Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose says she expects "very soon" to announce an environmental approach that will supersede greenhouse gas targets that Canada isn't meeting "due to Liberal inaction."

She announced no new targets, however, and did not rank global warming as the top issue facing her department.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose was under pressure in a House of Commons committee on Thursday to elaborate on federal environmental plans.
(CBC)

Canadians' No. 1 priority is air quality, meaning the purity of the air they breathe, while climate change is "another issue that they're very concerned with," she said.

Minister grilled by environment committee

Ambrose appeared Thursday before the House of Commons environment committee, where she was grilled on the government's approach to the Kyoto Protocol, a deal viewed with hostility by Prime Minister Stephen Harper before and since he gained power.

She said she welcomes a report released last week by Canada's environment commissioner, Johanne Gelinas, who criticized the previous government's performance on the protocol, under which Canada has pledged to reduce its output of heat-trapping gases.

She said the government accepts all of the commissioner's recommendations and agrees with her that Canada is not on track to keep its promise to cut emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Ambrose said there was no clear basis for setting that "unachievable" target. In fact, emission levels are now 27 per cent above 1990 levels, she said.

She said that the Liberals wasted $1 billion on emission-reduction efforts that did not work, and that "neither advertising campaigns nor preening on the international stage" will solve the problem.

"Kyoto did not fail this country," she said. "The Liberal Party of Canada failed Kyoto."

Conservatives will announce better approach, Ambrose says

The Conservative government will provide real action on greenhouse gases and other air pollution through a planned Clean Air Act, she said.

"As the environment commissioner said, we need new targets."

However, the government will not adopt targets without consulting the provinces and affected industries, she said.

None of this means Canada is abandoning the Kyoto Protocol, Ambrose said, although she has informed other governments that Canada won't meet the existing target.

"It would mean that we would have to shut down the majority of industry in Canada to make that commitment, if we made that commitment here at home," she said.

The only other approach — which the government has ruled out — would be to spend billions of dollars to buy emission-reduction credits on international markets, she said. Such credits are of dubious value, offering no assurance that emissions would actually be reduced, she said.

In her report, Gelinas said Ottawa has done a poor job of protecting the oceans, promoting biodiversity and ensuring safe drinking water on native reserves, and was critical of how the Liberals handled the climate change issue.

Before the meeting, some committee members said they wanted to focus not so much on Liberal inaction but on Conservative plans to protect the environment.

On Wednesday during question period, the NDP put pressure on Ambrose to elaborate on federal environmental plans. Earlier this week, the government held a meeting with representatives of Canadian automakers to talk about the possibility of regulations to reduce auto emissions.

Wednesday night, all three opposition parties voted in favour of a Liberal private member's bill that calls on the Harper government to produce a plan to ensure it meets the targets set for Canada in the Kyoto Protocol.

Bill C-288, An Act to Ensure Canada Meets its Global Climate Change Obligations Under the Kyoto Protocol, was approved 152-115 at second reading and will now go to the Commons committee for more study.