Trudeau, Scheer offer duelling green retrofit plans and criticism of each other

Justin Trudeau and AndrewScheer appealed Wednesday to one of their favourite voter demographics homeowners byoffering them duelling plans meant tohelp out their pocketbooks with green retrofits.

Theseannouncements were more micro in scale in terms of their overall green plans,butdid give the federal leaders a springboard to trasheach other's macro climate strategies. However,the fuzzy details of their environmentalpolicies also put them on the defensive.

Refundable tax credit

Scheer was up first, speaking inJonquire, Que., outside the home renovation chain storePotvin & Bouchard. Although the Conservatives announced their green strategy in June, the Conservative leader took theopportunity to highlight one of his platform planks a 20 per cent refundabletax credit he said will let people save up to $3,800 on green home renovations.

And it gave Scheer an opening to slamTrudeau's green plan as a whole, saying that it was written on the corner of a napkinandthatall it reallyreveals is that Trudeau is the "master of improvisation."

Scheerscoffed at Trudeau's big announcement the previous daytopush Canada to net-zero emissionsby 2050. Canada has already committed to reducing itsannual greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levelsby 2030.

Scheer said Trudeau not onlycan't meet the 2030 targets, but now says all kinds of things about what he can do in 2050 "with zero details."

Unlike the Liberal policy, Scheer boasted that his party has"a real plan to protect our environment," andthat is "realistic and achieveable." Not only is itthe "most comprehensive plan ever produced by a political party" it also hasthe best chance to meet the Paris Agreementtargets, he said.

Asked for details on how he would reach those targets,Scheer said through investing in things likegreen technology, green tax credits. Asked again about the the lack of details, Scheer responded that hisplan is costed, that it actually does have a lot of detailanda lot of figures and then he bashed Trudeau again.

About 90 minutes later, and more than 4,500 km west, it was Trudeau's turn to make his pitchin Delta, B.C.

Trudeaupromised interest-free loans of up to $40,000 to upgrade old furnaces, replaceleaky windows or retrofit homes to make them more energy-efficient and resilient to floods and wildfires caused by climate change.

But Trudeau also took the opportunity to bashthe Conservatives in general, for their environmental record, or as Trudeau sees it, lack thereof.

'Do-nothing approach'

Scheer'splan for climate change, Trudeau charged, is the same as the "do-nothing approach" of former prime minister Stephen Harper, that will "do less and cost more"

Unlike the ConservativeParty, he said, which refuses to admit climate change is a problem, the Liberal governmenthas done a lot to fightclimate change, andacknowledges that more needs to be done.

Yet Trudeau, like Scheer, was forced to answer questions about howexactlythe plan will exceed the2030 targets.

Trudeau said the country is already three-quarters of the way thereand that, over the next 11 years, not only will Canada meet those targets, but surpass them and be well on the way to net zero by 2050.

And how will this occur?

Trudeau offered few details but stressed thatthe key, in general,is innovation that will develop zero emission technologies.

However fact checks conducted by CBC News raise questions about some of the environmental aspirationsof bothScheer and Trudeau.

For example, as CBC's Lucas Powers revealed, Trudeau's claim that Canada is on its way to meet the 2030 climate target are undermined byreports issued by his own government.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), whichregularly publishes updates on the country's progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,projected thateven under a best-case scenario one that takes into account policies already in place and those that are "under development but have not yet been fully implemented"our total emissions in 2030 will only be 19 per cent below 2005 levels.

And as for Scheer's promise to meet the Paris agreement targets,the CBC's Jonathan Gatehouse reported that arecent analysis, prepared by an economist and an environmental engineer for Clean Prosperity, foundthat Scheer's approach would end up beingmore costlyand less effectivethan current government policies.

"Our analysis of the emissions reductions potential of the plan demonstrates that it does not have a reasonable chance of achieving Canada's 2030 target under the Paris Agreement," the authors wrote.