1. Are you aware of the status of the Canadian government’s national policy on water? What is your position on the commodification of water and Canada’s stance on the human right to water?
To the best of my knowledge and my embarrassment as a Canadian we have no national water policy. The need for a comprehensive water policy that includes source protection should be a national priority.
Water makes up over 80% of the human body. It is indeed the stuff of life. Water should not be treated as a commodity and should be safeguarded for the future.
The Green Party of Canada and myself recognize the human right to safe water. Ask the aboriginal communities that we have failed in so many ways how important safe drinking water is to them
From Vision Green
Water protection and conservation
Freshwater is the lifeblood of Earth. Protecting and conserving freshwater is a major political challenge for the 21st century. Looking down from space one sees that Canada encompasses one of the Earth’s most water-abundant regions. On the ground, however, the story is different. Our water use is geographically concentrated. Sixty percent of our water runs north while over 90 percent of our population is concentrated along our southern border. Sadly, Canadians are among the world’s most inefficient users of water, wasting more water per capita than any other nation on Earth except for the United States. While Europe has considerably reduced its water consumption, Canadians continue to put a heavy strain on water infrastructures and drain our valuable freshwater reserves.
As stewards of nine percent of the world’s renewable water, we are ethically bound to conserving it for this and future generations. While most citizens have access to safe water, Health Canada indicates that as many as 85 First Nations communities (under the sole jurisdiction of the federal government) are under boil-water advisories. As our population, economic activities and communities grow, water problems will become increasingly common. Some, like Walkerton and Kashechewan, are related to water quality; others, like recent droughts in the Prairies and Southern Ontario are water quantity issues; some span provincial borders; others national borders. All speak to a need for renewed attention to water policy by the federal government.
Our Vision
Sustainable communities and sustainable livelihoods need healthy watersheds. The Green Party is committed to responsible water stewardship. That includes restoring and protecting watersheds from industrial activities. We advocate a renewed federal government role in water management, focused on strong regulations and programs created in collaboration with provincial and municipal governments. When it comes to our vision for freshwater, the Green Party’s message is clear: Keep it. Conserve it. Protect it.
- Keep it. Pressure is mounting to export freshwater south of the border, with trade agreements such as North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) leaving us susceptible to relinquishing control over our water. The Green Party supports current Federal Water Policy that emphatically opposes large-scale exports (bulk exports) of our water.
- Conserve it. The federal government must work to ensure sustainable use of our water resources and at the same time maintain and improve access to safe water for all Canadians. This includes water metering and pricing that both reflects a fair value for water and fosters efficient use, and regulations that protect and enhance water quality and ensure that Canada does not become a haven for water-wasting industrial technologies.
- Protect it. To protect and restore freshwater ecosystems and their ecological services (e.g. as habitats for fish and freshwater species; as domestic water supplies; for energy-generation and recreation; as sources of water for irrigation and other economic uses) the federal government has to use its powers, including the Fisheries Act, and its role in inter-jurisdictional water sharing. This is especially important when considering the changes in quality and quantity of Canada’s freshwater that will occur due to climate change. The Great Lakes’ levels will fall, resulting in higher concentrations of toxic chemicals and other pollutants; BC rivers will become over-heated preventing salmon spawning, and farmers will face increasing drought. The Athabasca River is already experiencing significant declines in flow due to climatic impacts and tar sand developments.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Protect the fundamental right to water for all Canadians today and in future generations by amending the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine the right of future Canadians to an ecological heritage that includes breathable air and drinkable water.
- Push government to strategically implement the 1987 Federal Water Policy to meet the requirements of sustainable water management—equity, efficiency and ecological integrity—by:
- Passing Federal legislation to prohibit bulk water exports;
- Establishing regulations and product standards to promote water efficient technologies in Canada;
- Ensuring secure, safe water supplies for all citizens with a focus on First Nations communities through establishing regulations requiring protection of drinking water at its source, public inspection of domestic water supplies and mandatory and regular drinking water testing;
- Provide funding to municipalities through a new “Water and Waste Treatment Facilities Municipal Superfund” (see section on Federal-Municipal Relations) to enable replacement of chlorination systems with ozonation, ultraviolet sterilization, sand filtration and other safe water purification systems;
- Conduct an inventory of all polluted groundwater and water bodies and develop and implement strategies for cleaning them up; and,
- Enhance the capacity of federal departments and agencies to protect and restore the health of aquatic ecosystems
- Ensure that water is managed in a way that helps create healthy, sustainable communities and fosters sustainable livelihoods by demanding that government:
- Replace federal guidelines for drinking water quality with binding national standards that secure clean drinking water and human health;
- Make federal funding for urban water infrastructure contingent on water efficiency plans that include measurable and enforceable goals and objectives;
- Provide adequate funding for local and regional flood protection and drought management planning;
- Provide strategic climate change program funding for water conservation on the basis that water conservation results in energy savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions;
- Revive the InfraGuide program (quietly eliminated by Environment Minister John Baird) that supported graduate internships in leading edge municipal infrastructure projects
- Shift subsidies and funding away from dams and diversions (including feasibility studies) toward comprehensive “ground to the glass” drinking water protection strategies, especially source water protection, watershed restoration and community-based water conservation and efficiency planning and programs; and,
- Review federal agricultural subsidies and develop transitional strategies to shift production away from water intensive crops toward local sustainable agriculture.
