NDP Response

 

In April, Jack Layton signed on to the Kyoto plus pledge and continues to stand firm in his commitment to achieve its goals. Jack Layton and the New Democrats have a long track record of working for these goals.

In January 2005, Jack Layton became the first and only national leader to table an achievable Kyoto Plan to meet Canada’s obligations under that climate change treaty.

Passed on June 4, over Stephen Harper’s objections, Layton’s Kyoto Plus Bill (C-377) sets the national emissions targets and timelines that scientists advise to fight dangerous global warming. Once the Senate passes this bill, the federal government must meet these targets and timelines—or stand in contempt of Canadian law. The targets include:

• By 2020: 25% reduction of emissions below 1990 levels.
• By 2050: 80% reduction of emissions below 1990 levels.
• NOW: Interim targets every five years, with public progress reporting.

A New Democrat government will implement Jack Layton’s legislation and set penalties for those who contravene regulations passed under the Act.

In addition to passing this important Kyoto Plus legislation, Canada’s New Democrats have proposed a “cap-and-trade” system to make big polluters cut their emissions and pay for what they do emit. Revenues generated from “cap-and-trade” would be invested in affordable green solutions—such as greener cars—to help the rest of us emit less.

Our plan will invest stable, annual transit funding, combining an extra cent from the existing gas tax with revenue from making big polluters pay, investing $4 billion in transit over the first four years of our program.

A crucial part of reducing pollution and fighting global warming must be substantial new investments in renewable energy solutions. The NDP will establish an industry innovation fund to help businesses reduce their energy use. The fund will start with $600 million, and we will invest additional funds after that.

 

Canada’s New Democrats do not support nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is dangerous, prohibitively expensive and far from a solution to climate change.

At the NDP convention in the fall of 2006, our Party adopted a comprehensive resolution on energy policy. The resolution not only recognizes the need for a secure supply of energy to meet our needs, but takes into consideration the social and environmental impact of our current consumption and sources and promotes sustainable development.

Included in this policy resolution is a commitment to the development of a thriving renewable energy industry in Canada, particularly wind and tidal stream turbines and solar panel production to meet domestic needs and the export market, by all means possible including the creation of a Crown Corporation to assist community, commercial and industrial interests and help with research and development.

In addition to promoting greener energy, Canada’s New Democrats have been consistent and constructive in using all the means at our disposal to bring about real action on climate change. This would include a shift in subsidies from dirty energy to clean energy, and a commitment to ensure that industry accepts its fair share of responsibility for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. We agree with everyday Canadians who tell us that this is a serious issue and that we can’t allow the environment to further deteriorate.

 

For the reasons described above, Jack Layton and the New Democrats do not support nuclear energy initiatives or subsidies of any kind. Thus, New Democrats would not support subsidies to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) or to Ontario for the purchase of the Advanced Candu Reactor.

 

A New Democrat government will halt new tar sands development until emissions are capped, significant environmental and health impacts are addressed, and protected areas are set aside. We will also stop the massive tax breaks and subsidies to the tar sands, big oil and gas companies, and nuclear power.

If oil sands development is to proceed we must put into place the right measures to ensure sustainable development which protects the environment and an appropriate infrastructure. We will improve and enforce appropriate federal regulation of all environmental impacts – air, water, land, fish and wildlife – that arise from the exploitation of Canada’s oil and gas reserves.

 

New Democrats have long pushed for implementing mandatory labelling for genetically engineered food. Our Party has a comprehensive policy resolution on genetically engineered food that addresses the need for labelling, farmers' rights against patents and copyrights along with greater control over the activities of large corporations.

New Democrat MP Alex Atamanenko introduced legislation, Private Member’s Bill C-456, An Act to Amend the Food and Drugs Act on mandatory labelling for genetically modified foods. Atamanenko also launched a cross-country tour on Food Security aimed at raising awareness and having Canadians contribute to the national debate on how consumers can make informed and healthy food choices.

New Democrat MP Paul Dewar has also introduced Private Member’s Bill C-510, An Act respecting the labelling of food products that requires the mandatory labelling of the use of hormones, antibiotics or rendered slaughterhouse waste in meat and poultry products, and the use of pesticides or genetically modified organisms in all food products.

 

Canada’s three oceans have a special place within our history, culture and our livelihoods. New Democrats will work in Parliament to make sure Ottawa gets serious about protecting Canada’s natural heritage by establishing a nationally representative system of Marine Protected areas and complete the Integrated Management Plans of our three oceans.

In the last parliament, we stood up for our waterways and oceans by proposing a sustainable marine policy which opposed Conservative legislation (Bill C-32) that seeks to further privatize fish resources.

