Ottawa – Sierra Club Canada has learned that Minister Jim Prentice has established a Climate Change War Room in an attempt to control the anticipated negative coverage during the Copenhagen climate change conference.
The War Room, located down the hall from the Minister of Environment’s offices, will have more than a dozen staff dedicated to countering fallout from Canada’s continued obstruction of negotiations. “I guess minister Prentice intends to insult more than just the Boy Scouts and wants to be prepared,” said John Bennett, Sierra Club Canada’s executive director.
Canada was declared the most obstructionist country in the world during preliminary negotiations in Barcelona, Spain last week by the more 400 environmental organizations attending the conference.
“This government turns everything into a partisan political event. Using Environment Canada staff this way is wrong and not what people I know there signed up to do,” said Bennett.
Environment Canada and other departments usually temporarily reassign staff to work on climate negotiations but the creation of a communication war room has not been done by previous governments.
“The minister is confused — the future of the planet is at stake, not the future of the government,” concluded Bennett.
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