- Address inter-provincial/territorial and international water-related concerns by demanding that government:
- Restore ecosystem health to Canada’s coastline and inland watersheds by funding improvements to municipal wastewater treatment systems, with particular emphasis on ensuring shoreline communities and industries stop dumping untreated waste into rivers, lakes and oceans; and,
- Ensure that binding water-sharing agreements among provincial, territorial and federal governments are created within the Mackenzie Basin (within 1 year). The agreements must reflect contemporary scientific knowledge and principles of social equity, efficiency and ecological integrity. Elements to include:
- Capping withdrawals from the Athabasca River based on assessment of in stream flow needs;
- Ensuring oil sands developers deal responsibly with polluted waters in storage ponds (largest man-made structures on Earth); and,
- Placing a moratorium on further oil sands development (i.e. increases in annual production).
c. Review the Prairie Provinces Water Board Master Agreement on Apportionment to ensure it is consistent with contemporary scientific knowledge and principles of social equity, efficiency and ecological integrity;
d. Address invasive species in the Great Lakes by developing stringent, science-based protocols for ballast water flushing prior to entering the St. Lawrence waterway, and funding for monitoring and enforcement of these protocols;
e. Strengthen the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to ensure it deals with emerging issues such as endocrine disrupters and pharmaceuticals;
f. Support international momentum for the human right to water by establishing a national legally binding human right to basic water requirements for all Canadians (both quality and quantity); and,
g. Increase Canadian aid for access to basic water requirements and sanitation consistent with the Millennium Development Goals.
- Fulfill the need to increase science capacity related to water issues by demanding the government:
- Enhance funding for data collection and integrated information-systems on water use, availability and quality; and,
- Link research spending in the natural and social sciences to water policy goals to ensure our higher education institutions create the knowledge for 21st century water management (i.e. emerging issues such as endocrine disrupters, pharmaceuticals and toxics, instream flows and sustainable groundwater yield, climate change adaptation).
2. Would you support renegotiating NAFTA? If so, what parts of the agreement would you like to see renegotiated and why?
In short Yes.
A lot of the agreement is poor. In no particular order
1. Energy. When Mexico was asked to sign the same energy deal as we did they laughed at it. Our future energy security has been sold out.
2. Agriculture. Food security and safety are vital to our health. Allowing more pesticides on food to harmonize our regulations with the US is pandering to large corporations. Our people must come first.
3. We would put a stop to the SPP as it a further harmonization of our economy with the US. Under SPP London could be sued for banning pesticides as it presents an “unfair market protection”. The possibility of a city being sued for protecting its children from toxic pesticides is sickening.
I could go on for a while on this.
3. Would you support changes in our health care system to allow more private-sector participation, or do you believe that our health care system should be run on a not-for-profit basis? Why? Can you outline what you would do to keep the private sector out of our national health care system?
In short…No. One health care system. Not for profit. Universal access for all Canadians. Our health care should be run on a not for profit bases because our health is not a commodity to be sold in boardrooms. In a recent debate at the Kiwanis centre a Conservative Candidate stated that patients should be treated not as expenses but rather as sources of income. I find this distasteful to say the least.
I would start by ending the SPP. It would allow large US HMO’s access to our health. It would give them the right to sue Canada for not allowing them access to our market. This must never be allowed.
4. What do you feel is the best role for Canada in the Afghanistan conflict? Or should Canada withdraw its troops?
I have always have mixed feelings about this. I have always been proud of our role in this world as peace keepers. But the Liberal and now the Harper governments policy of following the US lead in foreign policy is not the path Canadians want us to follow. We are hunting Taliban in Afghanistan. Our commitment there on behalf of the US has forced us to turn down requests from the most needy. Indeed we were asked to lead a UN mission to Darfur and had to decline as we are over committed in Afghanistan.
Our Vision
Canada’s role in Afghanistan must shift to the provision of significantly more strategic development and creative peace-building diplomacy. The Green Party does not support further Canadian participation in the NATO-led combat mission to Afghanistan beyond February2009. We do not consider NATO to be the appropriate command structure for security operations against an insurgency. We will support, as part of this withdrawal from the NATO mission, a continued small Canadian military presence in Kabul beyond February2009 to further the development of the logistics support functions of Afghan National Army in order to accelerate their independent operational capacity.
