Nicholas Simons (NDP)
BC has taken several important steps towards a lower carbon economy. What would you do to help the province achieve its targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33% by 2020 and to position BC for the challenges and opportunities of a low-carbon economy?
I recognize that our society urgently needs to address climate change. While fear will not provide sufficient motivation for us to move forward -neither will autocratic approaches. The manner in which the carbon tax was established was undemocratic and inexcusable. The question we need to concern ourselves with is 'how can we motivate our communities and unleash our creativity?' I would pursue future policy direction in a consultative way that engages and respects the public.
Sufficient action on climate change will not occur if governments base their policies on their fear of the public’s or stakeholders’ response. Because of this, I am calling for a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change Action, which will be mandated to identify priorities for policy initiatives and to give direction to the Legislative Assembly and government. The Assembly would base its recommendations on the most current information from reputed scientific, academic, economic, and other sources. Stimulating and harnessing the public’s wealth of creativity through this process is vital to its success.
With the information I currently have, I would advocate for keeping the Carbon Tax and making it fair. The rate would have to be re-evaluated, and I would promote the gradual elimination of exemptions. With our regional partners, I would pursue Cap and Trade. Moreover, I would support strategies promoting conservation, and ensure adequate contribution towards better choices in transportation.
In 2012, the province will be generating 3% of its revenue from the carbon tax, which will be a $1.1 billion incentive annually for investments in clean energy solutions. Do you support increasing the effectiveness and fairness of that incentive over time with tools like the carbon tax and cap and trade?
Yes. We need to engage the public in setting our policies for achieving climate change action. Advising on how best to use revenues from the carbon is one of many issues that I would expect the Citizens Assembly to assist with. People will accept change enthusiastically if they are meaningfully involved and consulted in the process.
While BC is home to more than 1900 species at risk, it is one of only two provinces in Canada without legislated protection of those species or their habitat. What would you do to protect endangered species and their habitat in BC? Would you consider stand-alone legislation to achieve this?
Under my leadership, British Columbia will meet its national and international obligations to protect biological diversity. We need an effective stand-alone species at risk act. It is one piece of the puzzle, but won’t solve all our biodiversity problems. Much of the legislation and regulations that the public once had to protect species at risk (and other environmental features) has been repealed or replaced by vague legislation. Under my leadership British Columbia will restore funding and staffing for environmental compliance and enforcement, so that the public interest in the environment is protected. There is nothing stopping BC from complying with the letter and intent of the federal Species At Risk Act. We already have federally mandated recovery teams; we just need to accept their direction. There’s much that we can do by immediately moving ahead with designation of Wildlife Habitat Areas and Fisheries Sensitive Watersheds, and of course, by creating an effective ‘made in BC’ Species at Risk Act.
BC has nearly completed land use planning across the province, but almost none of those plans considered the impact of global warming on a host of environmental and resource values. Would you consider additional conservation measures to protect the carbon storage capacity of BC’s forests while providing more chances for BC’s fish and wildlife to adapt to their changing environment?
In our search for effective climate change action strategies, we need to take a close look at how our forests are managed, and how the forest might help us. Forest management changes are needed to enhance carbon storage while also providing community stability and new employment. We need to actually complete strategic land use planning and revisit all the existing strategic land use plans with a view toward coping with and mitigating against climate change.
Forest policy is a huge and neglected issue that needs to be addressed through a public and stakeholder consultation and re-evaluation of the existing policy framework. Over the last 10 years, deregulation, expansion of raw log export opportunities, elimination of appurtenancy requirements -which had guaranteed local mill jobs- exemption of vast tracts of land from the forestry land base, and the elimination of environmental regulation have failed to make forestry profitable on a long term basis. Policies have done damage to the resource, and to the forest-dependent rural communities. An NDP government under my leadership will put forestry on a sustainable economic foundation and ensure that the benefits of forest management are shared with the people of British Columbia, and ensure that the level of forestry accommodates our knowledge of climate change. Reducing or eliminating logging in old growth forests, and proper replanting after logging in second growth forest should be a centerpiece of forest policy. Public benefit must underscore all forest policy.
Many communities in BC and elsewhere across Canada have banned the use of cosmetic pesticides. Three provinces have banned their sale as a result. Do you think BC should prohibit the sale and use of chemical pesticides for lawns, gardens, and non-agricultural landscaping?
Yes, I certainly support the need for a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides. I am aware of the extensive work that citizens have done to bring cosmetic pesticide use under control in municipalities around the province. There is a great deal more that needs to be done. I believe that our party needs to take a critical look at the whole issue of how industrial pesticide use is approved and regulated in BC.
BC is in the process of modernizing its outdated Water Act. Do you think protecting fish and wildlife should be a top priority in managing freshwater flows, as do more than 90% of British Columbians?
The vast majority of British Columbians agree that water is our most important resource. Drought, pollution, extraction, flooding, and climate change all have the potential to threaten our communities’ water and food resources. Modernization of the Water Act requires adequate oversight, including ensuring that policy remains current and protects the public interest. As leader, I would encourage the creation of a stand-alone Ministry responsible for Water Stewardship. I do not support creation of a water license trading market in BC, Water rights belong to the people of BC and that’s the way things should stay.
BC’s precious coast is at growing risk daily from more oil tankers in the south, new proposals in the north, and increasing shipping traffic of all kinds throughout the coast. How will you protect BC’s fragile coastal ecosystems from oil spills, both large and small?
We do not need an expansion of crude oil tanker traffic in BC coastal waters. If we can significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels and move to both greater conservation and more environmentally friendly forms of power generation, this constant threat to our coastlines will be greatly reduced or eliminated. Our Party very clearly supports a continued ban on off shore oil exploration and is opposed to increased coastal tanker traffic.
