Ahead of their meeting in Halifax, the country’s Premiers are being urged to come up with an energy plan for Canadians and not just an energy strategy for Canada.

John Bennett with the environmental group The Sierra Club of Canada says before we worry about expanding our energy export business, we need to address our  domestic energy use.

“Doesn’t charity start at home?” muses Bennett. “Shouldn’t it be everyone’s first priority to make sure that we meet our own needs, and we do it in a way which is sustainable and acceptable?  And then we talk about, well if we have excess then let’s ship the excess somewhere else. They’re not talking about how Canadians can meet their energy needs, and how we can do it sustainably and environmentally favourably.”

Bennett adds a national energy strategy should also include the element of energy usage and efficiency.

(In) “a survey done of developed countries in the world, and of the developed big economies, Canada came last in terms of energy efficiency,” he says. “That means we’re wasting all kinds of money burning too much fuel because we don’t have good policies to promote energy efficiency in Canada.”

Bennett says the reason why there are so many squabbles about energy in Canada is because there is no clear plan in place to take care of the various energy needs of the country.