ELECTION 2011: WHERE DO THE PARTIES STAND ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES?

 

5. Great Lakes 

9. Oil Sands 

10. Toxics in Consumer Products 

The Bloc Québécois plan establishes absolute targets for the short term (6% below 1990 levels by 2012), middle term (25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020) and long term (80% below 1990 levels by 2050).

 

 

 

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A Green Government will restore Canada's reputation for Canadians and also globally under the Kyoto Framework. We will ensure Canada does its fair share by meeting domestic emission reduction targets of at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2040. More stringent targets will be established in response to emerging scientific consensus. Canada will commit to the necessary technology transfers and funding required for developing nations to transition to a post carbon economy in a fair and equitable way.

 

A Liberal government will set the national emission target at 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 to do our part to ensure global average temperatures do not rise more than 2°C. We will also call on the National Round Table for the Environment and the Economy to set science-based, achievable interim targets.

 

We will publish a credible, comprehensive plan as soon as is feasible and will publish regular reports on its implementation so as to identify areas where improvements must be made.

 

The NDP is the only party that has tabled a climate bill in the last two

Parliaments, twice passed by a majority of elected MPs. The Climate Change

Accountability Act enshrines science-based emissions reductions targets in law and establishes mechanisms to review Canada’s progress. Our long-term target is to reduce Canada’s GHG emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, with a medium-term target of 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and science-based interim targets every five years. We would require independent reviews of climate programs with reports to Parliament to ensure accountability for government measures adopted to achieve the targets.

 

The Bloc Québécois recommends adopting 1990 as a reference year for the development of an independently run carbon exchange (cap-and-trade system) in Montreal by 2012. A carbon exchange is a powerful financial incentive for reducing GHG emissions, as it allows emitters who reduce their emissions to profit from their efforts.

 

This carbon exchange would use a territorial approach that will allow Quebec and other interested provinces to move ahead quickly.

 

 

 

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The Green Party believes the most effective, efficient, fair and moral way to meet Canada's targets is with a carbon tax that covers 100% of emissions. A tax starting at $50/tonne will shift the burden from activities worth encouraging (e.g. employment) to those that are not (e.g. burning coal). Low income Canadians will receive tax breaks. A carbon tax will also be applied to fossil fuel exports, except to countries that impose their own. Subsidies to the fossil fuel sector will end immediately and a cap and trade system will be implemented for all large emitters.

 

Our Platform commits to a cap and trade system. It will:

 

A Liberal government will immediately end the Accelerated Cost Capital Allowance for oil sands – the industry with the fastest growing emissions. The government revenue (about $500 million in two years) will be invested in cleaner oil sands technologies and improved environmental monitoring.

 

We will immediately work to put in place a cap and trade system. All revenues from cap-and-trade will be reinvested in green solutions like energy efficiency, renewable energy development, and transitioning workers to a green economy. We will also immediately deliver on the G20 commitment to phase out the multi-billion dollar subsidies to the fossil fuel sector.

 

The Bloc Québécois proposes to enhance renewable energy development and conversion programs. Energy efficiency initiatives and renewable energy development should be more than simple add-on measures.

 

Like energy efficiency, speeding up the development of clean, renewable energy sources should be a central priority and should benefit all provinces equally.

 

For example, the Bloc Québécois proposes to increase the funding for the ecoENERGY renewable energy program to double the current objective from 4000 MW to 8000 MW.

 

 

 

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We will work with industry to achieve 17 GW wind, 25 GW solar PV, 12 GW ocean and 25 GW geothermal of firm power. We will provide a 2 cent/kWh support in provinces/territories with ART +, restore the Wind Power Production Incentive and add others, support local energy coops and also power grid extensions to bring wind and ocean power from remote areas. We will support skills training and provide significant R&D funding for ocean energy, electricity storage technologies and for Enhanced Geothermal Systems. We will also promote the adoption of high efficiency standards for buildings, large appliances and automobiles.

 

A Liberal government will launch the Canadian Clean Energy Partnership, inviting provincial and territorial governments, the private sector and stakeholders to work together on Canada-wide objectives for a long-term transition to the low-carbon economy of the future.

 

Liberals are committed to quadrupling, by 2017, the amount of electricity derived from renewable sources. The re-introduction of the Renewable Power Production Incentive (RPPI) will provide $1 billion to support innovation and market development of clean technology to achieve this goal.

 

A Liberal government will provide a $400 million annual Green Renovation Tax Credit to help families advance home energy efficiency and conservation.

 

In addition to measures mentioned above, the NDP will reinstate financial incentives for clean power, including solar, wind, water, tidal, geothermal, biomass for electricity production and from industrial co-generation, with a portion of funds set aside for small-scale, community-owned sustainable energy facilities.

We will also:

made-in-Canada green technologies.

 

 

 

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The Green Party will change tax rules to allow municipalities to issue Municipal Registered Retirement Savings Plans Bonds (RRSPs), which can be held in RRSPs and self directed RRSP and will bring in billions of dollars a year. The Gas Tax Transfer will be increased to 5 cents/litre. A $500 million/fund/year Municipal Superfund will replace the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund in order to focus on 6 main areas of "Green Cities and towns". The funds will provide for: mass transit infrastructure, intermodal connections, car sharing initiatives, and cycling and pedestrian promotion.

