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BC minister Lake on missed cap and trade deadline: 'We're not quite there yet'

The British Columbia environment ministry's website says Jan. 1, 2012 is the planned start date for a cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That date has passed, the program is not in place, and the minister responsible says the government hasn't decided what to do.

"We will be discussing our position on cap and trade shortly," Environment Minister Terry Lake said in an interview last week. "We're still working through some of those issues, but I guess we're not quite there yet but pretty soon we'll be very clear about that."

The B.C. government passed the enabling legislation in May, 2008. Through the Western Climate Initiative, along with three other provinces and seven states it was to investigate and implement ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

One measure the WCI members agreed to was cap and trade, which would set a firm cap on the total greenhouse gas emissions and allow permit holders to trade the amount they could emit. Only Quebec and California are moving ahead at this point.

Lake said B.C. is watching what California and Quebec are doing as they go through a transition year. "We haven't made any decision at this point in terms of the future in 2013 when they're going to be implementing allocations and things like that," he said. "We're not in a position to make a decision on that at this point."

The government has done the work it needs to do on cap and trade and it's frustrating it hasn't put the program in place, said Matt Horne, the Pembina Institute's acting climate policy director and B.C. energy solutions director.

"I think it's essentially a political decision of whether they will move forward or not," he said. The province is likely wrestling with the contradiction between promoting three new liquid natural gas projects and meeting its carbon emission targets, he said.

B.C. has a legislated target of reducing its carbon emissions to 33 percent below 2007 levels by 2020.

"It's too early at this point to know how much progress we're making on those targets because everything is retroactive," said Lake, adding there's a delay in emission figures being released. "Certainly we all recognize the challenge of meeting those targets and right now we plan on meeting those targets."

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.


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