Signing the Kyoto Accord.

Ontario Farmer

February 27, 2007.

Roseneath - The gentle-spoken grandmother asks once more of her grand-daughter “Mimi, are you sure you don’t need lessons? We can get you lessons.”

At the base of the bunny-hill at nearby Kirby the little girl answers with determination. Snowboard on one foot, she heads up the lift for another try. Christine Stewart watches with a smile, chats with an old friend, then retires to the chalet where Mimi will find her in an hour’s time; the mysteries of snowboarding solved.

Ten years ago Christine Stewart would not have strode anonymously through this hillside setting.

With concern about the Kyoto accord growing; and Canada’s response to its own commitments questioned almost daily; the former environment minister who negotiated and signed the accord for Canada has slipped silently into anonymity. Her commitment has not waned; her vision may yet unfurl, but it has been derailed for the past ten years by a government which did not understand the far-reaching opportunities of environmental issues and allowed itself to be swayed by short-term economic cost.

“I saw climate change as being something of a panacea for the whole world. But we’ve waited ten years too long.”

“The Minister of Finance could never find money for Kyoto which was a terrible disappointment to me. But politics is all about politics. If health is where you’re going to win the election, then people focus on health.” “I was trying to stimulate the economy... But the mentality was environment is not where you’re going to go.”

She sighs. Criticism doesn’t come easy to Christine Stewart. Frustration she can deal with. “I had my turn,” she says. She speaks with passion and fervor of what might have been; how Canada’s Kyoto commitments could have been met by a combination of domestic measures which balanced development of the prairie oil-fields with energy-saving initiatives. Then internationally, she says, Canada could have reaped more benefits by formulating new technologies to be implemented in developing nations.

“If it’s cheaper to reduce a ton of green house gas in schools then industry... to me a ton reduced is a ton reduced and you should take advantage of it. If it’s cheaper to reduce a ton in China, then do it in China,” says Stewart who felt handcuffed by the Elizabeth Mays and David Suzukis who campaigned that all of Canada’s commitments had to be fulfilled domestically.

A response 10 years ago when Kyoto was signed would have kick-started a brand new environmentally friendly industry; would have fostered the establishment then of green energy and established Canada as the world leader. Instead, she says, with industry poised to leap, it was her own Liberal government which stalled.

“We had all these tables, and the object was you had to come to a consensus. Give me a break, we needed leadership. Once we had a level playing field, then we could go for challenges.”

“But once industry realized after a year that government wasn’t doing anything then they stopped,” she says. One industry vice-president even told her that he had been prepared to do more, “but there were no signals from government.”

She notes Stephan Dionne was the federal/provincial minister at the time and he was against Kyoto. “When the prime minister only gets crap from everybody, why is he going to be supportive?” asks Stewart. Today, she sighs, Europe is “way ahead of us. Way ahead.”

“If we had supported the idea, we could have been going gang-busters in developing the technology,” says Stewart who points out that Canada could have developed clean coal technologies for use in China, solar powered stoves for cooking in Third World nations. And the Kyoto commitment would have been fulfilled.

“If you do some work, you get a credit,” she says. “I said the majority of our work would be done here at home.”

Stewart today says that though Chretien was a tremendous leader at the cabinet table, “He didn’t get environment.” She also says Natural Resources minister Ralph Goodall accompanied her to “reassure,” the domestic oil industry because of the tremendous amount of “pushback,” Kyoto was getting.

But the House of Commons continued to be plagued by politicians posturing that “Kyoto would bankrupt the country.” “I talked about the opportunity.”

By 1999 Stewart’s husband had been diagnosed with cancer. She had been removed from cabinet and had to forego a trip to China which she was hopeful could have opened more doors for partnerships, after she had hosted the Chinese Environment Minister and a delegation to her home shortly after they toured the Darlington Generating Station.

Today she watches silently, not speaking out. “The attitude will be, you had your turn,” she anticipates. “That’s not to say I’m not terribly frustrated.”