Saskatchewan is sending a delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference; here's a possible conversation at its pavilion.
Saskatchewan’s government is paying up to $764,000 to host a pavilion at the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Premier Scott Moe plans to attend, along with four staffers. The NDP Opposition has estimated the cost of the trip will exceed $1 million.
Here’s what a conversation at the pavilion might sound like between Moe and an unnamed staffer:
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Moe: Can you explain the banner at our pavilion?
Staffer: It’s a climate change conference and it features your most noteworthy statement on climate change.
Moe: But it says: ‘I don’t care.’
Staffer: That’s what you told the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce in the spring of 2022 about the province having the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.
Moe: I remember. But that’s not the story we want to tell to the world.
Staffer: Well, we could focus on the statistics. Saskatchewan has about three per cent of Canada’s population and accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. We’re the plucky province that’s punching above its weight.
Moe: That doesn’t work either.
Staffer: How about that Saskatchewan’s emissions increased by nearly 60 per cent from 1990 to 2021, more than in any other province? That also makes Saskatchewan the leader in Canada!
Moe: No, no. We spent more than $1 million on our Sustainable Saskatchewan advertising campaign trying to convince people we’re not the climate action laggards everyone seems to think we are. So how about a banner with Sustainable Saskatchewan?
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Staffer: That’s too long for the banner. We’ve got lots of leftover ‘Growth that works for everyone‘ banners. Regina Mayor Sandra Masters is here, too, right? Maybe she brought some banners from her city’s last tourism campaign.
Moe: You mean ‘Show us your Regina?’ That might not work.
Staffer: Do you want us to highlight some of your most prominent pushes since you became premier? Like your fight against the carbon tax? We could put ‘Just watch me‘ on the banner.
Moe: That won’t look good. A lot of people at this conference think there’s a significant cost to seriously addressing climate change.
Staffer: What about your fight against the federal government’s target for net-zero emissions for power generation?
Moe: That makes Saskatchewan sound like a province that’s fighting against taking action on climate change.
Staffer: (Pause) We could highlight the $1.5 billion Saskatchewan spent on a carbon capture and storage project at the Boundary Dam. That makes it look like the province is serious about spending money to fight climate change.
Moe: How’s that going?
Staffer: Meh.
Moe: That’s OK. The federal government is now making carbon capture a priority and I wouldn’t want it to make its way back home that we agree on any issues — not with a provincial election next year.
Staffer: What about telling the story of Saskatchewan while ignoring the whole issue of climate change?
Moe: I’m listening …
Staffer: We can focus on some of your actions that have absolutely nothing to do with the environment.
Moe: Such as?
Staffer: Well, you suspended the Charter to pass a law forcing teachers to out gender-diverse students.
Moe: Not sure that will play well outside of rural Saskatchewan, but go on.
Staffer: You’re investigating the opposition’s involvement in a pro-Palestinian protest and dismissed conducting an audit into whether a government MLA’s motel was getting favourable treatment from government payments. Or there’s always the province’s billion-dollar budget surplus … wait, those notes are six months old.
Moe: Hmm. Suspending the constitution, investigating the opposition, rejecting a probe into alleged government impropriety, bungling the budget. That all makes us sound like a banana republic.
Staffer: Maybe at some point, a warming climate will mean we’ll be growing bananas in Saskatchewan. Perhaps we need to focus on the future instead of the present.
Moe: Sure. You work on that. I’m going to think of a way I can blame this on Justin Trudeau …
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
ptank@postmedia.com
twitter.com/thinktankSK
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