The federal government declared a Canada-wide ban on the sale of inefficient lightbulbs on Thursday, pledging to eliminate them entirely in Canada within five years.

The move is the latest component in its national environmental initiative, which was inadvertently leaked one day earlier.

"I'm very pleased to announce today Canada is stepping up once again and introducing national standards for energy efficiency in lighting," said Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.

"We must have strong national standards to support provinces and territories that are making their own moves to ban inefficient lighting."

Lunn said the ban is projected to amount to a reduction of 6 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year -- about 0.8 per cent of Canada's emissions.

Homeowners, Lunn said, will save about $60 annually in electricity costs once the ban is implemented.

New Democrat MP Paul Dewar accused the Conservatives of "lurching from press announcement to press announcement" instead of delivering a comprehensive climate-change plan.

He said he had a similar idea to ban inefficient lights but the government quashed it.

"Today we had the government come forward and embrace an idea that I had in a private member's bill to phase out incandescent lights," Dewar told CTV's Mike Duffy Live.

"A couple weeks ago, they said 'Oh no, we'll have to look at this study.' Today they pop up and say, 'We're going to do it.' I guess what we can gather from this is that they're really not sure where to go."

Other jurisdictions, including Ontario, Australia and California, have already implemented similar bans.

After an introduction by Lunn, Environment Minister John Baird said the environmental plan he will release on Thursday will do the following:

  • impose targets on industry so that air pollution is cut in half by 2015;

  • stop greenhouse gases from rising within three to five years, then begin reducing emissions so that by 2020, Canada will have cut GHG emissions by 150 megatonnes, or 20 per cent;

  • require home appliances to be more energy efficient;

  • allow industries to make in-house reductions, take advantage of domestic emissions trading, and use the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, among other initiatives.

"Greenhouse gases are rising, the climate is changing, winters are milder and air pollution is getting worse. The air we breathe is dirtier than it has ever been before. We need to turn the corner," Baird said.

In what has become an oft-repeated refrain, Baird slammed the former Liberal government for "13 years of inaction," pointing out that although the Liberals promised in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they have actually gone up.

"They promised to meet Kyoto but went in the opposite direction. This is how we find ourselves today with one of the worst environmental records among industrialized countries. Now, we need to turn things around."

The Kyoto Protocol calls for a six per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2012.

Baird acknowledged, however, that not everyone will welcome the Conservatives' plan.

"Now, some people will be critical of our plan saying that it doesn't go far enough, while others are saying we are going too far," Baird said.

"Some environmentalists may want perfection, some industry may want nothing. But our government recognizes that we are going in the wrong direction and we need to correct our course."

Baird even poked fun at himself, saying that before he left his office Wednesday he asked his staff if they had a copy of his speech, which was leaked accidentally on Tuesday. Baird said one of his staff members jokingly replied "John, everyone has your speech."

The Sierra Club of Canada blasted the leaked environmental initiative, saying the Conservatives needed to meet the legal obligations set out under the Kyoto Protocol, instead of implementing a new initiative.

"This latest document is just complicated double speak designed to hide the fact that the government is turning its back on the environment. We demand a Kyoto Plan, nothing else will do," said John Bennett, spokesperson for ClimateForChange.

The Sierra Club charged that the leaked plan will allow Canada's greenhouse gas pollution to keep rising until 2012 and then fall by 2020 to 20 per cent below the current level -- which is more than 10 per cent above Canada's Kyoto target.

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said the real test will take place on Thursday when the full plan is released, and the opposition parties and environmentalists offer their responses.

Information on the lightbulb plan became public after Baird's speech was faxed by mistake to the opposition Liberals on Tuesday.

"An administrative mistake was made at my office. It was to be faxed to the government lobby and it was inadvertently faxed to the opposition lobby," Baird said.

Liberal Environment Critic David McGuinty told reporters in a hurried, impromptu news conference Tuesday night that he got the speech after it arrived at the opposition lobby fax machine around 4:30 p.m. EDT.

A page handed him the fax as he was sitting in the House of Commons.

A second fax quickly followed, addressed "to whom it may concern." That fax warned anyone who received the speech was in possession of confidential documents sent in error.

Releasing that information could constitute an offence under securities laws, McGuinty said.

Under pressure to explain, the government released the text just before midnight.