Looking forward, New Democrats will continue to push for sustainability and environmentally sound practices for our fisheries and oceans. We will provide national and international leadership to prevent build-up and counteract the harmful effects of marine debris, and provide the resources to ensure existing legislation regarding oily bilge water discharge and management will be effectively enforced. We will also implement the National Action Plan on Aquatic Invasive Species and ensure that acceptable treatment for ballast water is implemented and enforced.

 

Canada’s New Democrats have consistently called on successive Liberal and Conservative governments to develop a robust National Water Policy. First and foremost, New Democrats believe that the access to clean water is not a privilege but a human right for all Canadians and people world-wide. Canadians are concerned that our government helped to block the United Nations Human Rights Council from recognizing water as a basic human right.

In the last parliament, Jack Layton’s New Democrats tabled a Clean Water Act proposing national standards ensuring safe drinking water for all Canadians, urban and rural, on First Nations reserves and off.

Moving forward, New Democrats will implement this legislation, establishing enforceable guidelines for drinking water quality, starting with standards for First Nations reserves, and working with provinces and territories to make sure that all Canadians have clean, safe water in their homes and communities.

We will improve water quality monitoring and the enforcement of water quality standards by funding and implementing a National Water Strategy, including a comprehensive Water Quality Audit, to ensure a minimum of secondary treatment for all Canadian municipalities. In addition, we will create a $10 million Safe Water Fund to address issues of emerging pollutants and help communities monitor water quality.

New Democrats also share your concerns and have always opposed, bulk water exports. We want to ensure that NAFTA excludes water and bulk water exports from its scope. In the 2007 spring session, Parliament voted 134 to 108 in favour of a motion to prevent bulk water exports. The motion came about due to the New Democrat push to have hearings on the impact of the so- called Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

 

Over the last two years, New Democrats have consistently demanded that the Conservative government put an end to the dumping of toxic mine tailings into our lakes. Indeed, the NDP exposed loopholes that allow mining companies to use healthy lakes as tailing ponds.

In February 2008, New Democrat MP Peter Stoffer introduced a bill, C-504 An Act to amend the Fisheries Act (deposit in lakes), that would prohibit mining companies or other industries from using lakes as dumping grounds for toxic substances. The bill restricts the deposit of any quantity or concentration of a deleterious substance in lakes.

 

Canada’s New Democrats remain committed to policies that protect the natural environment and the creatures in it. We believe that it is necessary to have strong advocates in Parliament to pressure the federal government to take action on initiatives to protect animals, and in the community at large to help with public education.

We have supported and strengthened Canada’s Species at Risk Act, we have called on the government to implement tougher cruelty against animals legislation, and we have fought for protections for our natural environment.

New Democrats will work with the provinces and territories to encourage research and develop strategies to minimize the effects of climate change on communities, vegetation and wildlife.

Our team will establish a conservation fund to preserve important natural wildlife habitat, and continue to improve Canada’s environmental rules regarding endangered species so that politics does not trump best available science when it comes to our responsibility for species that are at risk.

 

A New Democrat government will implement a parks and wilderness plan that reflects Canadians’ strong commitment to preserve our natural heritage. We will:

• Complete the National Parks system.
• Establish a nationally representative system of Marine Protected areas and complete the Integrated Management Plans of our three oceans.
• Ensure that the integrity of parks and protected areas is not compromised by industrial activity or inappropriate development.
• Establish a conservation fund to preserve important natural wildlife habitat.
• Improve endangered species protection.
• Work with the provinces and territories to encourage research and develop strategies to minimize the effects of climate change on communities, vegetation and wildlife.
• Implement the National Action Plan on Aquatic Invasive Species and ensure that acceptable treatment for ballast water is implemented and enforced.

In collaboration with provinces, territories and First Nations, we will work toward a model of sustainable forest management in Canada’s boreal forests.

This will include establishing appropriate protected areas, and developing and promoting a forest stewardship program that will sustain our boreal forests and our forest industries, with input from stakeholders.

We will establish the Environment Commissioner as independent Officer of Parliament to provide effective oversight of the government’s environmental performance.

Canada has a responsibility to future generations to protect our waters, lands, fish and wildlife. Jack Layton and his team of New Democrats will:

• Reduce the oil spill response times in the Arctic by completing a response gap analysis and investing in federal and private sector capacity speed up response times.
• Deal with toxic industrial effluent by strengthening the enforcement of existing regulations.
• Provide national and international leadership to prevent build-up and counteract the harmful effects of marine debris.
• Provide the resources to ensure existing legislation regarding oily bilge water discharge and management will be effectively enforced.
• Enact the New Democrats’ Blue-Green Algae Proliferation Prevention Act, which addresses the biggest sources of the blue-green algae problem that plagues Canada’s lakes and rivers. We will:
  • Ban the supply and sale of phosphorus in dishwashing detergent as initiated by Manitoba’s NDP Government.
  • Provide compensation to agricultural landowners for expanding “buffer zones” along waterways in which they are prohibited from using harmful nutrients.
  • Promote guidelines and best practices for home and cottage owners and for farmers.

