VANCOUVER - Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be trying to share some of the environmental spotlight with British Columbia as he compares the province's plans with new federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions.
Harper told a crowd of about 600 people at a meeting of the B.C. Business Council on Tuesday that the province's plans and the national program restricting emissions on oil-sands projects and coal plants complement each other.
"The B.C. plan, which is tax-based, targets, at this point, mainly consumer emissions," Harper said. "On the other hand our regulation-based plan focuses on large emitters higher up the production process with special emphasis on the challenges created by the oil sands and coal-fired electricity generation."
Premier Gordon Campbell said the federal government's stricter standards on oil-sands projects and coal plants built after 2011 steps in the right direction.
"That's actually reflecting the plan that we put in place last year," Campbell told reporters after Harper made his comments.
The federal government plan calls for oil-sands projects and coal plants to capture and store their carbon emissions or use other green technologies.
Harper boasted to the crowd about the positive working relationship between the province and the federal government on issues ranging from economic infrastructure to business tax policy to environmental stewardship.
But Dale Marshall, a climate change policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, said there are no comparisons between the two governments' environmental policies.
"The B.C. system, they're looking to reduce emissions absolutely," he said. "Whereas the federal government has said that they're going to be reducing emissions on a per-production basis."
Marshall said several provinces including B.C., Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, are moving forward on different environmental measures because they're not seeing action from the federal government.
"I think he's trying to attach himself as someone who's developing as a bit of a leader on climate change," Marshall said of Harper's comments about Campbell's policies. "That has to make the federal government feel a little bit uncomfortable."
Harper's high praise for B.C. is in sharp contrast to a current feud between the Ontario government and Ottawa.
Several Ontario cabinet ministers have recently accused the federal government of withholding funding for infrastructure projects and new police officers.
While Harper was in B.C. he portioned out almost $250 million, which had been announced in last month's federal budget, to help B.C. forestry workers, pay for a portion of the Evergreen Transit line in Metro Vancouver and to hire new police officers.
During a private meeting Tuesday, Harper and Campbell also discussed a pilot project for Vancouver's poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside to deal with the issues of homelessness and the mentally ill.
"The link between homelessness and mental illness is well established," Harper later told the crowd. "And this project will help develop solutions that will save lives and restore hope in one of the most troubled neighbourhoods in the country."
Campbell said the resources and funding hadn't yet been finalized for the project.
