Practical, mainstream, step-by-step plan to address environmental crisis

MONTREAL - Canadians want action to address climate change. Stephen Harper has no plan. Stephane Dion's plan is wrong and won't work, Dion himself has argued. New Democrat Leader Jack Layton came to Montreal today to spell out a practical, mainstream, step-by-step plan that will work.

"Rewarding polluters who clean up their act, and imposing penalties on those that don't, is the core of the system being implemented in the European Union," Layton said. "It has been proposed by both U.S. Presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. And so it provides Canada with a potentially integrated, increasingly global solution."

Layton called his plan "mainstream, prudent, common sense."

New Democrat Jack Layton’s plan:

• Builds on the Climate Change Accountability Act, proposed by Layton's party and adopted by Parliament on June 4, 2008. This bill sets the target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and provides the enforcement tools needed to do the job.
• Make polluters pay for the real costs of pollution. "We'll do this through a cap-and-trade system that rewards big polluters who reduce emissions, and punishes those who don't."
• Helps families make the transition to a sustainable economy with a $750 million green-collar jobs fund.
• Ensures greener homes and cities with average of almost $1 billion a year for public transport and an energy efficiency retrofit program.
• Introduces Canada Environment Action Bonds to raise capital for the plan’s goals.
• Halts new tar sands development until emissions are capped.
• And implements a new energy economy strategy -- to be spelled out in coming days.

Layton concluded: “You deserve a Prime Minister who will stand up to big polluters, on October 14th, I’m asking for your support to be that Prime Minister.”