“The climate crisis won’t be solved by governments who treat science as a suggestion and accountability as an inconvenience.”
- adaptationguide.com
🔥 OP-ED: Canada’s Climate Watchdog Has Been Declawed — And The House Is On Fire 🔥
By Adaptation-Guide, for those who still give a damn about the future.
Canada built a watchdog to guard our climate future — then removed its vocal cords, locked it in a broom closet, and pretended everything was fine.
Welcome to the tragic comedy known as the Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB): the independent group created by law to hold Ottawa accountable for reaching our Paris climate targets. It was supposed to bark, bite, and alert the nation when politicians tried to quietly gut climate policy.
Instead? It’s been treated like a ministerial mascot, fed scraps and expected to applaud while the government torches its own climate commitments.
❌ A Watchdog With No Teeth
The NZAB was designed under the Net-Zero Accountability Act to advise the federal government on climate decisions — real advice, real influence, real oversight.
Except the current government has turned that mandate into a cruel joke.
“We really haven’t had the opportunity to do that with the current government.”
— Robert Hornung, NZAB member
That’s not a complaint. That’s a warning.
When the government:
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Signs a pipeline deal with Alberta — without consulting its climate advisors ✔️
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Passes Bill C-5 to exempt industrial projects from environmental protections — again, with zero consultation ✔️
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Quietly abandons key climate targets while pretending everything is fine ✔️
…then those “advisors” are just props. Legally required props — but ignored nonetheless.
🚪 The Mass Exodus
Nine members became four.
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Co-chairs gone
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Founding experts gone
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Indigenous voices never included
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Government support nonexistent
Not a single resignation was due to “personal reasons.” It was political betrayal.
💬 NZAB Members Are Practically Screaming:
“Right now we have four members, which will not be a functional NZAB…”
— Karen Ross
Four people. For a national mandate. For a crisis that defines our century.
A climate oversight committee with fewer people than a table at Denny’s.
That’s not governance — that’s neglect dressed up as accountability.
🎠Accountability Theater
Ottawa passes the right laws, creates the right committees, prints shiny PDF reports…
…then stuffs the experts into a corner while lobbyists write policy.
It’s climate action by performance art.
A accountability act with no actual accountability.
Consultation is not a checkbox. Consultation is asking before you sabotage the future, not after.
👇 The Stakes: Not Small. Not Abstract.
The two departing members say Canada’s current actions “dramatically change the plans in place.”
Translation:
We will not meet our 2030 climate targets. Full stop.
But sure, smile for the cameras. Say “net-zero” enough times until it sounds real.
📢 So Let’s Spell It Out:
If you create a watchdog
…then gag it, starve it, and break its legs
…you have not built climate accountability.
You have built a prop. A mascot. A lie.
🔥 The Verdict
Was this all taken as a joke?
Because serious work looks very different.
A real advisory body:
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Speaks truth to power
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Has independence and funding
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Gets consulted before decisions
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Represents the country — including Indigenous voices
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Has enough members to actually function
Instead, we got a climate escape room where every exit is locked by political cowardice.
💥 Shame on you, Canadian government.
You asked for experts.
You ignored them.
You broke the institution designed to save you from your own short-sightedness.
When the next wildfire rips into a major city
When the next flood devours another town
When Canadians lose homes, livelihoods, and lives
The government won’t be able to say “We didn’t know.”
They were told — and they silenced the messengers.
This isn’t partisan.
This isn’t ideological.
This is the math of survival.
If you install a watchdog with no bark, you get:
📉 No accountability
📉 No credibility
📉 No future worth inheriting
And Canada — a nation already burning — deserves better than a climate advisor scribbling reports no one reads.
💣 The NZAB can still be saved:
Fill the seats.
Fund the research.
Listen.
Act.
Or get out of the way.
Because the climate isn’t waiting for Ottawa to get its political drama sorted out.
yours truly,
Adaptation-Guide
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