All candidate environmental debate 2019
On October 3rd, 2019, the Yukon Conservation Society teamed up with us at CPAWS Yukon to bring you an all-candidate forum on the environment ahead of this year\’s federal election. Below is the transcript of what each candidate said in response to preset and audience questions. Thanks to Moira Sauer for moderating. Find the full livestreamed video here:
Introductions
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So I\’m Joseph Zelezny and I\’m the People\’s Party candidate for the Yukon. Very exciting times and I’d just like to begin by pointing out that I\’m actually somebody who practices what they preach and I don\’t go around making hypocritical comments or suggestions on how people should live their lives and basically I\’ve done that with my campaign signs to begin with. I\’ve actually picked up free recycled pallets and I\’ve attached small signs to those to kind of demonstrate that you know I reduce, reuse, recycle, all that fun stuff. But I don\’t go around making giant signs out of either plastic or other films that that are petroleum-based and then actually start with policies that attack Canadian energy and natural resource sectors so that\’s that.
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Thank you everyone for coming this evening. I\’ve lived in the Yukon for most of the last 4 years but I\’m not from here so I\’m a chosen you Yukoner. And I chose to live in the Yukon for the same reasons as I chose, eleven years ago, to join the Green Party. And I chose this year to run for Parliament and that\’s because I love the natural world and I want to protect it.
Green parties were started four decades ago by citizens who saw that the economies of many wealthy countries were unsustainable; that we live on a planet with finite resources and space and the old old strategy of permanent growth is not sustainable. There are now over seven billion people living on earth. We have entered a period of consequences. These consequences include climate change, mass extinctions, plastic pollution of our oceans. The Green Party recognizes that nature has limits. We understand that the economy and our ecology are linked and a strong economy cannot involve destroying our natural world in the process.
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Many of you know me I\’m Larry. But you may not know how long my commitment towards climate changes been. Roughly 13 years ago our leader at the time Stephane Dion started, a very courageous climate leader, started the green shift. I fully supported him but there wasn\’t this great mass movement there is now. Very few people were supportive of that. It was very hard going door-to-door. You were ridiculed for suggesting we put a price on pollution at that time and so I\’m so gratified that so many people so many of you and many many more appreciate this emergency we’re in and that we have to take action. Another thing I did about 10 years ago was promoted in Parliament a book called Seasick where the acid is ruining the oceans and finally I, something that people are just talking about now, but I proposed a bill that climate change refugees, when their country disappears, it becomes an eligible source of immigration or refugees.
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I acknowledge that we\’re on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dun the Ta’an Kwach’an peoples and acknowledging that also we are on the land that they that we share not just the land, the water that we share because when we\’re looking forward into the future when we\’re looking at the changes that we must make that we know are coming, we have to consider the impact to the land to the water to the environment. That\’s why we need to act and we need to act with certainty about what we\’re going to do. So as a member of the NDP, what my party, what I commit to bring to Yukoners is our plan. Our New Deal for People which ensures that no one\’s left behind and our power to change, which details how we will transition into our new economy. We know what we need to do. We know what we have to do to get there and I is Member of Parliament am committed to making the changes that will benefit us all together as people.
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Thank you. My name is Jonas. I am a lifelong vegetarian. I became a vegetarian when I was about four years old but in my 20s I started hunting and fishing so the only meat that I know is what I harvest myself and so I\’m proud to eat organic free-range GMO 100-mile diet meat. I lived off-grid on solar power for ten years. I hauled water from the creek. I grew my own garden and I learned a lot of lessons over that decade. You know I still follow my kids around the house turning off all the light switches. I use the absolute minimum amount of water necessary to wash the dishes which drives my wife crazy sometimes. Speaking of my wife she owns a holistic health business she promotes the use of natural products. The riding Association of the Conservative Party here in town the president owns a recycling center. He’s converted plastic bags to heating oil. I\’ve owned not one not two but five Subaru station wagons in my life I\’d like to think that I walk the talk. I am a conservative and I believe in conservation and I look forward to tonight\’s discussion thank you.
What will you do to advance Canada\'s efforts to reduce plastic waste and support the north in plastic recycling efforts?
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So what we be planned to bring is both intention and action to the issue of plastics. So let\’s talk about action first by 2022 we will ensure that there is a single-use plastic ban in Canada. That is a major part of our platform and commitment to people. For intention I want to talk about our signs it was mentioned earlier that we have signs. I had to be convinced as a candidate to invest in signs. I had to be shown that it was foolhardy not to run a campaign without signs but in order to do that we did our research. We contacted Yukon Conservation Society and Raven Recycling about how we make the best use in this decision. So what we found out was we put the recycling code on all of our signs. Check out any of our signs. Every single one has that recycling code on it. That’s the intention. It’s about taking a step further. We also found out that those signs have high reuse potential in insulated buildings and when the way to go to the recycling center they can be treated appropriately. So whatever action that we take when it\’s dealing with plastics, when it\’s dealing with toxins, when it\’s dealing with the trash in our environment, we are marrying the two together. Both intention and action we are being deliberate. In our choices we are presenting a path for Canadians that gives them the best path forward to a clean environment. An environment that it reduces our dependency on plastics and an environment that allows people to live life to the fullest in the splendour of the nature that we here enjoy in the Yukon. Because I, for one, am tired of doing the Yukon River cleanup, which I don\’t think happened this year, and pulling out plastics from the wilderness.