Crucial to success will be innovative and appropriate development and diplomatic strategies that targets deep structural poverty and gains the goodwill and support of the Afghan people. That is why we fully support the recommendations put forward by the international Senlis Council to create a legal poppy-growing economy in Southern Afghanistan that would supply low-cost narcotic medicines to developing countries as part of a renewed International Aid effort. Together with this support of the Senlis Council recommendations, is also the need for increased support of other traditional agricultural products and harvests.
Although it is a slow and long-term process, diplomatic efforts must be increased to improve domestic governance mechanisms and democratic institutions. The Afghan government also needs to be strengthened institutionally and practically so that it so that it no longer succumbs to the corruption of drug lords.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Begin the process of withdrawing Canadian NATO Forces from Afghanistan as soon as reasonably possible and not later than February 2009.
- Extend a time-limited offer to the Afghan government to provide Canadian military logistics support and legal experts to assist in accelerating the development of the logistics support capacity of the Afghan National Army. This would be outside of NATO command, limited to two years and subject to a bilateral agreement between Canada and Afghanistan. It would be understood that this contingent would also provide training in international human rights law and the Geneva Convention. We will be mandated to document human rights violations with a commitment to bring any breaches or war crimes, including rape, to the appropriate military and/or war crimes tribunal.
- Provide police training through the RCMP for the Afghan police force focusing on human rights, treatment of prisoners adhering to U.N. conventions, civil rights in accordance with Afghan law with the further encouragement to adopt civil rights laws that adhere to U.N. conventions.
- Push for a U.N brokered regional peace conference to help bringing stability to the region through respectful co-existence, non-aggression, and respecting the semi-autonomous history of the region. Such a larger regional peace conference should include Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, representatives of various tribal leaders in the autonomous regions of northern Pakistan and China with the further participation of Russia and India.
- Advance the Senlis Council recommendations to implement a comprehensive strategy to break the cycle of illicit poppy growing and violence that has kept Afghanistan in turmoil for decades with a licensing and quota system for growing poppies and selling the products to legal drug firms that produce morphine and codeine for legitimate legal painkilling use. This legal opium market would produce essential medicines to help the millions of people in developing countries (including Afghanistan itself) who are unnecessarily dying in pain because they don’t have access to these medicines. Green MPs would also urge Canada to purchase such opiate drugs and distribute them as part of our health and poverty related ODA programs.
- Focus and strengthen CIDA efforts on poverty alleviation, reconstruction and development programs to supplement opium cultivation in Afghanistan.
- Significantly expand economic assistance and development for agriculture in the south and east of Afghanistan through access to credit, loans, grants, for the purpose of developing multi-use farms with the further development of water infrastructure for irrigation and potable water supply.
- Invest in more robust diplomatic efforts focusing on improving domestic governance mechanisms and democratic institutions and protecting the slowly emerging democracy and civil society in Afghanistan.
- Protect the right of Afghans to maintain the control over and the right to ownership of their resources and infrastructure and oppose privatization of natural resources in Afghanistan as part of reconstruction programs.
5. What concrete steps would your federal party government take to reduce poverty in London, and across the country? How actively would you participate in this effort?
I do not believe I can address this better then our vision green document
From Vision Green
Eliminating poverty
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“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be |
The National Council of Welfare has estimated that over 15% of Canadians are living in poverty — about 4.9 million people. In a wealthy country such as Canada, this is unacceptable. Eliminating poverty while supporting healthy communities will pay for itself in reduced health care costs as poverty is the single largest determinant of ill health. Eliminating poverty will pay for itself in reduced crime rates. Failure to eliminate poverty will cost our society far more than a civilized programme to make poverty history in Canada.
Our Vision
The Green Party of Canada believes it is time to re-visit a major policy initiative — the use of a negative income tax, or Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) for all. The use of a GLI could eliminate poverty and allow social services to concentrate on problems of mental health and addiction. The essential plan is to provide a regular annual payment to every Canadian without regard to a needs- test. The level of the payment will be regionally set at a level above poverty, but at a bare subsistence level to encourage additional income generation. No surveillance or follow-up is required.
Unlike the current welfare (provincial) and Employment Insurance (EI) schemes (federally), additional income is not “clawed back” until a higher level of income, above subsistence, is achieved. The incentive to illegal, under-the table, economies is vastly reduced, although not entirely eliminated. Additional income is to be declared until the wage-earner becomes a taxpayer. For higher income Canadians, the amount of the GLI is merely taxed back in whole.
Through policy coherence, municipally, provincially and federally, savings in servicing the poor, with the additional negatives of a shame-based system that perpetuates poverty, can be reduced. To be cost-effective, however, government will require time to negotiate a coherent programme with the provinces/territories and other levels of government. Various “poverty-industry” programmes of welfare, disability pensions, seniors benefits, unemployment insurance, would all be collapsed within one simple single payment system, administered through taxes.
