Questions to the parties
Question 1: Climate and Energy | KYOTOplus
Greenpeace, Sierra Club Canada and 30 other Canadian organizations have joined forces to build a national consensus for urgent policy action on climate change. Part of the campaign is to ask every candidate in this election to sign the KYOTOplus Pledge which calls on them to “work to ensure that Canada honours its Kyoto commitment and sets a national target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25%, relative to the 1990 level, by 2020.”
Will your party support the KYOTOplus objectives and targets for reductions in emissions?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 2: Climate and Energy | Nuclear Phaseout
It is essential for Canada to develop a comprehensive plan to phase out the use of nuclear energy, recognizing that it is irresponsible for us to generate more highly radioactive waste – toxic waste that will be radioactive for millennia, placing an unfair burden on future generations of Canadians.
Will your party support a comprehensive plan with a firm timeline for the phaseout of nuclear power in Canada?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 3: Climate and Energy | Nuclear Subsidies
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is the federal crown corporation that designs and markets CANDU reactors and other nuclear technology. It has received over $20 billion in federal subsidies since it was founded in 1952. AECL has received over $200 million in federal subsidies to design a new reactor - the Advanced CANDU reactor. The Canadian nuclear industry is currently asking for hundreds of millions in additional subsidies to secure the sale of the prototype reactor to Ontario. Over its 50 year history AECL has only managed to sell one reactor design, the CANDU-6.
Will your party end subsidies to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and refuse to provide Ontario with subsidies to purchase the Advanced Candu Reactor?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 4: Climate and Energy | Alberta Tar Sands
By 2020, the tar sands are expected to emit more than 141 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year—more than what all motor vehicles currently emit in Canada. Several people downstream of the tar sands already have been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and other auto-immune disorders that are likely to be a result of pollution from upstream tar Sands operations.
Will your party support a moratorium on new Tar Sands projects?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 5: Food and Agriculture | Genetically Engineered Food
Public opinion research indicates that over 80% of Canadians want mandatory labelling for Genetically Engineered (GE) food, and 40 countries have a mandatory labelling system. The federal government adopted “voluntary” labelling in April 2004, and until today Canadian consumers have not seen a single label telling them that food contain GE ingredients.
Will your party propose legislated mandatory labelling of genetically engineered foods in the next parliament and agree to an immediate moratorium on the approval of all new GE crops and foods until the government’s procedure for GE risk assessment has been reviewed and strengthened to meet strict scientific standards based on the precautionary principle?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 6: Oceans | National Marine Reserves
Less than 0.5% of Canada’s oceans are protected, despite clear scientific evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of reserves in protecting marine resources including fisheries. Although Canada has plans to create a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2012, it is far from being a leader when it comes to the amount of ocean area protected. Canada lags behind all other developed countries, when we consider the financial resources invested.
Will your party support the creation of a representative network of Marine Protected Areas including 25% in Marine Reserves (no-take zones) in Canadian waters by 2012, and support a long-term goal of putting aside 40% of the international high seas in Marine Reserves?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 7: Water | National Water Policy
Canada houses only a small fraction of the world’s renewable freshwater resources (6.5%), and an even smaller fraction of this (2.5%) is geographically accessible without harmful large-scale water diversions. As well, invasive species, persistent organic pollutants, endocrine disrupters and groundwater depletion all have an impact on our water supplies. The allowance of bulk water exports and diversions also threatens our water resources. We cannot continue to take our water resources for granted in the face of global warming. Clean and abundant water is essential to ensuring the health of Canadians and the health of our economy.
Will your party develop a comprehensive Canada-wide water strategy in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, First Nations, and community organizations by 2010, including a Sustainable Water Act that will conserve water through such measures as national appliance water efficiency standards, enhanced prohibitions on bulk water exports, and legally-binding federal standards for drinking-water quality and sewage treatment?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 8: Water | Preserving Natural Lakes
A current loophole in the federal Fisheries Act allows healthy natural lakes to be re-designated as tailings impoundment areas - dumps for toxic mining waste - under Schedule 2 of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMERs) section. There are other, safer options for disposal of mining tailings, ones which don’t threaten freshwater ecosystems or groundwater quality.