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Plastics are cheap because fossil fuels are cheap and this has encouraged bad habits and a throwaway society. So we have to change that. We anticipate that there was a number of different levels that have to be changed but I\’m gonna say that probably everybody that\’s here is trying to recycle and they\’re trying to reduce but it\’s hard when you go to the store and everything is wrapped in plastic and sometimes it\’s wrapped in plastic and wrapped in paper and wrapped in another cardboard box and so some of the some of the aim has to be done at the manufacturer and the packaging level. We shouldn\’t have to go to the store and have to make these difficult choices day after day. A lot of this has to be regulated. Some of it can be incentivized but some of it actually has to be regulated. If the manufacturers of packages weren\’t putting all these products, if they weren\’t allowed to wrap their products the way they do, we wouldn\’t be facing these tough choices. We also will work with municipalities because a lot of these issues do have to be dealt with at the municipal level. And we will encourage that the – we need to learn the lessons of nature which is to build an economy based on taking discarded materials and feeding them back into production rather than into a landfill. One of the difficulties that we have is that there\’s literally hundreds of different kinds of plastics and they can\’t be mixed if they\’re going to be recycled. That has to change that there\’s no reason at all why that hasn\’t changed long ago that it needs to be standardized so it\’s actually possible to recycle. We want to reduce. We want to reuse. But last resort we want to be able to recycle. And that needs to be made easier, so minimal packaging for health and safety, reusable packaging. We need to recognize the rules that territories and provinces have for waste management and work in concert with them. We need to work with manufacturers to improve the products.
Plastics are cheap because fossil fuels are cheap and this has encouraged bad habits and a throwaway society. So we have to change that. We anticipate that there was a number of different levels that have to be changed but I\’m gonna say that probably everybody that\’s here is trying to recycle and they\’re trying to reduce but it\’s hard when you go to the store and everything is wrapped in plastic and sometimes it\’s wrapped in plastic and wrapped in paper and wrapped in another cardboard box and so some of the some of the aim has to be done at the manufacturer and the packaging level. We shouldn\’t have to go to the store and have to make these difficult choices day after day. A lot of this has to be regulated. Some of it can be incentivized but some of it actually has to be regulated. If the manufacturers of packages weren\’t putting all these products, if they weren\’t allowed to wrap their products the way they do, we wouldn\’t be facing these tough choices. We also will work with municipalities because a lot of these issues do have to be dealt with at the municipal level. And we will encourage that the – we need to learn the lessons of nature which is to build an economy based on taking discarded materials and feeding them back into production rather than into a landfill. One of the difficulties that we have is that there\’s literally hundreds of different kinds of plastics and they can\’t be mixed if they\’re going to be recycled. That has to change that there\’s no reason at all why that hasn\’t changed long ago that it needs to be standardized so it\’s actually possible to recycle. We want to reduce. We want to reuse. But last resort we want to be able to recycle. And that needs to be made easier, so minimal packaging for health and safety, reusable packaging. We need to recognize the rules that territories and provinces have for waste management and work in concert with them. We need to work with manufacturers to improve the products.
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This is so important that like no one candidate has all the right answers. So I support anything positive to reducing plastics that the other candidates may put forward. We spearheaded the ocean plastics charter at the G7 recently. On November of 2018 federal provincial and territorial ministers agreed to a Canada wide strategy on zero plastic wastes. The things that Moira talked about at the beginning, all the types of actions cost money and we\’ve committed a hundred million dollars to reduce plastic waste in Canada and developing countries; we banned plastic and microbeads from cosmetics and other products in 2018; we eliminated unnecessary single-use plastics in the federal government and we put federal government suppliers on notice that we will be working with suppliers who are committed to zero plastic waste vision; we launched the oceans plastic charter at the G7 which is based on reuse and recycling and we introduced the first-ever zero plastic waste strategy with the provinces and territories.
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I think that our reduction of plastic starts at home with individual responsibility. Again I spent a decade living off-grid and you know that taught me a lot about reducing and reusing and reusing and reusing and then finally recycling. And so I think everyone in this room can take real action on their own. I mean we don\’t need the government to come and do it for us. That said if elected I would be a strong advocate for changing packaging to compostable at or at the very minimum using a better grade of plastic. I\’d like to see a ban of the use of four five six and seven plastics and use only one and two. Since the Liberals were elected in 2015 they have been unsuccessful in upholding a number of agreements with international trading partners and that has affected the price of recycled products. And I think we need stability particularly where we live you know at the ends of the earth in order for recycling to be viable. So I would like to see a harmonization of provincial and territorial recycling standards and to ensure that we\’re working from a level playing field and I would also commit to working with industry on ways to reduce excessive packaging because at the end of the day we need to help people make better decisions. Thank you.
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Yeah so I think plastics are one of the greatest innovations in the last couple decades. In a lot of cases there\’s a lot of benefits to being able to improve health and safety when it comes to packaging. Also all these choices people make it should be up to them they shouldn\’t be micromanaged by government policies that ultimately make things more expensive for everybody and result in in energy poverty. So much of it is just empty virtue signaling and the real places where plastic pollution is the worst for example in India or China there\’s no outrage there, and this kind of hypocrisy it really needs to stop. It\’s dividing people. And every time you try and control and tell other people what to do there\’s a resentment because not everybody has the same opinions. And there\’s countless studies that you could point in both aspects. So who gets to determine who\’s I guess more superior in terms of determining how other people should live their lives? Canada has a as a problem with trying to lecture even on an international scale and instead of dealing with waste in a proper sustainable manner there\’s basically a worldwide trade in in garbage and in in plastics. And it doesn\’t make any sense to be shipping plastics from the Yukon to Vancouver to be burned there. Instead I think you could tackle multiple issues by having an incinerator with advanced scrubbing technology to ensure not having basically incentives for people to throw garbage by the roadside because it\’s become too expensive to manage their wastes in what should already be dealt with based on on taxes and landfills. Why the extra fees for absolutely everything right every step of the way? So and even just government hypocrisy and and carbon taxes that don\’t have any results other than more corporate welfare.