The Green Party believes it is time to advance bold and controversial ideas, such as this. Nevertheless, it needs time for study, reflection and greater support from all three levels of government. We are committed to opening dialogue on the idea, while pursuing short-term measures to make progress in the near term.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Remove taxes from lowest categories so that no taxes are paid by those below the poverty line (Canada’s Low Income Cut-Off measure).
- Allow income assistance recipients to keep 100% of the wages they earn up to the Low Income Cut-Off level to encourage people to get back into the job market.
- Offer people the mobility they need to find work, shelter and other necessities through free transit passes for those on income assistance.
- Extend maternity/paternity leave for new parents outside of EI to two years and one additional year for other parents who pay into EI.
- Increase Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors by 25%.
- Top up the income support for single parents on welfare during the time they are attending school or in job training programmes.
- Launch as a first step towards universal GLI provide additional income support of $5000/year to adults currently receiving provincial welfare cheques. Through negotiations with each province this modest income support payment will not be subject to claw back.
- Ensure financial assistance for low-income spouses and relatives who provide end-of-life care at home for patients who would otherwise need to be hospitalized or in institutional long term care.
- Augment the government’s measurement of “progress” (our Gross Domestic Product-GDP) with a Genuine Progress Indicator – a Canadian index of well-being (that annually measures how well we are doing on quality of life indicators, including eliminating poverty. (See economy section.)
Eliminating child poverty
Of all of Canada’s social problems, child poverty is probably the most shameful. In 1989, the old-line political parties voted unanimously to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Since then, at least in part due to the shortsighted cuts to our social programs, the percentage of children living in poverty has remained unchanged at around 15 %, or 1 million children. Child poverty rates are even higher among new Canadians, Aboriginals and single parent households headed by women. Canada now ranks a dismal 26th out of 29 ‘developed’ countries in terms of child poverty rates.
There is no silver bullet to eradicate poverty. Better food banks cannot bridge the growing disparity between wealthy and poor Canadians. Poverty is a systemic problem that arises from low minimum wages, a precarious job market and a shortage of social housing, reductions in EI benefits and cuts in social programs.
Our Vision
We can eliminate child poverty in Canada. The Green Party believes that Canadians are willing to pay to do it. We must start by recommitting to a vision of Canada as a just society built around a progressive, fair and compassionate social safety network. European countries, such as Denmark, Finland and Norway, that have made a similar commitment, have kept child poverty rates below 3.5 %. Unlike the old-line parties, the Green Party believes reducing child poverty is more important than allowing our richest citizens to get richer. The Green Party believes reducing child poverty starts with a stronger commitment to guaranteeing that every family has the ability to provide for their children.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will work to:
- Develop comprehensive plan to improve our social safety network so that it eliminates child poverty, modeling this plan on European countries’ programmes that have the best track records in eliminating child poverty.
- Eradicate the most severe poverty of families through measures described in section 10, above.
Ending homelessness
We have witnessed the disintegration of our social safety net to the point where many Canadians, through no fault of their own, have been forced into unsafe, unhealthy living conditions. Some are on the streets. Others are barely getting by. Homelessness began to escalate during the 1990s with federal government cuts to social housing programs and cuts in income support programs by both the federal and provincial governments. As housing prices increased, even people working for minimum wage are increasingly unable to afford rental housing.
If the people who need help are not properly cared for, this puts a strain on everyone. Basic needs are not being met for a significant number of Canadians, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. The Green Party believes that we have enough resources to care for all residents of Canada.
Our Vision
The Green Party believes it is the right of every Canadian to have affordable, safe and secure housing. It enhances people’s health, dignity and life opportunities. It is an essential prerequisite to an equitable society. The Green Party supports the delivery of social housing dollars to provincial, territorial and municipal governments through the traditional vehicle of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The funding for social housing needs to be dramatically increased. CMHC programs must be directed to the communities most in need and fast-tracked to provide homes for people at risk. The housing provided must be designed with energy conservation in mind:
- Access to housing should be free from discrimination, including, but not limited to, ethnicity, race, cultural background, language, class, income, age, gender, sexuality, marital status, religion, political or other opinion, ability, health, status or other personal characteristic or circumstance.
- Universal housing will alleviate poverty. Universal housing provides a basis for employment, schooling, community services and contacts. The development and delivery of adequate universal housing and emergency accommodation should be a high priority.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Create a National Affordable Housing Program that provides sufficient funds annually through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to community-based agencies across Canada to:
- Build new subsidized affordable homes: 20,000 new and 10,000 rehabilitated affordable units per year for the next ten years using capital grants and changes in tax and mortgage insurance regulations;
- Provide rent supplements or shelter assistance for an additional 40,000 low-income households per year, for ten years;
- Provide credit and loan guarantees to non-profit housing organizations and cooperatives for the building and restoration of quality, energy-efficient housing for seniors, people with special needs, and low-income families;
- Subsidize private developers to include a percentage of affordable housing in their housing projects;
- Extend provisions in the Income Tax Act to offer tax incentives to build affordable, healthy, energy-efficient, multi-unit rental housing and to include tax credits for gifts of lands, or of land and buildings, to community land trusts to provide affordable housing; and,
- Dedicate funding to the co-operative housing sector to enable more new affordable housing projects to proceed.
