On the heels of NDP and BC United announcements, BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad released his party’s climate policy platform.
“We will eliminate the carbon tax. We will eliminate B.C.’s low-carbon fuel requirements,” said Rustad. “We will also eliminate B.C.’s climate programs so the money can be returned to the people of B.C.”
The party’s plan includes rolling back climate-ready building codes and nuclear energy as an energy option.
In comparison, the NDP Clean BC Policy includes a 40-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. All electric vehicles sold in B.C. must be electric by 2033.
The BC United’s climate policy platform includes ramping up liquefied natural gas export plant production in B.C., ending electric vehicle subsidies and investing in climate-resilient infrastructures.
The Conservatives say NDP policies are not doing anything but driving people into poverty.
“Taxing people into poverty is not going to stop wildfires. Taxing people into poverty is not going to stop flooding. We need to make sure that we adapt, and as a society, we develop what we need for our province to be able to prosper,” Rustad said.
B.C.’s Environment Minister George Heyman dismissed both the Conservative and BC United climate policies.
“Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse — John Rustad’s continuous denial that human activity causes climate change or Kevin Falcon’s desperate attempt to rip up B.C.’s climate plan to attract voters back from the BC Conservatives,” Heyman said.
Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences professor, says the Conservative Party’s policies don’t add up.
“My initial reaction was to break out laughing. There is no climate plan in the Conservative’s climate plan,” Weaver said.
“It’s just embarrassing.”
The BC Green Party has put out its climate position over the past few years.
It includes phasing out subsidies for oil and gas companies, ending the fracked gas expansion, retraining and other support for oil and gas sector workers who want to move to renewable energy projects, and increasing support for innovation in the renewable energy sector.
Mary Griffin
