent. This undermines the G20 commitment to end $100 billion a year in worldwide fossil fuel subsidies.”
“So let me get this straight: G20 governments are going to receive candid advice about commerce and important economic issues from the same people that have worked so hard to put us in the global recession and are investing heavily in climate degradation?” said Steven Guilbeault of Equiterre. “Many of these organizations have a vested interest in the ongoing development of fossil fuels, while the G20 needs to be moving in the other direction towards a clean energy economy.”
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