6. What would you commit to do to, at the federal government level that would help in the goal to assist the City of London to achieve status as a sustainable city?
Toronto mayor has called our plan for Canadian cities the best af all the parties.
From Vision Green
At Confederation, Canada was a predominantly rural country where fewer than one in 10 people lived in cities. Our constitution set up a taxation system that greatly favoured the federal and provincial governments. Today 80 percent of Canadians live in urban areas.
Urban Canadians want their garbage collected, good transit services, safe roads and dependable water supplies. They also want new investment in green urban infrastructure including recycling, mass transit, energy efficiency upgrades to buildings, water conservation and community amenities like parks, sports fields and arts, culture and community centres. Underlying this is an urgent need to replace aging sewer systems, roadways and water pipes.
All of these are municipal responsibilities but Canadian municipalities simply don’t have enough money to do it all. According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 50 percent of Canadian tax revenue is spent on federal programs, 42 percent goes to the provinces and only 8 percent goes to municipal governments. Canada’s biggest fiscal imbalance is the imbalance between municipal governments and everyone else.
As Jane Jacobs pointed out in Dark Age Ahead, taxes are collected disproportionately at the wrong level. Most Canadians’ experience their government at the level where it collects their recycling, runs their buses and provides their water.
The Green Party will redress the real fiscal imbalance facing the level of government least able to tax fully to cover its costs.
Our Vision
To support communities, we need to invest in critical infrastructure of transport and water works to modernize and reduce energy demand. The Green Party Government will continue the gas tax commitment as envisioned by the previous government to allow for stable and predictable funding. As well the Green Party Government will liberate billions of dollars a year through RRSP deductions for municipal bonds.
Municipalities need stable and predictable funding so that they can invest in critical infrastructure such as mass transit, sewage treatment, energy efficiency improvements, better water systems to reduce waste and cope with erratic precipitation patterns of a changing global climate, as well as community amenities like sports fields, arts and cultural opportunities.
The Green Party will create a new pool of municipal infrastructure funding by changing tax rules to create a Municipal Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) bond that can be held in RRSPs and self-directed RRSPs. In February 2006 alone, Canadians bought $8 billion in mutual funds. Imagine if even half of that was available to our communities.
This would be in addition to allocating an additional portion of the federal gasoline tax directly to the provinces for transfer to municipalities. The Green Party supports the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Large Cities Caucus request for a commitment of one cent from GST as a reasonable approach to stable financing. This is made possible through carbon tax revenue. Municipal governments must enter into agreements to ensure that sprawl is not permitted through extensive infrastructure funding. Densification, speedy, safe and pleasant mass transit, safe cycling paths and other investments to conserve electricity and water will all merit stable GST-sourced financing.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Change tax policy to create a new pool of long term municipal infrastructure funding by allowing municipalities to issue new Municipal Registered Retirement Savings Plans Bonds (MRRSPsBs) which can be held in RRSPs and self-directed RRSPs.
- Allocate one cent from GST on an approximate per capita basis to municipal governments for “Green Cities” initiatives, ensuring (through contractual agreements) that the funding is not used in ways that encourage urban sprawl, but instead to reduce sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions, conserve electricity and water, increase densification, expand convenient, safe, reliable and affordable public transit, and build cycling and walking paths. This funding could be transferred through Municipal Superfunds.
- Create six Municipal Superfunds of $500 million/fund/year (an average of $100 for every citizen per year) to which municipalities can apply for grant funding to replace the less specific Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund (CSIF). The proposed funds are:
- Community Brownfield Remediation (CBR) Fund to provide assistance in cleaning up toxic and brownfield sites;
- Water and Waste Treatment Facilities (WWTF) Fund to upgrade water treatment, sewage treatment and recycling facilities to make them efficient, safe and sustainable;
- Sports, Cultural and Recreational Facilities (SCRF) Fund to support the development of green recreational and cultural facilities and refurbish existing facilities;
- Mass Transit Promotion (MTP) Fund to improve and expand urban mass transit infrastructure and inter-modal connections, as well as car-sharing initiatives;
- Cycling and Pedestrian Promotion (CAPP) Fund to support pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and smart-growth developments that transform urban areas and towns into walkable communities linked by transit to reduce the need for owning and using cars; and,
- Community Housing Options Promotion (CHOP) Fund supporting a national housing program to build energy efficient co-ops and affordable housing units where there is a shortage of such housing options.
