The Climate Change Crisis is Informing the 2019 Election

Single-use plastics and pipelines are two of the most discussed issues in the debate around climate change. Restaurants are abolishing plastic straws, grocery stores are banning plastic bags, and protesters are refusing to allow the construction of a pipeline on stolen land. During the first leaders’ debate on Sept. 12, the environment and climate change was one of four topics discussed. Here is what each party had to say about it:

The New Democratic Party

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP, acknowledged British Columbia’s forward-thinking climate action plan, calling it one of the best in the country. He claims that he will create 30,000 jobs for Canadians by retrofitting homes and buildings to be more environmentally friendly. The NDP has its climate action promises published on its website as well.

The plan is to initialize the energy efficient retrofits with social housing units and government buildings, and then expand from there. The party also promises that by 2030, all new buildings in Canada will be constructed to be energy efficient. Singh believes climate change is one of the “biggest challenges of this generation,” so the NDP will guarantee benefits for communities investing in green infrastructure.

This plan also includes the expansion and electrification of public transit by providing local governments with financing options and the creation of permanent funding for consistent upgrades to public transit.

In addition, the NDP aims to ensure the use of renewable energy in federal buildings and use electric government vehicles by 2025.

During the first leaders’ debate, Singh said he believes that climate change and inequality belong in the same conversation, and his goals for environmental protection and climate change reflect that. All of the NDP’s climate goals will be monitored through regular audits from a Climate Accountability Office.

Green

Elizabeth May and the Green Party of Canada have built their climate action plan around two things: Science-based climate action and Indigenous partnerships.

The Green Party plans to cancel the Trans Mountain pipeline and redirect funding to develop the national electricity grid. During the leaders’ debate, May was clear that the Green Party plans to move the country away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

Building retrofits are also a priority for the Green Party. May proposes that all residential, commercial, and institutional buildings undergo energy efficient transformations using grants and zero-interest loans. New buildings would also have to meet these retrofitting requirements.

Under May’s leadership, a Green government would develop a national strategy to ensure reliable and affordable transportation, specifically in rural and remote areas. She hopes that this will contribute to addressing both pollution reduction and the safety of Indigenous women in regards to the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The Green Party acknowledges forest fire destruction in its 2019 climate action plan. It proposes that the government purchase water bombers for deployment in high-risk areas. Additionally, it suggests that the federal government take charge of forest management, which is provincial jurisdiction. May plans to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2030 by enacting the Climate Change Act into law.

The Conservative Party

Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party proposes a two-year green homes tax credit. This is to make retrofitting homes with efficient technology more affordable for Canadians. The party’s plan also proposed a reduction from 15 per cent to five per cent for taxing income generated from green technology developed and patented in Canada.

For transportation, Scheer wants to develop faster-charging electric vehicle batteries and increase the distance that can be driven on a single charge. He wants to negotiate changes to make cross-border trucking more efficient and reduce the frequency of empty trucks on the road, and to work with industry professionals on replacing old trucks with new, cleaner trucks. They Conservatives believe that clean Canadian energy can be used to replace “dirtier foreign energy sources” and that technology developed in Canada can be used globally. Scheer supports a comprehensive policy put forward by the Conservative party with 50 specific measures for how it plans to meet some of these goals.

The Liberal Party 

The Liberal Party has been outspoken about its plan to ban harmful single-use plastics, and it pledges to create legally binding contracts in an effort to commit to net-zero emissions by 2030. The Liberals’ plan for creating accessible transit is to require that federal investments in public transit support zero-emission buses starting in 2023.

Disaster prevention and management is also a key point in the Liberals’ climate action plan. Trudeau pledges to complete flood maps in Canada and create an action plan for those in high risk areas. Additionally, he has said that he will increase investment into the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund by $1 billion over the next decade.

Justin Trudeau wants to ensure that all federal buildings are powered by clean energy by 2022. He also has stated his intentions to install up to 5,000 electric vehicle charging stations and provide a 10 per cent rebate on the purchase of used zero-emission cars.

The Liberals faced backlash for their purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline, but they say they intend to invest the profit from the sale into clean energy projects.

Cross-Party Platform Analysis

Two KPU instructors weighed in on these platform promises.

“The parties need to have constructive conversations with all stakeholders,” says Dr. Ross Pink, an instructor and the chair of the political science department at KPU.

Paul Richard, the Chair of KPU’s Environmental Protection Technology Program, questions the legitimacy of single-use plastic bans, acknowledging people with disabilities who need drinking straws. What did impress him, however, was the Green Party’s proposal for filtering micro-fibres out of washing machines. He also commends the NDP’s plan to make public transit more accessible, and notes that he believes it should also be more affordable.

“One should not have to walk more than 10 minutes, nor wait more than 10 minutes for a bus or a train,” he says. “Public transit should be the cheaper option, and the option of choice, since it produces practically zero emissions.”

Pink says parties can focus on investing in green infrastructure “by using the tax system,” which the Conservative party proposed doing with tax credits for retrofitting homes.

Richard says the best way to do this is by offering simple and effective solutions such as improving insulation on the outside of buildings.

Both Pink and Richard mentioned changes to historical and legal documents as a requirement for acting against climate change. Pink adds that the idea that a high number of displaced climate change refugees becoming a crisis in the future was “deliberately ignored in the Paris 2015 Agreement. He describes this as a “paramount issue that must be addressed.”

He also suggests a revision of the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, while Richard proposed changing the Constitution to specify whether addressing climate change is primarily a provincial or federal responsibility. Doing this would allow leaders to take definite steps in addressing climate change in Canada, reasons Pink.