 

Yes. Canada’s New Democrats support requiring prompt and meaningful action to limit human exposure to a substance when scientific evidence shows it to be toxic.

Our team has led the way in parliament in targeting toxic contaminants. We succeeded in having toxin bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate identified as a hazardous product, and in passing New Democrat legislation to control toxic phthalates used in toys. We have also demanded a total ban on cancer-causing asbestos in toys, and have tabled a motion banning cosmetic-use pesticides.

Moving forward, New Democrats will work to take more poisons out of people’s homes, consumer products and communities by recognizing the “toxic use substitution principle.” We will require the Environment Minister to assess and identify toxic substances that can and should be substituted with safer products.

 

New Democrats have fought consistently against air pollution and for the protection of clean air. The fact that more than 20,000 Canadians are at risk of premature death because of air pollution is a tragic commentary on the inaction we have seen from the Conservatives and the previous government. Choosing a plan that stands up to polluters will help our economy and our health.

New Democrats forced the Conservatives to strike an all-party committee to re-write their weak “clean air” legislation—and the resulting Clean Air and Climate Change Act, based on the New Democrat polluter-pay plan that was hailed by environmentalists as a breakthrough.

Our Greener Communities strategy aims to provide incentives to communities to reduce emissions from land fills. The main green house gas released from land fills is methane, dramatically more harmful than CO2.

Moving forward, New Democrats will bring in mandatory vehicle emission standards for all vehicles sold in Canada based on leading North American standards, reduce pollution through an Early Adopters Program that encourages the purchase of commercial electric hybrid vehicles, set leading air quality standards for each air pollutant defined in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and establish new energy efficiency regulations.

 

For our children and grandchildren, we must change the way things are done in Ottawa. We must act now so we don’t leave them a vastly degraded Canada, and a very inhospitable world. We need to make sure that our energy and environment policies put the needs of Canadians first.

When it comes to our environment, Jack Layton and Canada’s New Democrats will stand up for all Canadians —to protect our natural heritage, tackle global warming, and secure a healthy future for coming generations.

Every citizen does indeed have the right to a healthy environment, including participation in environmental decision making and the right to hold their government accountable and New Democrats will work toward the development of such protections in Parliament.

 

New Democrats’ Better Environmental Plan implements a new energy economy strategy and builds on Jack Layton's Climate Change Accountability Act (C-377), which sets the target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and provides the enforcement tools to do the job. Our plan legislates absolute pollution cuts every year—unlike Harper’s plan to regulate only pollution “intensity” and Dion’s idea to place a tax but no limits on emissions.

Only our plan targets the 700 companies responsible for half of all emissions—forcing them to pay their fair share and contribute to developing green solutions. We will stop the tax giveaways that reward corporate polluters. New Democrats will big polluters pay by putting a price on carbon through a ‘cap-and-trade’ carbon pricing system, with hard limits on pollution and a tough charge on polluters who exceed these limits. Revenue generated from this system will depend on the market price of carbon each year. It will start out at $35 per tonne and likely grow to $50 per tonne by year four.

Over four years, a ‘cap-and-trade’ carbon pricing system would generate more than $16.9 billion. All revenue will be applied to environmental solutions.

This system imposes a market-based price on carbon emissions from Canada’s large industrial emitters, large industrial emitters with average annual emissions per facility of at least 8 kt of CO2 equivalent.

Together, these big final emitters account for over 50% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions Our plan will set an absolute cap on these emitters that is consistent with their share of Canada’s international and domestic GHG reduction targets. Emitters would therefore have an allocation of emissions permits.

Only our plan invests all proceeds to make green solutions affordable for ordinary people— including greener cars, better public transit, and home energy retrofits. We will help families make the transition to a sustainable economy with a $750 million green-collar jobs fund and ensure greener homes and cities with an average of almost $1 billion a year for public transport and an energy efficiency retrofit program. Our plan introduces Canada Environment Action Bonds to help raise capital for the plan’s goals.

Only our plan will help Canadians succeed in the New Energy economy by introducing financial incentives for clean power, including from solar, wind, water, biomass and other renewable sources for electricity production and from industrial co-generation and small-scale, sustainable community facilities, and begin a discussion with the provinces and territories for an East-West Renewable Energy Grid. We would halt all new Alberta tar sands development until environmental impacts can be mitigated.

 

Canada’s New Democrats do not support nuclear energy. We know it to be dangerous, prohibitively expensive and far from a solution to climate change.

The NDP would stop tilting the marketplace towards unsustainable energy and, over four years, stop government subsidies and tax breaks for unsustainable energy.