What are the key elements of an action plan that you will advocate for, to ensure Canada meets its international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
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The Green Party makes this a very high priority as you might expect so we have prepared we have prepared a document it\’s called Mission Possible. It sets out a number of very specific steps to address climate change. And with respect to the target I want to point out that the Green Party target is actually twice what the current target is. That\’s the current target is 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and we are suggesting that 60% is a more appropriate number and the reason why is because we now know that limiting global temperature increase to two degrees Celsius is going to be catastrophic and that we need to limit it to 1.5. We are already at 1.1 so we need to act fast. So among the list of things that are included in Mission Possible and I\’m gonna point out I heard Elizabeth May talking the other day, she says it\’s Mission Possible it\’s not Mission Easy. It\’s not going to be easy to do all of these things but it\’s definitely possible if we work together. So establish our new target and file it as Canada\’s nationally determined contributions with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. So again 60% reduction over to 2005 levels by 2030. Declare climate emergency is included. I\’m gonna point out the federal government\’s already declared a climate emergency and most of you know they declared it one day and the next day they approved the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. So that\’s how seriously they took it. Establish an inner cabinet of all parties. We think all of the parties have to work together. This is an actual emergency and we need to work together. There’s no room for partisanship here. Assume leadership: so attend the next climate negotiations in Chile this year and press other countries to also double their efforts. Respect the evidence: that\’s the most important thing we have: overwhelming scientific evidence here. We need to respect it. We need to follow it. Ban fracking: green the grid. More renewable energy. That’s what we need in Canada. Modernize the grid.
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Oh thank you. So on the local scale I think the single most effective step we as Yukoners can make is encourage additional hydro capacity. You know I support biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind but water always flows downhill. I think hydro is is the ticket. And I think there\’s a big opportunity to work with Yukon First Nations you know particularly on smaller sites I don\’t think we\’ll ever see a large hydro site ever built in the Yukon again. But with a small site you know more manageable environmental footprint, you have opportunities for First Nations to be partners and invest and prosper financially from the green energy production. So in addition to supporting domestic energy production you know I also support domestic food, domestic products, anything that reduces the emissions from transportation of all the essential goods and services that we\’ve grown to rely on in our modern lifestyles. But again I\’ll come back to you know having lived off-grid for a good chunk of my life. I don\’t believe we need our government forcing us to do certain things. I mean there\’s there\’s personal choices that we can make. I don\’t expect everyone to make the extreme choices as I\’ve made in my life but I think the government should incentivize us as opposed to punishing us with taxes. So I\’d like to see a government that educates and encourages and makes these choices easier. So I support tax cuts and credits you know for for home retrofits that make your house more green. One of the things we\’ve committed to is removing GST from home heating it\’s not a luxury to heat your home in Canada for ten months of the year and that leaves more of your own money in your own pocket to invest in better choices. I mean sometimes we\’re limited in making those better choices because we can\’t afford them. Now on the global scale one of things I\’m happy about with the Conservative Party platform is exporting Canadian technology abroad because we live in a wealthy country where we can export our technology to places where they don\’t have the opportunities and therefore Canada has an opportunity to reduce global emissions and really make an impact. Thank you.
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In order to address climate change in greenhouse gases the NDP has a plan. It’s our Power to Change Plan. And so a principled part of that plan is on day one of forming government we end fossil fuel subsidies. So that means that the companies that are getting corporate rebates, corporate cuts, incentives from the federal government cease to have those. Instead we take that money, we take the investment that\’s going to those companies and we flip it into green energy, clean energy technology: wind, solar, hydro, and any other emergent technology. We go forward with that investment and we look towards 2030. And in 2030 we will have a net zero carbon energy footprint. So any ounce of carbon is off by our clean energy. We also will have electrified public transit by that point in time. And that\’s not just transit within our communities and municipalities that\’s transit that connects our communities. From there, going forward into 2050, that we have a net zero carbon reduction future so that we\’re a hundred percent carbon free for our energy production; that we have invested in the homes that we live in to ensure that the energy footprint of our homes are is reduced because we have retrofit our building stock. Our plan takes us there. We also need to make sure along the way that this is all affordable. Because any incentive program that we have has to have an entry point for people that are at the bottom end of the poverty scale. That means that we have to bring people out of poverty. Because our plan relies on us not leaving anyone behind. The only way to build an energy future that works for people is to bring people with it. That’s what climate justice in our energy future looks like.
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So we\’re carbon-based life-forms and carbon dioxide is essential for all life on Earth. Having zero carbon dioxide would result in zero life on earth. There’s been a lot of whistleblowers that have come forward discussing how there has been fraudulent data in these climate models; how there\’s been data that was created to fit in where there were no temperature stations around the world. And there\’s also been some very selective use of of data records that were only looking at shorter timelines. On a long enough time line our carbon dioxide levels are actually rather low and the whole climate there\’s there\’s a lot of censorship happening about what truly drives our climate and it would be foolish to think that only carbon dioxide is is driving the climate. I don\’t know about you but when I go outside and it\’s a sunny day I feel the warmth from the Sun. and there\’s countless books and and research studies demonstrating how the Sun is critical for for managing the climate on the earth. Same thing with electromagnetic fields as well as jet streams, volcanoes all these sorts of things. And so those are things that we absolutely can\’t control and this fear mongering is is not doing anybody any service. The rest of the world is laughing at us because basically this this whole Paris Accord is a socialist wealth redistribution scheme to make everybody equally poor. And there\’s no other institution but the UN that is is so corrupt. I mean we\’ve had these end of the world predictions for for decades and it\’s always been you know mini ice age, global warming, acid rain, like we\’re still here, everything\’s fine. And what we need to do is get rid of all corporate welfare including oil and gas to have a level playing field and stop trying to micromanage everybody\’s life because the only way that you could do this is to control the economy.
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Thank you. I\’d love to respond, but this this is so serious we need so many actions I got to talk really quick to try and get many in. We\’re gonna continue with the huge renewable projects we\’re doing like the solar panels in Old Crow; the three windmills in Kluane; the biofuel in Teslin; the 41 million the largest retrofitting of buildings ever in the Yukon; the electric car subsidy of five thousand dollars per car; the electric fast charging stations I\’ve announced; the 20 million storage battery for the Whitehorse dam, probably perhaps, the biggest in the country; the city buses, the city bus stop and the building so the buses don\’t have to run all night at 30 below; the over a thousand transit projects in the country, talk about that later; the clean fuel standard will take seven million cars off the road; methane regs, reducing greenhouse gases, methane by 40 percent; and the 400 Yukon homes that we\’re putting smart devices in; on new things on top of that, five billion dollar clean power front, that’s a huge amount of money so we have the cleanest mills, mines and factories in the country; that\’ll also be used to take more northern communities off diesel like the ones I just mentioned; federal grants to have buses and trains, well we won\’t give them grants unless they\’re zero emissions after 2023; we\’re gonna have 5000 charging stations so people can drive across the country; we\’re going to have business fleet work to get conversion of business fleets – taxis, mining trucks, couriers; cut corporate taxes by 50% on companies producing greenhouse technologies like windmills, solar batteries, electric vehicles; a net, um, we’ll plant two billion dollars of trees to sequester carbon; help retrofit 1.5 million dollar homes after giving them a free energy audit and so people can afford it even low income; there\’s going to be a $40,000 interest-free loan to do that retrofitting; $5,000 grant for new zero-emission homes; a four hundred million dollar long-term fund for private capital to retrofit office towers; and make Energy Star certification for your appliances mandatory by 2022. I\’m very excited and committed to this exciting list.