- Increase the Gas Tax Transfer to municipalities to 5 cents/litre to be used in funding the above sustainable transportation initiatives such as public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and rural roads.
- Make transit passes tax-deductible to encourage workers and businesses to use public transport and make employee parking a taxable benefit.
- Increase federal funding for pedestrian, cycle and car-sharing infrastructure in towns and cities.
- Double existing funding to stimulate a massive re-investment in public transportation infrastructure in all Canadian towns and cities to make it convenient, safe, comfortable and affordable.
- Make transit passes tax-deductible to encourage workers and businesses to use public transport and provide financial support to provinces that provide free public transit passes to people living below the poverty line.
- Cancel all funding for specific highways and bridge expansions (like the Gateway Program in Greater Vancouver) that encourage urban sprawl, increase private vehicle use, truck transport of goods and consequently increases greenhouse gas emissions.
- Ensure federal infrastructure funding does not go to expanding highways and roads.
7. Are you in favour of a National Energy Strategy? Could you outline your thoughts on this in summary?
Yes. It is embarrassing that we have none.
The Green Party believes that reduction of our energy consumption though efficiency and other means is our best path to sustainability. We need to move to a diverse and decentralized energy mix. In the past year I have had Solar panels installed in our home and a Solar hot water system. This needs to be standard building practice in Canada, and those who cannot afford it need to be helped. As an aside, I was disappointed to see that my only choice for and evacuated tube hot water system came from China. Fortunately there was a different type of system available from a Dorchester supplier that we chose. Canada is missing the biggest opportunity it will ever see to lead the Green economy. We need to foster alternative energy not give tax cuts to big oil and gas companies.
Specifically in regard to Nuclear power
From Vision Green
Energy industry: no to nuclear
Can nuclear power meet our energy needs and be the solution to climate change? Not when one considers the cost, pollution and threat to global security associated with nuclear power.
The Green Party believes that choices should be economically rational. The best energy choices to respond to the climate crisis should be those that deliver the greatest reduction of GHG per dollar invested. By this criterion, nuclear energy is among the very worst options. Reactors cost billions of dollars, take more than a decade to build, operate unreliably after about the first dozen years of operation, and only produce one type of energy: electricity. Even if the industry were “green and clean” as claimed by the pro-nuclear propaganda efforts, it fails on the economics. Nevertheless, it is neither clean nor green.
Each gigawatt of nuclear energy requires 170 tonnes of uranium. When the uranium is processed into fuel, 250,000 tonnes of carbon are emitted for every 1000 megawatts produced. Nuclear energy produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases.
Recent studies also note that once the current high-grade uranium deposits are depleted, carbon emissions will greatly increase as low quality ores have to be refined. In addition, radioactive emissions that routinely leak from current facilities in Ontario have a half-life of over 5000 years. The spent fuel has over 200 cancer causing elements. Plutonium, for example, has a half-life of 24,400 years while other harmful substances persist millions of years in our environment with no known safety treatment.
Nuclear energy has an inevitable link to nuclear weapons proliferation. India made its first bomb from spent fuel from a CANDU reactor. As well, depleted uranium waste is increasingly and routinely used to coat bullets and missiles in “conventional” warfare, leaving a legacy of radioactive contamination as an on-going health and environmental threat to civilians post-conflict.
Our Vision
The least expensive energy alternative for Canada is investment in enhanced energy productivity through energy efficiency and conserving energy. With existing technology, fully implemented, Canada could easily reduce energy demand by 50 percent. The Green Party supports 100 percent clean and green power.
Canada’s potential wind and tidal resources are amongst the best in the world. Yet, they have hardly been tapped. The Green Party globally has said “no” to nuclear energy. It is neither safe, nor clean, nor economical. Federal climate change policies should encourage the most efficient, effective and environmentally friendly measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Work with Provinces to phase out existing nuclear power, to stem the buildup of nuclear wastes, and to institute a Canada wide moratorium on uranium mining and refining.
- Call for the federal government to stop subsidizing all phases of the nuclear industry and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and stop promoting CANDU reactors. Federal insurance will no longer cover the risk of nuclear accidents.
- Demand that the operations of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and AECL are transparent and at arms length from government and require the disclosure of the minutes of all meetings with AECL.
- Seek an amendment to the Nuclear Liability Act, increasing maximum insured liabilities from $75 million to $13 billion (the amount for which US reactors are insured). Federal legislation will no longer limit the liability of the nuclear industry to a minuscule portion of potential costs of a nuclear accident.
8. Would you be prepared to support some form of electoral reform, such as the system suggested for the province of Ontario during the last election, at the federal government level? Would you support the establishment of a citizens committee to look into which system would be the most appropriate national proportional representation system for Canadians?
