Citizens Climate Lobby Stands Behind the NDP's Motion to the House of Commons
SUDBURY, ONT. – The Citizens Climate Lobby thanks Nickel Belt MP Claude Gravelle for his tabling of the NDP Opposition Motion (on Monday, December 5 in the House of Commons) regarding Canada’s role in the United Nations Climate talks in Durban; the pipeline projects in the oil sands and the deepening of the recession. In his speech, Mr. Gravelle linked these issues together and made it very clear that the evidence for human-caused global warming is irrefutable and that we must act now. He stated:
“Our motion makes it clear that the Conservatives and their spin masters across the aisle have it dead wrong to frame our debate and choices as one between the economy and the environment. It is not jobs OR the planet. It is jobs AND the environment. We and others know it can and must be must be both.”
As the world’s eyes were focused on Durban, South Africa, Canada announced it will not renew its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. The climate problem is not going away and according to the International Energy Agency, humanity has approximately five years to start reducing our CO2 production or we face irreversible and dangerous climate change.
Mr. Gravelle knows firsthand the “importance of good paying jobs in a community and also the need to pay attention to our environment.” Before becoming a Member of Parliament, he, like many Sudburians, worked for 34 years in the mines in Sudbury. His speech shared definitive solutions to the climate crisis, which included putting a price on carbon pollution and ending subsidies to fossil fuels.
Last week on Parliament Hill, members of the Citizens Climate Lobby met with Claude Gravelle and eleven other Members of Parliament, including four of the five members of the newly formed Parliamentary Climate Caucus: Ms. Elizabeth May (GPC); Mr. Michael Chong (Conservative); Dr. Kirsty Duncan (Liberal) and Denise Savoie (NDP). The Citizens Climate Lobby also met with Glenn Thibeault (MP Sudbury) and the NDP Environment Critic, Megan Leslie. The office of the Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent, did not return multiple requests for a meeting with the citizen lobbyists.
The home base for the Citizens Climate Lobby Canada is in Sudbury Ontario which is not surprising given that Sudbury is a city that has been there, done that with acid rain problems and sulfur dioxide gas pollution from industry. Sudburians should have confidence, borne from their experience, that climate change mitigation, while being economically and socially responsible, is first and foremost, doable.
The Citizens Climate Lobby is a non-partisan, not-for-profit and international organization. Our purpose is to create political will for a stable climate and empower individuals to have breakthroughs in exerting their personal and political power. In Canada, the Citizens Climate Lobby lobbyists operate in more than twenty ridings. Cathy Orlando, its Canadian Project Manager, states:
"We stand behind Mr. Gravelle and any MP from any party that puts forth plans that are socially, economically, scientifically and environmentally sound that steers civilization away from dangerous and irreversible climate change."
For details of the parliamentary motion, go to:
claudegravelle.ndp.ca/post/climate-change-jobs
CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY Canada: Cathy Orlando, Canadian Project Manager
