This week's perspective from Joe Chidley: Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have oft been accused of not taking the threat of climate change seriously, so it was both shrewd politics and a handy communications vehicle they set in motion two years ago in the form of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Its mission was to look into the potential ramifications of rising temperatures here in Canada over time, and to try and put a price tag on them in terms of economic impact. That mandate and process gave the Tories somewhere to point for two years, when questioned about the issue. This week, the panel reported back: we could be facing a $5 billion hit by 2020, ramping up to $21 billion to as high as $43 billion by 2050. Huge numbers all around, despite the absence of any sense of what stopping global warming might cost – but no worries, by doing its job, the NRT gave the Harper government a fresh platform upon which to stack the $58 million commitment toward climate change-related initiatives made in the spring budget. Is it enough? Who knows? Did the NRT exercise give the feds at least the appearance of taking the issue seriously – and seriously enough to allocate some budget toward fighting it? You bet.
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