I have known our new contributor Lennie Kaplan since a meeting with then Treasurer Jim Dinning, Alberta Liberal party finance critic Mike Percy and other Treasury officials about 1994. Lennie was then Percy’s legislative assistant and I was part of a briefing crew on amendments to the Financial Administration Act. Dinning, in a somewhat unorthodox procedure, shared legislative briefings with the like-minded opposition critic before tabling in the Assembly.
Lennie and my paths crossed episodically over the years. I was therefore very pleased when he contacted me about writing some pieces based on his budgetary experience as a practitioner and a researcher.
I might not always agree with Mr. Kaplan but I deeply believe, like Lennie, that accountability, transparency, and better forecasting methods are keys to Alberta’s fiscal credibility.
Emissions Reductions Accountability
In April 2023, the Alberta government released its new climate change plan, known as the Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan (EREDP). The EREDP is admirable for outlining a series of actions, opportunities, and commitments to reduce emissions, including an aspirational target of a carbon neutral provincial economy by 2050,
However, the EREDP still lacks an overall implementation plan, individual implementation plans for key industry sectors, and vigorous monitoring and reporting systems. While the EREDP has announced a number of planned accountability measures, including publishing reports documenting the progress and outcomes of the actions taken as part of the EREDP, it lacks a strong legislated accountability framework, a key feature of best practice climate change accountability frameworks found in such Canadian jurisdictions, as Canada, B.C. and Manitoba.
Alberta needs a strong legislated accountability framework based on best practice, to help backstop implementation of the EREDP, because credibility is important. What key elements should be included in the province’s climate change accountability framework? The Canadian Climate Institute (CCI) has done considerable work examining best practice climate change accountability frameworks, and came up with six key elements for a strong legislated framework.
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Formalizing climate governance structures and processes: Establishing a set of governance structures and formal processes for setting, meeting, and monitoring progress against a province’s long- term emissions targets.
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Clearly defining roles and responsibilities: Outlining the duties of specific institutions as they relate to the attainment of long-term targets.
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Establishing interim emissions reduction milestones: Setting interim emissions reduction milestones as a way of setting out a path to long-term targets.
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Producing action plans to meet milestones: Requiring governments to prepare policy measures, developed through collaboration with experts and stakeholders, that will meet interim milestones.
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Requiring monitoring and reporting: Having formal requirements for transparent reporting on government plans and progress, allowing the public to better understand and evaluate progress against commitments.
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Broadening the scope beyond reducing emissions: Requiring governments to look beyond reducing emissions to consider climate change adaptation or the broader social, economic, and cultural impacts of climate policy.”
A strong legislated climate change accountability framework in Alberta, alone the lines proposed by the Canadian Climate Institute, is critical so that planned policy actions can be evaluated against the EREDP to ensure programs are meeting goals and objectives in a cost-effective manner, and to hold the government accountable to Albertans for the actions, opportunities, and commitments outlined in the EREDP.
Alberta’s new climate change plan isn’t credible without a strong legislated accountability framework. The Alberta government doesn’t need to await a detailed implementation plan to establish a strong legislated climate change accountability framework. The time to act is now, by introducing and passing an Alberta Climate Change Accountability Act during the 2024 spring session of the Legislative Assembly.
Lennie Kaplan spent over two decades in the public service of Alberta, including as a senior manager in the Fiscal and Economic Policy Division of the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance, where he worked on cross-ministry initiatives evaluating the impacts of federal climate change policies. He recently retired from his position as Executive Director of Research at the Canadian Energy Centre.