Will your party protect Canada’s lakes and groundwater sources by working to ensure that no more lakes end up on the MMERs list under Schedule 2 of the Fisheries Act?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 9: Biodiversity | Species at Risk
Canada’s endangered species and other species at risk are not adequately protected because the federal Species at Risk Act is not being fully implemented. Action plans for recovery are in place for fewer than 1% of Canada’s listed species at risk.
Will your party support accelerating the implementation of the Species at Risk Act by implementing, by 2009, recovery strategies and action plans that identify and protect habitat for all species listed before 2008?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 10: Biodiversity | Wild Spaces
Few places in the world can still boast the kinds of wild spaces – and wild species – that can be found from coast to coast to coast in Canada. In the face of rapidly accelerating climate change and other threats, Canada needs to move fast to secure this natural legacy by permanently protecting a minimum of 50% of our remaining wild areas.
Is your party committed to: support a significant increase in the amount of protected areas in Canada, especially in large intact forests such as the Canadian Boreal Forest and Arctic ecosystems by establishing interconnected networks of protected areas and implementing regional land-use plans before approving any large-scale industrial projects, including the Mackenzie Gas Project and new Tar Sands expansion. By 2009, announce a funded plan to complete and manage Canada’s network of National Parks, National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 11: Toxic Pollution | Health and the Environment
Environmental contaminants in our air, water, and food are having an enormous negative impact on the health of Canadians. Health Canada estimates that the direct health care costs and lost productivity caused by environmental factors add up to between $46 billion and $52 billion a year.
Will your party work in Parliament to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) to implement the recommendations of the April 2007 all-party report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development? This includes placing the onus on companies to show that chemicals are safe, rather than the current onus on government to demonstrate harm, and requiring prompt and meaningful action to limit human exposure to a substance when scientific evidence shows it to be toxic.
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 12: Toxic Pollution | Air Pollution
According to a recent report from the Canadian Medical Association, an estimated 700,000 Canadians will die prematurely over the next two decades because of illnesses caused by poor air quality.
Will your party be prepared to, by 2008, set national and regional emissions reduction targets for harmful pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter, based on stringent air-quality standards that protect both the environment and human health, especially the health of vulnerable populations?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 13: Democracy | Environmental Bill of Rights
Currently, many Canadian health and environmental laws and policies are weaker than corresponding laws in other nations. Canadians need a strong Environmental Bill of Rights, to protect us from toxins and other environmental hazards.
Will your party support the passage of an Environmental Bill of Rights that would: establish the right of citizens to a healthy environment; establish a duty of public trust on the part of the federal government to manage and protect the environment for the benefit of current and future generations; allow Canadians to take action against the federal government for any breach of its public trust duty; guarantee reasonable access to environmental information so that citizens make informed decisions; establish a right for citizens to participate in environmental decision-making?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 14: Sustainable Economy | Putting a Price on Carbon
Today, Canadians recognize that the economy and the environment are two sides of the same coin. One reason we have entrenched environmental problems like poor air quality and accelerating climate change is that government policy sends the wrong economic signals. Our tax policies often subsidize economic behaviour that damages the environment and the climate by propping up damaging development – such as in the tar sands – instead of driving investment in more sustainable approaches. These old policies are both economically costly and environmentally unsustainable.
Will your party institute carbon pricing through carbon taxes and/or a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions and use the proceeds to finance further actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while supporting low-income Canadians and immediately shortening the phase-out period for the accelerated capital cost allowance for the tar-sands industry?
Response: Bloc | Conservatives | Green | Liberal | NDP
Question 15: Sustainable Economy | Nuclear Liability
Under the current Nuclear Liability Act, Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for most of the public liability associated with private nuclear installations.