What will you do to ensure that Canadians are better protected from the health and environmental impacts of toxic substances? Will you commit to strengthening the Canadian Environmental Protection Act?
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Thank you. Yeah, for a number of years now I\’ve talked to my colleagues that the things in the air, pollution in the air, the chemicals, there should be a study on all those things that cause cancer, an action taken for them. So this is a great question. We’ve committed to eliminating coal by 2030 and coal has one of the things that will reduce or eliminate is mercury emissions and that\’s one of the most toxic substances. Our plan to ban microplastics means less microplastics in our environment and in our bodies and our food sources. We’ve banned asbestos. Once again I lobbied my colleagues in my own party for a number of years before we did this, that we need to ban asbestos and I\’m very excited we\’ve done that. And we have and I\’m for all these reasons, and for what Moira just said, I\’m very excited that we\’ve committed to introducing a bill to reform the Canada Environmental Protection Act as soon as possible.
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Yes. We will absolutely strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. And this, this is why believing science is necessary. Because when we don\’t believe science, when we doubt what people are telling us in communities, we end up with situations like Grassy Narrows where a community has been poisoned by mercury, where people are living where people are dying in conditions that are unfit for human life because science is not being believed, because people are not being believed and because government is not acting. So we believe in making changes that will benefit people and specifically with asbestos once it was recognized that asbestos was so harmful to people our government continued to export it. No that\’s not good enough. So not only do we have to strengthen our Canadian Environmental Protection Act we have to make sure that we treat our people all around the world with the same quality, the same protections that we want for ourselves. We have to treat our international trading partners with respect. We have to treat the people within our First Nation communities with respect. So we will get there by enshrining into legislation for ourselves an environmental bill of rights, guaranteeing every person access to clean air water and land, without the encumbrance of poisons and toxins. Looking beyond that let\’s talk for a moment about fracking. About what happens when we poison our water tables, when we disrupt the ground beneath our feet. There may be energy in fracking but it\’s not worth the cost it\’s not worth the cost of damaging the environment and destabilizing the world around us. So we are willing to take those measures. We are willing to take those bold actions and protect what people need to be kept safe.
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So this is something I\’m wholeheartedly in favor of and I think it\’s unfortunately not getting enough attention because all the global warming fear mongering is it\’s also getting all the money and where Canada is is sending billions of dollars around the world without taking taking care of of of tangible things at home. After almost a hundred years of conservative and liberal governments there there\’s become institutionalized corruption and we still have many places around the country where there\’s toxic drinking water and plenty of examples whether it\’s in Quebec or British Columbia where there\’s raw sewage being dumped into the waterways. And then you know everybody blames climate change for depleting fish stocks but is anybody looking at at what what the effects of dumping raw sewage are into into the waterways. And it\’s pretty obvious what the effects of that are. And so we need to take a practical approach and deal with problems at home first before trying to tell other people in other countries how to live their lives. And so the federal government is responsible for ensuring appropriate hazardous recyclable material and waste management and that\’s something that I would definitely work towards ensuring that the laws that we do have in place are actually maintained and and sorry and used because as a lot of people have probably noticed there\’s been more and more and more corruption in in government. Where government’s choosing winners and losers based on lobbying and in fact not applying laws equally to to those who violate them. As well as not creating enough incentive for companies to do good as opposed to it\’s in many cases cheaper to pay a fine than it is to comply. So if you just readjust the fines where it\’s cheaper for companies to comply with environmental regulations that make sense then.
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Again I\’m going to come back to personal responsibility and initiative. I mentioned in my preamble that my wife has a business that promotes natural products so she\’s replaced all the cleaning products in her house with a homemade natural non-toxic environmentally safe product. So these these options exist today. I mean you can take action today and you know as Gandhi said be the change you want to be in the world. That said the Canadian Environmental Protection Act the language is it aims to present pollution and protect the environment and human health with the goal to contribute to sustainable development. Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. So I support that language and additionally part of the act is there\’s a mandated five-year review. So I would support, at that time, reviewing things. In particular what I would like to focus on are the loopholes that exist right now. For right now you can get away with not listing certain substances many of which are toxic under the term of fragrance for example. And there are things under that topic that are quite harmful and in some cases even carcinogenic. So I would be very supportive of amendments at that level. Thank you.
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I am gonna read from the party policy because in fact it starts one of the sections starts with strengthening the Canadian Environmental
Protection Act to limit the approval and use of toxic chemicals that affect our health in our environment. There\’s lots that can be done. Somebody else somebody mentioned that we need to follow the science and we absolutely do need to follow science. we also need to do the science. huge numbers of chemicals are being used in our products every day including foods that we eat that have never been approved period because the that\’s there it\’s not required for them to be to be approved. the so we need to be doing a lot more science so that we know in fact what it is that we\’re putting into our bodies and the world what we\’re exposing ourselves to. so the Green Party advocates passing legislation to give Canadians the right to a healthy environment, promoting greater transparency and decision making, public participation rights, and access to judicial review mechanisms. so set targets for reducing the use of pesticides in agriculture that\’s less of an issue here than it is some places it\’s a huge water pollution issue a lot of places. the ah, strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to limit the approval use of toxic chemicals that affect our Health and Environment. regulate micro fibers as a toxic substance that\’s a huge issue in Canada. it\’s a increasing issue the micro fibers are getting into literally everything including into our bodies and into our food supply. we would invoke the precautionary principle when it comes to making decisions; revive and expand the National pesticides monitoring and surveillance network; create an adverse effects reporting database for doctors because sometimes there are ill effects that people are suffering and nobody knows about it well one doctor knows about it another doctor and another nurse knows about it and these individuals know about it we need to we need to be gathering the science; ban all toxic ingredients in personal care products. we\’re here in the Yukon we have a pretty good environment right now, but it could be better.
