Back in September the Conservative's released their much ballyhooed Clean Air Act. Meant to be the centre piece of their so called green plan, the proposed legislation was immediately panned by the media and opposition parties as a piece of industry friendly rhetoric that does nothing to combat global warming or improve air quality.

Today, that bill was sent back to parliament, drastically rewritten by a special committee to include short-term, mid-term and long-term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions; a commitment to a system of international emissions carbon trading; and penalties of $20 per ton for any company that exceeds their emissions target. Harper's rented mule has returned as a thoroughbred that will make substantial progress towards reducing greenhouse gases, holding industry accountable and addressing global warming.

The Conservative response? Hint at elections and release a new set of attack ads.

In a clear demonstration of their environmental leadership, next week the Conservatives will be unveiling their latest run of tabloids criticising Liberal leader Stephen Dion. Unfortunately for Harper and his cronies this is a tired ploy. After more than year in office its time for the Conservative's to demonstrate the environmental leadership they have been promising, and stop painting themselves as the policy victims of the previous government. Real leadership would be in passing the revised Clean Air Act that Harper himself sent to the parliamentary committee for revisions.

That committee has put forward a global warming plan that will create real change. And unless the Conservative ads are actually a set of secret announcements that the government will begin cutting greenhouse gases, Harper and company can boast to being no more than a collection of environmental obstructionists who are failing even to do better than the party they have spent 12 months criticising.

Will you be playing the role of pot or kettle Mr. Harper?

First and foremost, my apologies to readers for this late posting on the Canadian federal budget. The Conscious Earth has spent the last week flu ridden and away from the terminal.

On Monday, the Conservatives handed down the 2007 federal budget. To little surprise, the Tory platform continued to side step the issue of climate change despite the increasingly urgent calls of the world community, environmentalists, scientists, economists and Canadians.

The Green Budget Coalition, a representative group of 20 top environmental organizations, also panned the Conservative's lack of climate change commitment. They did however, highlight the following positive announcements for the environment:

• $110 million for more effective protection of species at risk
• $10 million for protected areas in the Northwest Territories
• $225 million for conserving ecologically sensitive private lands
• The creation of nine new marine protected areas
• $300 million for administering the Canadian Environmental Protection Act
  

Also of note is that the Conservatives announced an end to federal subsidies in the tar sands (but not until 2015), and they are encouraging fuel-efficient vehicles by charging a carbon tax on new gas-guzzling automobiles and providing a rebate on highly efficient cars. Good steps, but meanwhile they're strategy on global warming still hinges on intensity based targets that allow industry greenhouse gas emissions to continue to rise into the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Harper and company continue to ignore the ongoing threat of global warming, and the fact that it is this single issue that is gavlanizing public attention and a rising environmental awareness among Canadians.

A stronger proposal came before the weekend from Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. Dion proposes hard caps on greenhouse gases and fines for all sectors of Canadian industry in a plan custom tailored to bring Canadian greenhouse gas emissions down to responsible levels. Most importantly, it highlighted what are in fact the small costs associated with doing this - just a $1/barrel cost increase for the oil sands in particular. In a market that sees oil prices range between the $50 - $70, this is no cost to pay for protecting the Earth's climate.

That is a message voters need to remember come next election.