 

A Liberal government will provide leadership, working with other levels of government and the private sector to put in place a Canadian Transportation and Infrastructure Strategy that targets pollution and traffic reduction, and long-term economic benefits.

 

Liberal infrastructure priorities include:

A Liberal government’s Canadian Transportation and Infrastructure Strategy will address the needs and opportunities of cities, and build on their dynamism and innovation.

The NDP has long championed permanent federal investment in public transit. To maintain and expand public transit across the country, we will enact our National Public Transit Strategy Act which establishes federal funding mechanisms for public transit, enabling all levels of government to cooperate in providing sustainable, predictable, long term and adequate transit funding.

 

A New Democrat government will begin immediately with a $500 million annual commitment to municipalities for transit, slightly more than the equivalent of an additional 1-cent of the existing gas tax.

 

We will provide a tax credit for green commuting and support the expansion of passenger rail services.

 

 

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A fully restored and protected Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Basin is a top priority for a Green government. We will establish a CEPA task force to recommend changes to strengthen existing regulations and fill existing gaps. We will strengthen the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to ensure it deals with emerging issues such as endocrine disrupters and pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, as the US states and the Province of Ontario know best what to do, we will ensure Ontario and Quebec, Canada's partners in the Commission, have the funding they need to get the work done.

 

we cannot commit entirely, but a Liberal government will work with provinces, municipalities and stakeholders to develop a new Canadian Freshwater Strategy, the first comprehensive federal water policy in over 20 years. This strategy will bolster efforts to clean up key water basins by investing $100 million, rising to $125 million annually. We will work to restore degraded and threatened areas across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence regions and advance research and improve efforts to protect freshwater ecosystems from invasive species such as Asian Carp. We will also protect our water resources from being subject to bulk export.

 

New Democrats support the establishment of a clean-up fund for the Great Lakes, and believe that Canada should do its fair share to protect and restore the Great Lakes. We will also initiate a public review of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement with an eye to improving it. We would begin with a commitment of $800 million over four years to assist communities in securing safe drinking water, protecting and rehabilitating ground and surface water, and complying with new federal wastewater standards.

The Bloc Québécois has already made its position known in the House by supporting a motion to this effect on December 2, 2010. But for the Bloc Québécois, it is not enough to react to catastrophic ecological risks. We need to be proactive and expand our horizons. As such, our first true, positive action must be to change our relationship to energy, particularly with regard to the consumption of fossil fuels.

 

 

 

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The Green Party of Canada supports a legislated ban to entrench the offshore oil and gas moratorium as it applies to exploration, drilling, and tanker traffic. Moreover we urgently need a precautionary approach to the Arctic oil and gas exploration. The Green Party would also support the implementation of a moratorium on oil and gas development in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

 

In 1972, the Liberal government put in place a moratorium prohibiting crude oil tanker transit through B.C.’s northern coastal waters. Fully opening B.C.’s coast to crude oil tankers would heighten the risk of a major spill, endangering wildlife and the livelihoods of dozens of communities that live in and around the coastline. To prevent an oil spill from occurring in the coastal waters of the ecologically sensitive Pacific North Coast, a Liberal government will formalize the moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic in these waters, including the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound, through regulation, legislation or both.

New Democrats have long led the fight in Parliament for a legislated oil tanker ban off Canada’s Pacific Northwest coast, with the first bill introduced in June 2008 by New Democrat MP Catherine Bell. On Thursday December 2, 2010,New Democrats used an opposition day motion to demand the government immediately present legislation to prevent oil supertankers from plying the hazardous waters off British Columbia’s sensitive northern coast.

Quebec has developed a very structured consultation process involving numerous stakeholders who participate in the identification of areas to be protected. We believe that we would achieve our common goal of expanding protected habitats faster and more efficiently if the federal government would simply support Quebec in the organization of our territory.

 

 

 

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The Green Party will fix the Harper Government's reversal on over 20 years of incremental progress by setting aside $500 million annually to complete our National Parks and Marine Protected Areas Systems by 2015. Working with provinces, we will implement a Biodiversity Action Plan for all of Canada that identifies ecologically significant areas and establishes and protects wildlife corridors through land use management plans at the regional and provincial level.

We are committed to protecting at least half of Canada’s Boreal Forest.

A Liberal government will work with the provinces, territories, First Nations and conservation groups to protect more of Canada’s intact wilderness areas. This effort will emphasize the inter-connection of national and provincial parks to allow species to move from one protected area to another via protected eco-corridors. An important piece of this is the Canadian Boreal forest: one of the largest intact expanses of wilderness in the world. We will take action to protect the boreal forest and help Quebec and Ontario reach their goal of protecting 50 percent of the boreal forest.

