April 27, 2018
James Gerrie
118 Cromarty
Street
Sydney, NS
B1P 4W2
The Honourable Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance
House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear
Minister Morneau,
I am
writing to you to express my concerns about the supports that Canadians provide
to the fossil fuel industries today. We
have reached a critical juncture as a country and a species. We should no longer be relying on fossil
energy to power our society. We must
undertake with resolve and apply all our creativity to fashioning a new way of
life that does not involve despoiling our environment. Only governments can ultimately facilitate
the kinds of changes we need to consider to make this transition. We need leadership and law to help us to
begin thinking and acting differently as individuals and communities.
Please
consider as you meet with G-7 leaders ways to stop supporting fossil fuel
extraction and to begin supporting and rewarding actions that lead to the
reduction of the use of fossil energy. We must not just wait for hoped for
technological saviors. We must begin
making better decisions about all aspects of our lives as citizens when it come
to energy consumption. We will not begin
making such decisions when our laws and institutions distort the costs of
energy and fail to internalize their true costs.
As a parent
and a teacher, I worry for the future that the young will receive from us. While our society still has the wealth and
resources necessary, we must use our treasure to lay the foundations for a secure
and sustainable future. It is not
acceptable for us to leave this task for future generations. It is the moral challenge of our
generation—the equivalent of the great wars of the previous century. We must be prepared to sacrifice now and show
leadership in the face of powerful forces and groups who will inevitably resist
facing the discomforts that we must face in making this difficult
transition. This is why I am writing to
you. We need leadership, not just
custodial government.
Thank you
for your efforts to make Canada’s tax system fairer. You are obviously not a person concerned only
with flattering the wealthy. All Canadians
by world standards are wealthy and although many will bemoan the risks of
changing the status quo of our economic system, with good will, ingenuity and
(I say this as a life-long NDPer) free-markets and entrepreneurial spirit, we
can find ways to respond, which will not hurt the poor or unacceptably hamper
leaders of industry.
Sincerely,
James
Gerrie
cc. Right
Honourable Justin Trudeau, Hounourable Catherine McKenna, Mr. Peter Julian NDP
Env. Critic