What will you do to protect the quality and quantity of wilderness in the Yukon and Canada so there is a better legacy for future generations?
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All right thank you. I mean Yukons wilderness is why we live here it\’s it\’s what makes the Yukon so special but we have an abundance of wilderness and we have a deficit of infrastructure which requires development so you know if we\’re talking about additional protections on wilderness I think the question we need to ask is what are we willing to give up you know I think we need to be careful on what kind of limits we place on development do do we want to put limits on developing tourism you know what our cellphones come from where do they what are the products that pacemakers come from you know I support I support domestic production I believe that developing materials here at home responsibly is better than the alternative which is you know having other countries develop them in environmentally irresponsible and unethical means you know part of having this great wilderness here means we have to travel a lot between our communities and to visit and wilderness so that means driving you know where does oil and gas come from you know we all want to leave a better world for our children but that does come with with balance between environment and economy the reality is we have only 40,000 people living in an area the size of Spain so just the very nature of where we live much of Yukons wilderness will continue to protect itself but what I will say under the party platform the Conservative Party would restore funding to the national wetland conservation fund it would also restore funding to the recreational fisheries conservation
Partnership Program and would also reconvene the hunting and angling advisory panel all three of these things the current level government has cancelled and defunded thank you
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When I think about wilderness in the Yukon I think about salmon I think about about caribou I think about pollinators species I think about water. water that is sacred that connects us all and connects us all to the wilderness and the way that we look after our wilderness is that we increase the protections under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act we\’re very fortunate here in Yukon to be leading in wilderness protection and it\’s not wilderness or development we have both its wilderness and development what we need to ensure is that the development is responsible so we need to ensure that the wilderness is protected through what we plan to do with the strengthening of the act and also that when people contravene the act that there\’s real teeth to it that there\’s penalties for polluters there\’s penalties for when development does not go according to plan so when you have an example when we we have an example of one of the world-class things not to do with a mine site which is called faro that the company that the people that are responsible for the action are held to account and that\’s what we want to see that\’s what we will change in law that\’s what we will enshrine into legislation real protections for people so that the wilderness can stay sacred beyond that we need to look at how we keep it sacred with our partners our indigenous communities our First Nations here in the Yukon. so we commit to expanding the indigenous Guardians program we commit to making sure that First Nation people have access to training and not just First Nation people all people have access to training to better protect the wilderness so if people want to quit their job to go back to school we will allow for an EI supplement for that that\’s part of our plan because we want people to be in a place where they can help the wilderness to be what it needs to be for all Yukon people
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So I also live in the Yukon because of the natural environment here but I would say that nationally and even more so globally that wilderness is a rare thing and it\’s getting more rare we live in a tiny territory with it\’s a large landmass with a tiny population but globally we have a very, very large population. Over seven billion people. What we have here is something it\’s extremely precious I think that for many people it\’s not valued as much as it should the wilderness. People come from all over the world to the Yukon to enjoy our wilderness but I think that there\’s some people in the Yukon that don\’t value it as much as it should be and if they were living in places that were a lot more crowded maybe they would appreciate just how rare and special it is. Our prosperity does not have to involve environmental destruction. Yukoners, Canadians can do more things than dig oil out of the ground if they\’re in Alberta or dig minerals out of the ground if they\’re in Yukon cut down trees there\’s lots and lots of things that we can do for Prosperity. We have an arrangement in place we have legislation in place to deal with land use management and I have total respect for that. The Green Party doesn\’t want to put our land into a museum but we do want to respect the value of it which we say is very very high for the Green Party our target would be nationally to protect a minimum of 30% of freshwater ocean and land by 2030 we are at a point where we can still do that in a few years will not be able to do that at all we need to take advantage of these opportunities well while we can we would commit a hundred million dollars annually for the next four years to create indigenous lead protected and conserved areas and fund stewardship of these lands and waters by indigenous Guardians we we agree these indigenous people are our natural partners and we need to work with them
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Thank you. Because I\’m so passionate about parks is a very important function of government I\’m excited about this question very glad it\’s here so when we got elected there was less than 1% of our oceans in Canada were protected and now we have our target for 2020 was to move that up to 10% the big target but we\’ve already moved it up to 14% so I\’m very excited about that. Also our terrestrial target for 2020 is 17 we\’re not there yet but we\’ve moved it up from ten point five percent to twelve point six percent and we have massive new efforts through a huge 1.35 billion a nature fund to help protect and maintain our parks and I think I remember a great exciting email from CPAWS the day we announced that. Our platform for 2025 is to move both those areas fresh water and oceans up to 25 percent and by 2030 up to 30%. We too are excited we started the Indigenous Guardians program in 2018. It\’s been very successful, we launched it in Arctic Bay and we will continue that some of the big parks that we\’ve announced are working on Tallurutiup Imanga. Its a hundred and nine thousand square kilometers it\’s Canada\’s largest protected area ever another is Tuvaijuittuq it means, in Inuktitut, it means the ice never melts. It\’s bigger than Newfoundland and Labrador. This driftwood code there\’s rouge park expansion south, Okanagan Similkameen with that one developed with the Syilx and the Okanagan First Nation so this is very exciting and I\’m really passionate that we\’re making all these improvements and increases to our parks.
