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Alberta premier irked by timing of threatened UN sanctions over emissions |
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Written by THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is bristling over the United Nations threat of sanctions against Canada for failing to meet a Kyoto Protocol deadline on greenhouse-gas reporting.
Stelmach says Canada is doing its part for United Nations-backed military efforts in Afghanistan and the timing of these threatened sanctions appears to be insensitive.
"Does it bother me a bit? Yes it does," Stelmach said Thursday. "We're in Afghanistan and just lost another soldier."
The premier says Alberta has taken significant steps over the past year to reduce the intensity of emissions from oilsands plants, coal-fired power plants and industrial plants.
Other provinces, including Ontario, have adopted tougher regulations to reduce emissions, including tailpipe standards.
But Stelmach says with the Ontario's economy failing, he suggests that public support for these emissions standards is "diminishing very quickly."
The Alberta premier says he expects some new alliances will form on the emissions issue when Canada's premiers hold their next meeting.
Stelmach says the provinces were not consulted when Canada signed the Kyoto accord a decade ago and he blames then-prime minister Jean Chretien.
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