 

New Democrats will collaborate with provinces, territories, Aboriginal governments, environmental and conservation organizations, and concerned citizens to develop and implement an ambitious, integrated conservation plan to protect Canada’s ecosystems, wildlife, and wilderness heritage. We will accelerate progress on completing the national parks system and exceed the minimum target of setting aside 12% of Canada’s landmass for conservation, while working with stakeholders in support of the long-term conservation vision of protecting half of Canada’s land and water. We commit to timely delivery of our obligations under the federal Species at Risk Act, including ensuring that decisions are science-based and taken in consultation with all concerned parties.

 

 

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The Green Party will establish a $500 million a year fund (seeQ7) to complete our National Parks and Marine Protected Areas System by 2015. We will immediately establish “no take” marine parks to save our vast tracts of critically threatened and over fished coastlines and ensure Parks Canada has the funding necessary to monitor and protect them.

 

A Liberal government will expand Canada’s marine protected areas network and ensure that this network is accompanied by a more effective approach to ocean management. We will engage with coastal communities, First Nations, provincial governments, tourism operators, ocean industries and other ocean users in decisions about how to reduce risks to oceans health. We will also advance integrated oceans management and ocean zoning, with the same rigour as land-use planning is conducted on Canadian landscapes, to support conservation and our ocean economy.

 

The New Democrats will commit to expanding our Marine Protected Areas to ensure protection of representative areas and complete Integrated Management Plans for our three oceans by 2020. We will commit to work on establishing 12 new marine protected areas by the end of 2012. Increased attention and resources will be dedicated to protection of marine species under the Species At Risk Act. We will also exercise federal powers to protect fisheries and waters using science-based monitoring.

The Bloc Québécois believes that the federal government should only act within its areas of jurisdiction. For example, we strongly denounced the customized air quality standards. These standards are so lax for companies working in the tar sands that they allow them to significantly increase their emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants. By 2015, these tar sands operators can increase their volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by 60% and their nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions by 5%. The Bloc Québécois intends to continue to work for clear improvements in air quality.

 

 

 

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Within 1 year we will make certain there are fair, binding water sharing agreements among provincial, territorial and federal governments created based on latest science. These agreements will have to include, among other protections, an immediate moratorium on oil sands development, the capping of withdrawals from the Athabasca River and the most responsible handling of polluted waters in tailings ponds.

 

The Green Party will work to have toxic tailings ponds substances listed as such under CEPA. Furthermore, we will introduce a significant Toxic Chemical Tax (CTC) on all harmful chemicals listed under CEPA, including these substances.

A Liberal government will immediately end the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance. We will earmark these anticipated government revenue for two purposes: new or improved incentives for industry investments in emerging technologies that will decrease greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of oil sands development; and we’ll invest in monitoring and scientific research on environmental impacts of oil sands development, in pursuit of knowledge that will inform the exercise of federal regulatory responsibilities. Tailings pond reclamation, phasing out of tailings ponds use, and more efficient water use will be a part of these initiatives.

 

The NDP will work with the provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments to ensure that binding rules are implemented and enforced torequire the reclamation of, and improved monitoring of, leakage from toxic tailings ponds by 2020. We will also rescind Schedule 2 of the Fisheries Act that allows the sacrifice of healthy lakes for tailings ponds. New Democrats will require that cumulative impact assessments be undertaken, and environmental regulations developed, to protect the fishery and trans-boundary waters. We will require immediate action on science-based, enhanced regulation, monitoring and enforcement for the oil sands sector.

The Bloc Québécois is pressuring the federal government to update the 1969 Hazardous Products Act (HPA) to ban the production, promotion and marketing of any product that could present an inacceptable health risk.

 

We demand that Ottawa not leave it entirely up to industry to monitor the safety of consumer goods – public health should not be in their hands. We need scientific studies that are not guided by market interests.

 

Since 2008, the Bloc Québécois has been calling for a ban on baby bottles and prepared foods containing traces of bisphenol A.

 

 

 

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A Green Government will institute the precautionary principle by employing the EU's REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) as an initial guide. We will press to have CEPA amended to cover all substances shown to be a significant risk to human health, including the immediate banning of bisphenol A and nonylphenol.

 

When legislation to better regulate toxic substances in consumer products fell off the Order Paper because Mr. Harper prorogued Parliament (Bill C-6), the Liberal caucus called on the Conservatives to re-table this important legislation – which they did with C-36. Liberals worked tenaciously in committee to ensure this bill was worthy of becoming law. Liberals believe in the importance of protecting Canadians from toxic substances. A Liberal government will meet with experts and stakeholders to ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect Canadians from toxic chemicals.

New Democrats will strengthen regulations to prohibit the current use and import of potentially harmful chemical substances in consumer items such as food and personal care products. We will add 200 new inspectors to the Canada Food Inspection Agency, and expedite the re-assessment and regulation of priority toxins and pollutants to the most stringent international standards. We commit to enacting a ban on BPA in consumer products within 18 months, as set out in NDP MP Paul Dewar’s Private Members Bill C-299, and we will adopt a precautionary approach to the future use of any new such substances.