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We need to be careful with how far things go Canada used to be a very resource rich and even economically people came here for freedom and for prosperity and what\’s been happening over several decades is there have been foreign funded groups that have been acting on other\’s behalf to lock up our resources and to create more dependence and almost to prevent people from actually being able to develop and produce things and instead to import more from around the world bill C 69 and C 48 are discriminating only against Canadian businesses in in the meantime we\’re actually importing 60% more oil from Saudi Arabia and also now on the
East Coast from Russia because we don\’t have domestic pipelines there\’s hundreds of thousands of people that have lost their jobs and I\’ve talked to countless people who are now working two or three part-time jobs for minimum wage instead of having a you know a really good job either being an environmental consultant or project manager or a welder and so these things need a much more practical approach and not to have this hypocrisy which favors for example importing cheaper products from China which has slim to none environmental standards and at the same time taking livelihoods away from fishermen for example or loggers in northern BC I mean where where\’s the money for all these social programs going to come from all the other parties are promising more and more money constantly and yet we\’ve got a massive debt we\’ve got growing unemployment that the numbers don\’t the unemployment numbers don\’t reflect the reality that I\’ve discussed with countless Yukoners and I think there\’s plenty that\’s protected and it\’s time to actually put Canadians to work and and allow for innovation and prosperity
What will you do to work with different sectors like first nation governments industry and the Yukon public to keep our water and supporting ecosystems free from pollution and degradation?
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I have a very clear memory of canoeing down the Takhini River but coming around a bend in the river where the water went from green to red because there were so many salmon. That was almost 30 years ago and these days I\’m lucky if I see a single salmon so something\’s not working. And that\’s what we\’re doing to our environment how we\’re treating the water and also how we\’re relating to our partners our partners here within the Yukon we’re not empowering them to look after the resources that means respecting the treaty agreements with First Nations respecting the final agreements but also how it\’s working with our international partners how we\’re not being heard not making ourselves heard on the international stage to protect our water and everything that lives in that water that\’s why the environmental Bill of Rights is so essential and why it\’s such a core part of our platform that\’s why the changes to the Canada Environmental Protection Act are central that\’s why we want to implement a national freshwater strategy we want to restore the navigable waters protections for all lakes and rivers because that\’s what needs to be done so the NDP commit to doing that it also means that when we think about development we think about water\’s role in it so it\’s actually not outsourcing development isn\’t socially or globally responsible it\’s pushing that burden onto countries that don\’t have environmental projections into place that don\’t have a carbon plan in place to manage that extraction economy so we need to own the development within Canada we need to ensure that our water is protected and we need to take that on to ourselves and that\’s what the NDP plans to do we have that plan to do it all through our power to change and our new deal for people and as Member of Parliament that\’s what I commit to do I commit to working with our First Nation partners to working with our international partners and to helping Canada meet its necessary obligations.
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I thank you one of the most damage things to our water is sewer and water and wastewater projects so we have as you know the biggest infrastructure funding in history and we\’ve approved over 500 water and wastewater projects already on over and it affects over 500 First Nations and 450,000 Canadians will have cleaner water one of the things we inherited and I know everyone here is very sensitive to this that this shouldn\’t be happening was over a hundred and forty boiled long-term boiled water advisories in Canada and remote villages and we\’ve eliminated eighty of those already and there\’s 50 left which will be eliminated these are very highly technical projects so 50 left will be eliminated in the next two years as I said we we\’ve banned micro beads and cosmetics and toiletries which was getting into our water into our bodies etc. the navigable waters Act was emasculated by previous government and we\’ve reinstated protections under that and the ocean protection plan of 1.5 billion dollars the biggest such plan in
Canadian history and some of the items under that are the marine ecosystems and natural habitat a species that\’s this one of the four objectives of that plan also of course the nature fund to protect our parks and the water in those parks of the 1.35 billion that I mentioned earlier and finally is the integrity of our environmental assessment process in the Yukon it\’s unique in the country it\’s a model for the country but as you remember the last government tried to change that without Yukoners indigenous people as was in their constitutional right through their land claim and
Environmentalists in the Yukon didn\’t have a say there wasn\’t the proper consultation and so we certainly promised that we would change that back and we did change it back when we got in government
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I just want to mention that the question is about working with the different sectors so absolutely for the Green Party as I’ve mentioned the environment obviously is a huge priority for that for us and that means yes the water and supporting ecosystems we see First Nations governments as natural partners with us we see industry as having a huge role in it we don\’t have a lot of industry in here in the Yukon other than the mining sector and I do have to point out that the regulation of that is a territorial jurisdiction but the federal government does play a role particularly with respect to water under the Fisheries Act and we\’d like to see proper enforcement of the Fisheries Act and that includes that there being adequate staffing so that you can have all the rules and regulations that you want but if you haven\’t got any enforcement of it they\’re basically useless it means working with municipalities as well and in some cases working with foreign governments so when we\’re talking about obviously the caribou is a huge issue that spend part of your year in the United States and Alaska we need to work better more effectively with the United States government and the Alaska government with respect to that the one of the big things that the federal government does do is they spend money so they might not have regulatory control over everything that goes on here in the Yukon but they have a great deal of money to spend and so I would suggest that we simply direct the funding that we have to improving the environment that we have I\’m gonna say less money perhaps on building road to resources and more money on environmental protection the with respect to hydro which everybody admits that we need absolutely we could have more hydro without building dams without destroying our waterways by using runoff river technology which is already used a lot in BC.
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So absolutely the People\’s Party of Canada respects all First Nations self-governments and treaties at the same time we need to fix the broken permitting process there\’s countless businesses that are absolutely frustrated with how the system is broken how there\’s a in a insufficient amount of resources available there\’s not even habitat studies being done for salmon there\’s no bilateral discussions with for example Russia or other Arctic nations to determine where these salmon are going we don\’t have adequate Coast Guard Coast Guard resources to see if there\’s other countries that are fishing in our waters so basically there\’s so many things that are being mentioned and kind of talked about and always some consulting and all that sort of stuff but there\’s no kind of boots on the ground and things being done and so we need to we need to fix that we need to stop worrying about the rest of the world and focus on Canada in addition you know even considering natural factors like there was a landslide in BC I think a month or two ago where it actually blocked the path for salmon going up the river and so we need to consider all these different elements in addition some environmental standards don\’t make any sense whatsoever and they\’re heavily paperwork and bureaucratic driven in some cases if water is being processed it needs to come out at a lower for example parts per million amount of copper or some other element than is naturally occurring and so some of these burdens are really turning away businesses and reducing economic opportunity because there\’s just too much bureaucracy and the cost of living is too high carbon taxes and this just goes on and on and so if we don\’t change that now where there won\’t be an economy and these promises won\’t be able to be funded.
