Wednesday, 05/30/2007 Print Version |
Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Agreement with Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Would you please rise for the
arrival of the Premier of Ontario, the Honorable Dalton McGuinty, and the guest
of honor, the Governor of California, the Honorable Arnold
Schwarzenegger. (Applause)
PREMIER MCGUINTY: Mr. Ambassador, Consul General,
distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to each and every one
of you, and thank you so much for joining us here today. Governor
Schwarzenegger, welcome to Ontario. It is so good to have to have you
here with us.
You know, I was pleased to have the opportunity to receive the
Governor at the airport last night. And you know, Governor, I've been in
politics for 17 years here, I've been Premier for the last 4, and yet
throughout Ontario, people who saw our picture in this morning's paper all
asked the same troubling question: Who's the tall skinny guy with
Schwarzenegger?
Governor, we really are very pleased to have you with us, even
though you are rooting for the Anaheim Ducks, who are up against my beloved
Ottawa Senators. But we are a warm and a friendly people here in Canada,
so much so that we gave you the first game. (Applause)
It's what we call in Canada, Governor, a tune up game -- a tune
up game.
Ladies and gentlemen, you should know that as the first order
of business the Governor and I have agreed on a friendly wager. If the
Ducks should win at the Stanley Cup I will supply the Governor with, among
other things, some fabulous Ontario wines, including our world famous Ice Wine.
But when the Sens win, the Governor will owe me some wonderful California
wine. And if I might, Governor, if at all possible, I have a preference
for a wine that goes well with roast duck. (Applause)
I am so pleased to be entering into a very significant
agreement today on behalf of Ontarians. (FRENCH)
Today we're signing an agreement which will see California and
Ontario lead North America in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Both
Ontario and California have been taking action on climate change by introducing
progressive policies and encouraging innovation.
Our government took leadership in Canada by introducing a
mandatory ethanol standard. Governor Schwarzenegger's administration took
the lead in the US by developing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Together
we're going to coordinate our policies on fuel standards that will see an
overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from fuels of 10 percent by
2020.
Our agreement will also see us collaborate on energy efficiency
programs and policies. Our government took leadership in Canada by
committing to close coal plants, banning inefficient light bulbs, enabling the
investment of 2 billion dollars in energy conservation, and contracting for
more than 1800 megawatts of renewable power.
Governor Schwarzenegger's administration has taken the lead in
the United States by introducing a Million Solar Roofs plan to produce more
clean energy, creating his exciting California Hydrogen Highways network, and
launching an Ocean Action Plan to protect marine life.
Together, we will coordinate our efforts to switch to clean
energy technologies, promote greener buildings, and increase efficiency.
Finally, the agreement will see us work together on national,
North American, and international emissions trading. Our government has
been calling on our federal government to create an effective national trading
system. California and Ontario will be working with other regional
partners now to explore how we could integrate a potential trading regime.
Carbon emissions trading represents an effective and efficient way of obtaining
and verifying real greenhouse gas reductions.
We're doing all of this, ladies and gentlemen, because, quite
simply, we cannot wait. Consider the numbers. Before the industrial
revolution the CO2 concentration in Earth's atmosphere was about 280 parts per
million. We are now at about 380 parts per million, and today, at 380
parts per million, coral reefs are dying, glaciers are melting, seas are
rising, and an estimated 35,000 people died in the 2003 European heat
wave. And according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we
are headed towards 450, 550, or even 750 parts per million this century.
Partly, it turns out, this is because molecules of carbon
dioxide remain in the atmosphere for 200 years, which means the CO2 molecules
produced by the first cars, the Wright Brothers' plane, and the first
coal-fired electricity plants, are still up there. So even if we slow
down the rate of increase, which is what most climate change plans call for,
the problem is going to keep getting worse.
Now, people often tell us here in Ontario -- and I'm sure it's
the same in California, Governor -- that these kinds of alarming facts make
them feel helpless. The problem is so big, they say, it doesn't seem like
we can do anything at all to stop climate change. Well, it's true that we
can't do everything, but we can all do something. And if we wait around
for someone else, or some other level of government to take action, nothing
will get done.