Yes and Yes. Unlike other parties, proportional representation is an absolute requirement for any coalition government offers the Green Party would entertain..
From Vision Green
Democratic renewal and proportional representation
Over 660,000 Canadians voted for the Green Party in the last federal election without electing a single Green MP. Yet it took an average of 37,000 voters to elect one Liberal MP, and only 31,000 votes to elect on Bloc MP. Our electoral system unfairly punishes Conservative voters in cities, Liberal and NDP voters in the west, and Green voters throughout Canada. Our electoral system also elects far more men then women and gives some provinces an unfair share of power, based on their population, than others. Ultimately, it does not produce governments that reflect the diversity of people in Canada, nor do a good job of accurately reflecting voters’ wishes. Canada is one of the last few parliamentary democracies in the world to still use the antiquated first-past-the-post voting system, and Canadians are ready for positive change.
Our Vision
The Green Party of Canada believes that Canadian democracy would benefit by reducing the financial barriers to running for political office, lowering the voter age to encourage more youth participation, and changing to a voting system that more fairly translates peoples’ votes into representation in parliament. We also believe that democracy, by definition, must be decided by citizens, not politicians. We have ideas to improve the system, but we’d rather hear yours.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Create a Citizens’ Assembly, like the one struck provincially in Ontario, to study electoral systems used around the world, with a view to designing several models that are proportional and fairer than our current system. The recommendations of the Citizens Assembly will be presented as options to Canadian voters.
- Present a ballot question to voters at the next federal election on whether they want to change our voting system and which one of the options prepared by the Citizens’ Assembly they prefer. The threshold for the ballot question to change our voting system should be fifty percent plus one.
- Introduce fixed election dates permitting political stability and fair elections.
- Reduce the mandatory $1,000 candidate deposit to encourage more Canadians to participate in the democratic system.
9. Given the very serious negative effects on our environment flowing out of the intensive agriculture industry (factory farming), would you be prepared to support a moratorium on any further permits or expansions?
Yes
From Vision Green
Agriculture and food
For centuries, family farms were the foundation of our society and economy. Over the last five decades, federal policies, subsidies and changing technologies have shifted food production from small ecologically-sustainable family farms to giant agribusinesses. This shift has given multinational corporations control over our food supply. Meanwhile, farmers increasingly rely on off-farm income to survive.
Our food security and safety is threatened directly by agribusiness, as factory farms crowd chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs into inhumane and unhygienic conditions creating the risk of serious health threats from toxic spinach to mad cow disease and avian flu. Animals are often pumped full of chemicals and hormones while many crops are now genetically modified and treated with pesticides.
Our Vision
The health of Canada’s population today and in the future depends on the environmentally sustainable production of wholesome food. We must restructure our agricultural markets to sustain farming and provide farm families with a fair share of the consumer food dollar. We want to expand local small-scale agriculture and support a rapid transition to organic agriculture rather than subsidizing costly agro-chemicals, industrial food production and genetically modified crops.
People need good food. With growing concerns over economic and climatic instability, a reliable domestic food supply is essential. Family owned and operated farms of small to medium size constitute the most reliable, high quality and economical food production system, now and into our uncertain future. The Green Party of Canada supports family farmers as environmental stewards and as efficient producers of nutritious food. The family farm is the primary unit of production. Agricultural policies must be designed to keep family farms economically viable. We support the active participation of Canadian farmers in export markets where this is consistent with achieving their most important role – servicing domestic markets for healthy food and sustaining Canada’s agriculture resource base. We support education of Canadian consumers to value and prefer that which is grown locally.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- Develop and implement a National Agricultural and Food Policy that:
- Moves towards regional food self-sufficiency across Canada, as we begin the shift to organic agriculture as the dominant model of production;
- Prioritizes fair trade in agricultural exports and imports;
- Ensures that supply management systems provide stable domestic markets, viable farm income and permit unregulated production by smaller and family farms that sell to local markets;
- Supports the Canadian Wheat Board to ensure the fair trading of high quality Canadian grains;
- Supports local food economies by enabling local areas, without industrial scale agriculture, to develop area-specific food safety regulations meeting national standards without placing undue financial burdens on local farmers and food processors;
- Shifts government-supported research away from biotechnology and energy-intensive farming and towards organic food production;
- Ensures the quality and wholesomeness of food by strengthening the monitoring of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth hormones, non-therapeutic antibiotics and insecticides in food production, processing and storage with the goal of an orderly reduction in detectable residues of these substances until they reach undetectable limits;
- Incorporates the right of farm workers to earn a living wage and have safe working conditions;
- Protects and improves the quality of water in our streams, lakes and aquifers by requiring farm practices that avoid contamination by agricultural run-off;
- Encourages and supports the consumption of locally grown food by promoting adequate shelf space in grocery chains for products from local farms and local food processors;
- Ensures that farm support payments are farm-based (not production based) to encourage more farms and more farmers;
- Includes organic and extensive farming methods in educational information made available to farmers and encourages the increase of extensive farm practices to improve farm profitability and sustainability;
- Establishes a federally funded community-guided school lunch programs across Canada to ensure that our children have daily access to healthy local food and can learn about sustainable food production and healthy eating;
- Supports the “200 kilometre diet ” (eating locally grown food) through expansion of farmers’ markets and local culinary tourism activities;
- Minimizes the effects of climate change by encouraging farming methods that increase carbon sequestration and decrease water requirements, with financial rewards through domestic carbon trading;
- Provides transitional assistance for those switching to certified organic farming practices;
- Improves and strengthens the Canadian Organic Standard;
- Specifies that research leading to the development of new cultivar varieties and animal breeds remains in the public domain;
- Increases publicly funded research into seed stock, animal breeds and organic farming techniques and establishes new policies for private research efforts to ensure that they are in the best interests of family farmers and consumers;
- Promotes heritage seed banks and seed exchange programs; and,
- Establishes greenhouse gas emission targets for all components of the agri-food system and collaborates with industry in establishing plans for meeting them.
