Response from Mike de Jong (Liberal)
1. 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?
BC’s international reputation has been boosted immeasurably by the carbon tax and we must do more to ensure British Columbia continues its leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Leadership begins at the top by setting an example and demonstrating action. We must work towards switching the BC government’s vehicle fleet to electricity or other zero carbon fuels over the next twenty years. We also should build on the success of the Canada Line and continue our commitment to regional public transit investments.
As well, we should expand on the success of the LiveSmart BC efficiency retrofit program and find new ways to ensure that BC’s building stock meets the highest achievable efficiency standards. This idea has the added benefit of providing significant private investment and job creation opportunities.
2. 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?
I am proud of what our government has done to show leadership on climate change initiatives, specifically the introduction of the carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
We fought the last election on this very issue and won. The carbon tax, as with all tax measures, is something that we should review from time to time but I would stick with the current program and keep in place.
Cap and trade has been slow to take off, but we should be proud of our efforts when British Columbia is leading in the development of a new economic system that can provide incentives to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
3. 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?
I would consider legislation to protect BC’s at-risk species and their habitats, and we need to ensure that our provincial approach to protecting species at-risk works in conjunction with the federal government efforts.
4. 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?
Land use planning continues to evolve in British Columbia. We have developed some of the most inclusive processes for including diverse interests in land use planning. But these plans are dynamic and continue to be visited by government and the various stakeholders who are involved in these processes. Our society demands a balanced approach to land use planning, conservation and species protection. In the past, this area has also been fraught with politics and ideology. My view is that common sense needs to prevail here. If we agree that our natural environment is a key driver to more tourism investment and job creation then we need to find innovative ways to strike a balance with regional economic interests. And we need to look our land-use planning in the context of natural carbon stores that could help to offset our greenhouse gas emissions.
5. 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, it is time to look at our pesticide use and eliminate the use of cosmetic pesticides.
6. 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?
BC’s other wonderful natural legacy is our water. Our fresh water supply generates clean electricity, drives our food production and remains a strategic natural advantage over many other competing jurisdictions. As we have seen in Ontario and the Southwestern United States, protection of our water supply and the surrounding ecosystems is critical. The BC government needs to modernize its water legislation, it needs to maintain public ownership of this vital resource and it needs to ensure that the people’s water supply is protected from pollutants and not just water that is above ground.
7. 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?
Enbridge is one of the proposed projects that take advantage of the fact that we are the land bridge between Canada and markets that are emerging in Asia and South Asia. On balance, I think we should take advantage of that. Here is the question that I think we need to confront head on: how are we going to attract the support necessary in regions of the province where these projects are going to be built? There are obvious benefits but it may be time to redraw the social contract between those communities and Victoria. And by that I mean benefit sharing, on a scale we have not seen before, as a way of saying to communities and the people living in them that you will not just see the risk associated with a project but also far more of the benefits that accrue from those projects coming to completion.
Our coastal ecosystem deserves world-class protection. I believe we can do more to respond to the threat of oil spills large and small. We should look at developing new standards that elevate our Emergency Response to align with our neighbouring US states. We should ensure that any ships navigating our coast have access to as much information as possible so that they are up to date with the technical knowledge required to both prevent and rapidly respond to any size of spill.