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Thank you. I just wanted to clarify some language in your preamble you\’re referred to First Nations as sectors and First Nations are governments their final agreements are constitutionally entrenched and that goes for the non settled First Nations in the Yukon as well I think they are governments as well and they need to be treated as such I\’m a fisherman as I said that\’s what I eat that\’s what I put on my table that\’s what I feed my family I want to be able to teach my children to fish in the same lakes that I learned fish in. So water is essential to us I want my children be able to drink it but as many of you know my day job is advocating for the mining industry and we hear about the failures in the newspaper but we don\’t hear about the vast majority of successes in water management in the
Yukon. I mean that every drop of water in the Yukon is the legal purview of the Yukon Water Board but that said I think there is opportunity for the federal government to do more as Mr. Bagnell mentioned some changes were rolled back in our environmental assessment legislation under his government but those changes were only supported based on developing a collaborative framework to address the outstanding issues and nothing has happened on that front over the last four years. So I think it\’s essential that we improve the YESAB process you know again I work in the industry I deal with Assessors work with regulators proponents with First Nations everyone who is involved in it agrees that the legislation is broken so we need to fix that in order to have some certainty to know what kind of activities are permitable and what kind of oversight there is I also believe in partnership beyond government I would point the relationship between Victoria Gold and then not renege done and all the benefits that has brought to the community because at the end of the day saving our water is a responsibility of all Yukoners and well in closing… Thank you.
At this critical time in the life of our planet and all living species dependent on it for survival, what makes you qualify to lead us through the next ten years that will determine the future of our planet?
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What makes me qualified I would first I\’m someone who\’s lived in the Yukon for a long time. I\’ve lived here the majority of the last 40 years but I\’m not from here and I think that honestly that the fact that I\’ve lived other places, that I\’m from someplace else, makes me value the Yukon more even than if I came here necessarily. I have a good education I have, including a degree in business and a degree in law, I have worked for the government I worked for the Yukon government for four years so I do have an idea of how the Yukon governments work, how governments work generally. But I\’ve been practicing law for 20 years, including in my own practice for the last 13, so that means that I\’ve been operating a business myself. I have a degree in business because I\’m interested in it. It\’s not the case that I\’m anti business by any means, I am pro economic development, I\’m just pro careful ecologically minded economic development. I have been involved with the environmental movement for many years I\’ve been a member of the Green Party for the last 11 years and I would say that in the history of the planet and definitely in the history of Canada right now we are really at a crossroads. And we are at a crossroads where we need to see some real leadership in terms of the environment and I think that I\’m the person to provide that leadership for the Yukon
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So, many years ago I was not even and thought yeah it\’s the end of the world again and then I started looking into it and learning more so I actually have a copy of a book here with me it\’s called Climate Revolution. It actually talks about all the different aspects that that affect our climate and so I think the most important thing is to have an open mind to allow for free speech and not to pander to United Nations\’ campaign to give up Canadian sovereignty because that\’s what this is all about. If you look at the way the frameworks are written there\’s a desire to outsource all of this decision-making whether it\’s on immigration whether it\’s climate change whether it\’s industry or transportation it\’s all to outsource to a supra governmental body that has no accountability and is full of unelected officials with countless examples of corruption and and we need to to shift that. We need to bring decision-making back to Canadians regardless of whether you might agree with me or not I will represent Yukoners. I love Canada my parents escaped communism and came here for a better life for freedom they came here with nothing and have a decent life and that essentially all the other parties are totally on board with all the United Nations programs and so that\’s a that\’s a decision whether we put Canadians first and stop worrying about the rest of the world lead by example and not be hypocrites or if we\’re gonna outsource all the decision making to unaccountable people who honestly don\’t have our best intentions at heart. And so we need we need this passion and we need to ensure free speech is protected something that all the other parties have voted they voted in favor of censorship and so we need the truth regardless of how uncomfortable it may be we need to discuss all the different sides of a particular argument regardless of what the issue is because that\’s what the Canadian government is for is to represent Canadians and do what\’s best for Canadians
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Thank you. I\’d like to think that I have a well-rounded life experience and career I\’m established in my career now but that was not always the case. I was a professional musician which is another way of saying starving artists and I I say that term literally
I mean I\’m not proud to say it but I have been very poor in my life I have been insecure in my housing I was the guy who would wait and see where the party was when the lights came up at last call in the bar to see where I could sleep and wait until daylight when my friend would go to work and I could jimmy the lock on the front door of his apartment building and sleep in the hallway till people started coming home five o\’clock I remember a time where I had less than $20 in the bank and I needed food I needed kerosene and I needed dog food so I collected all my Canadian Tire money and went back and forth between the grocery store and Canadian Tire to figure out who had a better price on the various products so I could use my $18 through debit and my $15 in at Canadian Tire money but you know that experience taught me a lot as I referred to in my opening remarks living off-grid particularly under some severe financial restraints had taught me a lot about luxury and necessity and I went from that life to in a very short period of time being the deputy chief of staff to the premier of Yukon wearing a three-piece suit and tie and traveling the world representing Yukoners I have walked the hallways of Parliament I\’ve walked the hallways of government buildings around the world I have the experience
I’ve read cabinet submissions I\’ve written cabinet submissions I know the process and if you\’re looking for someone who can hit the ground running on October 22nd I\’m asking for your support. Thank you very much
