Urgent: Bill C-311 - Climate Change Accountability Act

This just in from Karen Hawley at NUPGE.

Hi folks,

As members of Climate Action Network-Canada, NUPGE is in meetings with MPs this week - urging the Liberals to vote against the Conservative motion to delay the reading of this important climate bill.

This is an urgent matter. Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, risks not being passed before Copenhagen because the Liberals are playing politics. Canadians need to push the Liberals to do the right thing today.

There is a vote TODAY at 5:40pm on a Conservative motion to extend the bill's time in committee. If the Liberals support this motion to delay, the bill will not be voted on (or passed) before COP 15 in Copenhagen.

If the Liberals do not support the Conservative motion to delay, the bill will automatically go to the House of Commons for a vote, just before Copenhagen. If bill C 311 is passed in the House of Commons, the Conservative position on climate change will not be Canada's position internationally.

The NDP and the Bloc have been amazing at both working cooperatively with the other parties and pushing as hard as possible for C 311 to pass before Copenhagen.

The Liberals have already voted for this bill (or previous permutations) five times, most recently in April. This bill has been heavily debated, there have been hours upon hours of expert presentations and there are no amendments to the bill despite ongoing opportunities to amend - there is not a rational reason to delay this bill. We need to push the Liberals to do the right thing today.

In solidarity,

Karen