The Grit and the Greens.
Members of two federal parties work together
to find a new direction
for the Canadian portion of the human drama.
By Neil Horner
Quesnel Cariboo Observer
IT'S RARE indeed to see two major federal political parties working
hand in hand on any political issue, let alone on an environmental one.
It's virtually unheard of for a member of a governing party to do so
with a party that has never even elected a member to Parliament.
But that's exactly what Liberal backbencher Joe Jordan is doing.
Jordan, the MP for the Ontario riding of Leeds-Grenville, has begun
a remarkable liaison with members of the environmental Green Party in an
attempt to radically reshape the way governments do business.
If Jordan is successful, and even he admits it's a long shot, events
such as the recent federal budget release, will never be the same.
Utilizing what he calls a "Measuring Well-Being" program,
Jordan hope to convince his Ottawa colleagues to look beyond their usual
four year mandate when making budget decisions. Far Beyond.
" The way things work now, the business community generally look
at a two-year payback for their decisions, while the government has an electoral
cycle of four years," he said. "We are asking them to start looking
beyond that, and to think instead of how their decisions will affect us
as much as seven generations down the line. I believe we have to start thinking
longer- term and finding better ways of doing tings."
To this end, Jordan found an ally in the Greens, whose members have
espoused a similar philosophy for a umber of years. It was a natural fit.
"I found that a lot of those who work in this area were already
generally involved in the Greens, so a lot of the people I've been working
with, such as Mike Nickerson are also with that party," he said.
The key to his new approach is the need to factor environmental and
social costs into the usual balance sheet equation of Canada's Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP).
"We have to recognize what the true cost of things are," Jordan
said. "As it stands, virtually all legislation that the federal government
enacts is done on the basis of three criteria. First, they ask whether it
will cost jobs, second, what impact will it have on prices, and third, what
impact will it have on business? As a result, it is drastically skewed towards
economics. We are running our country of the income statement, worrying
only about the amount of income generated, but businesses don't do that.
They have a balance sheet that records both assets and liabilities. What
we are saying is that we want to have a proper balance sheet. We are asking
the government to look at their Treasury Board guidelines and to factor
in the social and environmental costs."
These costs, Jordan said, are sometimes ephemeral, but nevertheless
important.
"When you take a tree out of the ground, there is a cost, in terms
of the loss of habitat and loss of oxygen production, for instance,"
he said. "If you don't put the social and environmental costs into
the equation, its's pretty hard to convince people that they're important,
because they've never been assigned a value."
Jordan's Green partner, Mike Nickerson, said people are ready for an
idea like this.
"Our world is supersaturated with the need for change," he
said. "Education and goodwill are not solving the environmental crisis.
Getting as much as possible of one's income and short- term thinking are
habits too firmly rooted to be replaced on a broad scale. People are concerned
about the environment, but most see little they can do that would make a
difference."
Nickerson said the measuring Well-Being program proposes a structural
change to the economic system that will make the most environmentally benign
products the least expensive. In this way, everyone would contribute to
problem solving in the normal course of their lives."
One of the key elements of assigning value to social and environmental
factors, Jordan said, is to make some changes to the tax system designed
to encourage long-term thinking.
"We spend a lot of time and effort trying to force industry to
stop doing things which, in reality, our tax system encourages them to do,"
he explained. "It's working at cross-purposes. If we had tax breaks
designed specifically to encourage companies to look at better ways of doing
things, that would act as a good start. For instance the Ballard Systems
power cell technology would apply. As well, if a company issued its employees
with transit passes, that should also be given some form of tax incentive."
Jordan says he will be introducing a Private Member's Bill, dubbed The
Seventh Generation Bill, to call for this long-range thinking.
It's unlikely to pass, but Jordan believes it's vital that somebody
do something - and soon.
"There is an understanding among people that we are starting to
run out of things," he said. "There is a myth that the Third World
countries are not at our standard of living because they don't know how,
but that's not what's happening at all. In reality, there is no way for
the whole world to have our standard of living, because there simply aren't
enough resources to go around at this level of consumption."
This article appeared in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer on March 10,
1999. Reproduction is permissable providing credit is given to both Neil
Horner and the Quesnel Cariboo observer.
Questions and comments are welcome.
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