I've often told my colleagues in government here, Governor,
that people out there can despair on their own. What they look to us to
do is to bring them good reasons to be hopeful. The actions that you and
I have taken to combat climate change make us hopeful, and we thank you for
your leadership. The agreement that you and I are about to sign is
another good reason for the people we are privileged to represent to be
hopeful.
Today, Canada's most populous province and America's most
populous state, two places positioned at the forefront of a global economy, are
joining together to tackle one of our greatest challenges. We enter into
this agreement as business partners, as places that share a legacy of
innovation and progressive thinking, and perhaps most importantly, as
friends. We know that our shared perspective gives us the insight you
need to envision the kind of future we want, and our economies give us the
strength we need to build it. Imagine an Ontario and a California where
every business and every home is operating at peak efficiency, an Ontario and a
California that is greener, cleaner, at the same time more productive than ever
before, two places that are green and growing.
Governor, your state and my province have a responsibility our
people have no choice but to assume. That responsibility -- born of a
shared legacy of progress and the tremendous quality of life that our people
enjoy, which makes our people truly privileged -- that responsibility of ours
is to lead, and we cannot shirk that responsibility. Together as leaders,
Ontarians and Californians will build a province, a state, and a world, that is
all the better tomorrow because of what we have done together today.
Thank you very much. (Applause)
GOVERNOR: Well, thank you very much, Premier McGuinty,
for the wonderful speech, and for the great things that you have said. I
think that that's why we are soul mates on this issue, it's really
terrific. And it is wonderful, your hospitality. I want to say
thank you very much for coming out to the airport and picking me up, and
organizing all these wonderful singers, and singing for me the National
Anthem. All of this, it's really great. And I wish you good luck
with the ice hockey games. Good, good luck.
Anyway, it is a pleasure to be here today at Queen's Park, and
to be here in the City of Toronto and the beautiful province of Ontario.
It's not the first time I've been here; I've been here many times before with
bodybuilding, and with businesses, and I've been here even shooting one of the
scenes of The 6th Day that we shot here in Canada. But, when I was here
the last time I said, "I'll be back," so I'm back. (Applause)
Like California, Ontario is leading the way in recognizing that
we must take action now to fight global warming and to reduce our dependence on
fossil fuel. States, provinces, regions and counties must all work
together -- this is a team effort -- to find solutions to both protecting the
environment and also to make our economy grow. Even though so many people
don't believe that we can do both, but we can; we can protect the environment
and also the economy at the same time.
We need to engage all sectors of our economy, including
international trade, and encourage the best and the brightest and the most
creative minds to work together to tackle global climate change. That's
why Ontario and California are signing today a Memorandum of Understanding to
strengthen our leadership in the fight against global warming and to promote
energy diversity.
In this Memorandum of Understanding, Ontario is committing to
adopt California's Low Carbon Fuel Standards, which will reduce the carbon
content of all transportation fuels sold in our state by 10 percent by the year
2020. That means that we will be using 20 percent less fossil fuel by the
year 2020. We're going to work with Ontario to develop a similar policy
in their region, which is even more powerful, because Ontario is known as the
Detroit of Canada, it is the hub of all the automobile manufacturing.
Also, Ontario is committed to adopting caps on emissions that will achieve real
reductions in greenhouse gases, like we have made a commitment in California to
reduce our greenhouse gases by 25 percent by the year 2020, and an additional
80 percent by the year 2050.
California and Ontario will work together to encourage the
development of clean energy technology and increase energy efficiency, and this
is why we brought on this trade mission so many of the experts, the experts in
that field in green technology, and also the manufacturers of clean, green
technology, so they can meet their counterparts up here in Canada, so we can
move forward in a much more rapid way and we will strengthen our bilateral
trade relationships along our technology industries. I look forward to
California and Ontario working together and being strong environmental and
economic partners as we build a cleaner, more prosperous future for all of
us.
And I think one of things that you do when you sign this
Memorandum of Understanding is, you're also committing not only to cleaner air
and to reducing the greenhouse gases, and all kinds of targets that you're
setting, but also you're committing that you're bringing in new partners, more
states, more provinces, more countries, because the bigger this partnership is,
the more successful we can be.
So now let's stop talking and create some action together and
sign this MOU. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause)