- Protect Canada’s agricultural resource base by:
- Introducing cost-shared programs to help farmers protect wildlife habitat areas and marginal lands, maintain water quality in streams, lakes and aquifers and retain and improve soil quality;
- Setting up an Environmental Farm Plan Program to provide new funding sources for implementation at the farm level;
- Strengthening the Plant Protection and Health of Animals Programs with measures to ensure the integrity of farm food products; and,
- Strengthening the role of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) and extending the scope of its work, such as arresting soil erosion, to all of Canada.
- Assist farmers in adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change by:
- Improving forecasting techniques, developing appropriate technology and anticipating emerging challenges; and,
- Restructuring Canada’s Business Risk Management Programs to help farmers cope with climate risk, especially in the areas of disaster assistance and production insurance.
- Promote roof top gardens, cultivation of green urban space for agriculture, food production in cities and suburbs and community gardens.
- Reform agriculture regulations to challenge corporate concentration, eliminate international dumping and subsidies and continue to allow seed saving by farmers.
- Work with provinces to ensure that all livestock waste is recycled safely and no animal by-products are used in animal feed.
- Legislate to prevent the patenting of life forms and to ensure that developers of genetically engineered crops are liable for any damage those crops cause.
10. And last but most importantly. We have seen many accounts, before and during this election campaign, in print, on the web and expressed verbally from many party representatives with respect to how to deal with the real and urgent problem of climate change and global warming. Will you, in the most clear and succinct way possible, convey to us the gist of the platform theory, how confident you are in the plan, and what you are personally doing to play a part in the solution to this ongoing problem? Also, would you be supportive of the concept of parliament legislating some form of “Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights”?
Personally I have a solar powered house. I live within walking dstance of my daughters school and enjoy walking or biking to school with her every day. My five year old daughter thinks most people bike to work as this is the example we set for her. I am running for office because not only do I strive to be the best role model I can for her, but I also want to affect change so that she enjoys a better Canada then I have. Is that not the primary responsibility of all Canadians.
No Green party policy is put forward, without its impact on the environment being assessed. For specifics on our climate change policy please see Vision Green Climate change at this link http://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/visiongreen/parttwo
Reaffirm Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto framework and further medium and long term targets: Adopt carbon taxes, immediate price of $50/tonne of CO2,equivalent (CO2e), measure impact and if required to achieve target reductions then increase up to $100/tonne of CO2e (the price the Stern Review put on the cost of climate change) by 2020. 1 litre of gas produces 2.34kg of CO2, so $50 per tonne adds 12 cents to the pump price per litre, $100 per tonne adds 24 cents. Carbon tax revenues will be used to reduce other taxes in a way that offsets any negative impact on low and middle income Canadians. Adopt carbon cap and trade and a carbon market. Establish a cap and trade CO2e ceiling for Large Final Emitters (large industry), with a market price for carbon as soon as possible. Auction and trading of CO2e allocations will be overseen by non-governmental body. The Montreal Stock Exchange has publicly indicated an interest in this role.Large Final Emitters produce around 50% of our total emissions. They include companies in mining, manufacturing, oil, gas, and thermal electricity.* Their contribution today is around 400 MT. Based on today’s emissions, we should propose caps as follows:
- 2012: 115 MT reduction (29% below today)
- 2020: 186 MT reduction (47% below today)
- 2030: 250 MT reduction (62% below today)
- 2040: 340 MT reduction (85% below today)
Yes we do support a “Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights”. In fact we have been calling for it since our parties inception.
Regards,
Mary Ann
Mary Ann Hodge
London North Centre Green Party Candidate
101 Stanley Street
London, ON
519-642-1378
MaryAnnHodge@GreenParty.ca
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