Accelerated action to address climate change hangs by a thread with a Commons vote coming Wednesday on a private member’s bill.

The Climate Change Accountability bill is a seen by opposition parties as an answer to government foot-dragging over carbon dioxide emissions widely believed to be causing climate change.

The bill has already passed second reading, where it received slim majority support from the opposition (141 votes for to 128 against). Conservatives unanimously opposed the bill.

“I know the NDP and Bloc Quebecois are both voting in favour and I’m sure the Conservatives are voting against it, although it would be nice if our local MP broke ranks,” said Donovan Cavers, who ran for the Green Party in the last election.

McLeod said Friday she will vote with the government against the bill since it contradicts federal policy on emissions cuts.

The bill incorporates the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and addresses Canada’s dismal track record on cutting emissions. It would require Ottawa to impose regulations such that Canada reduces emissions below 1990 levels by 2020. It also sets a longer-term target of an 80-per-cent cut by 2050.

After months of delay, the House standing committee on the environment and sustainable development was granted more time in October to consider the bill. That was a purely political move, said NDP candidate Michael Crawford.

“What the Liberals did was push the bill back to committee to make sure it wouldn’t be up for a vote before Copenhagen,” Crawford said. That would have given credit to NDP Leader Jack Layton, who helped bring the initiative back as a private member’s bill. “I think it was partisan, political game-playing rather than real concern for the environment.”

Supporters of the bill had hoped it would influence the federal government’s position at the Copenhagen summit late last year. Just prior to the talks, the Conservative government announced that it would align Canada’s carbon reduction targets with those of the U.S.

Cavers said it is clear the government is not interested in making significant cuts.

“They think it will be bad for business. Their supporters have a stake in the tar sands and there are climate-change deniers in their ranks.

“Even if they have doubts about the science, they still have to think about the precautionary principle,” he added.

The precautionary principle holds that the cost of failing to act decisively on the causes of climate change poses a far greater risk than proceeding expeditiously with climate initiatives.

“We’ve been dragging our feet long enough,” Cavers said. “It’s going to be tough, but now we have to pick up the slack.”

Although the Conservative government has abandoned the international Kyoto agreement on climate change, the government says it’s committed to reducing the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 and is investing billions of dollars to protect the environment through stimulus programs.

Crawford said passage of the bill would restore Canada to a role of leadership in global environmental issues.

“Let’s hope the Liberals come on side and stop playing games.”