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I love helping people. Fundamentally I just love helping people. I have an intense dislike of injustice and I like working with people to get the solutions that make sense for them. I\’ve been working with Yukon Government for about 16 years and most that time I\’ve been a shop steward because I like working with people who need assistance. I\’ve also worked with the Boys and Girls Club of Yukon; I\’m a board member there. I started an LGBTQ2s+ community group to help families and people that needed assistance there and none of that was for me, that was because there was a need in the community. There was people there – are people that still need help – and so that\’s that\’s what drives me. That love of helping people and working with people and my pedigree as you choose to judge it by my experience in government or education or the way I cut my teeth on politics and the Union, that\’s for you to decide but what makes me the best representative is what you see echoed of yourselves in me. And really politics should be open. Politics should be open to everyone sitting up here as one of the five there\’s a degree of privilege because not everyone has the access to resources to do this. Not everyone. There\’s a – let\’s be very clear – there is a poverty bar in politics, there\’s an accessibility bar, there\’s a representation bar. That\’s why diversity and politics is important so if you see that in me that\’s wonderful. What I also hope you see it in is yourselves because anyone should be able to do this I hope I can be your representative and I hope that I can inspire you to also be engaged and be political and stand up for what you believe in and fight injustice and help people in need
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Thank you, thank you. Interesting question – what makes me qualified to deal with this climate change crisis as your MP. I think one of the basic things do that helps working on this is scientific research. It\’s very important we\’re a evidence-based government the decisions should be made on evidence and so I\’m big supporter of that and evidence also includes traditional knowledge. So on the science side I have a science degree and on a traditional knowledge side I think most you know I have long term relationships with the First Nations here. I’ve sat with them over many years learned their stories, where they\’re coming from, and their traditional knowledge and can tap into that. Ten years ago I, roughly ten years ago I can\’t remember exactly, ten, fifteen, they closed – they were gonna close, stop funding the northern most climate site for collecting data on the weather. Myself and Marc Garneau fought strenuously against that in Parliament. They also, they closed, there was a program under which all sorts of northern climate change projects were funded across the country. The government closed that and I fought unfortunately unsuccessfully to reinstate that particular program for northern climate change projects. As you also know I was trying to educate members of parliament related to the acidification of the oceans and danger to us – this is over 10 years ago caused by climate change. And finally I would say the northern parliamentarians of the eight Arctic nations seven Arctic nations we have a committee of Arctic parliamentarians and I\’m the vice chair of that, I wass elected vice chair of that and I\’ve so I bring back there\’s some great solutions in Scandinavia for instance I\’ve brought that back and given in speeches in the Yukon to municipalities in fact I\’ve emailed some of you some of the opportunities that they have in Scandinavia
In order to meet the promised greenhouse gas emission targets in the Paris Accord what will average Canadians have to compromise or give up in our material goods and freedoms that we take for granted in our lifestyles
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Thank you I like to think that we don\’t have to give up much I think that we have the opportunity here in Canada where we have such an abundance of wealth and an incredible quality of life that we can take that and harness that luxury that luxury and do more not only for ourselves but for people around the world again we\’re well educated you can notwithstanding the challenges we have compared to what the rest of the world is facing we are relatively secure in our housing and where food comes from and so we are a lot further away from the starting line that a lot of our contemporaries around the planet so I will come back to some of things that I\’m proud about with a conservative party platform about exporting Canadian clean brand we have the ability to technology here we have the brain power we have research and development capacity that we can come up with technology to share with a developing world that does not have that ability it is not in a position to make better choices so for example if we take carbon capture technology and can sell it to
China for example and market it to a coal-fired generation plant and reduce their emissions to the point as there are in other areas where the the vapor that comes out of the smokestack is actually cleaner than the surrounding air then that is how Canadians can actually reduce global emissions on the large scale and something like that works even here at home for example north from windows just across the way here they market their product across the border in Alaska and they know for every square inch of glass they produce what the GHD emission reductions are and so that is a way that even here at home Yukoners can affect the global emissions so I don\’t think we have to give anything up thank you very much
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I\’m also gonna agree that we should not actually have to give up that much I think there will be a little convenience that will have to be given up so for example it is very convenient if you forgot to bring water to buy a plastic water bottle when you\’re out and I\’m in favor of banning plastics disposable plastic water bottles so I think that there\’s going to be some convenience factor I think people will get used to bringing water bottles when they go out it\’s the same as most people have gotten used to bringing at their own plastic bag their own reusable bags to the grocery store and things like that the
Paris Accord commitments are about reducing greenhouse gas emissions so greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuel so all Canadians are going to have to first burn less fossil fuels and then eventually burn no fossil fuels and what that means is that not that we\’re going to be giving up power so fossil fuels are burned for the purpose of creating power so that can be power to run your vehicle and run machinery in the Yukon sixty-two percent of greenhouse gas emissions are as a result of transportation so there has to be a conversion of our transportation system to electric for Yukoners especially Yukoners that have two vehicles it means next time they replace one of them they should replace it with an electric one but I\’m gonna say after 2030 our party\’s position is that there should be no new non electrical vehicle soils in Canada so and that that means that we are still going to need power instead of getting that power from burning fossil fuels we have to get it from renewable sources so here in the Yukon we are gonna have to greatly expand the amount of power that we get from renewable sources to create create electricity to power those cars to heat our homes to do a lot of the things that we are currently doing with fossil fuels
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Well one thing people have to go up is the old types of appliances that dangerous chemicals in it as I said they\’ll have to have any guy by 2022 under us cars gas cars Volvo and the car companies around side Volvo\’s not going to produce any more gas cars taxes as people are gonna have to not give up but a fair share of taxes as I said when our one of our projects alone is five billion dollars that\’s like four times what the Yukon government gets for and everything in the world in its operation so five billion dollars is a lot of money it\’s a lot of taxes but it\’s essential to to get us move forward on this crisis people have to get used to smart devices in their home as I said we\’re doing a pilot project with five hundred homes in the Yukon but it\’s just the energy spread out over over the day at your home it comes at the right time and is saved at the right time there\’s suggestions that we\’re gonna put in legally binding targets so Canada is going to have to have live up to that legislation if for every five years they\’ll be targets there\’s suggestions that that the Yukons like one tiny infinitesimally of the carbon production in the world so we shouldn\’t bother about it well you know we talked earlier about cancer chemicals so just because we\’re not helping much of the world with our tiny bit of polluting cancer chemicals should we stop betting them here that\’s that argument doesn\’t make sense at all and and one of the things we might have to give up depends on where you live is your view of open spaces because we\’re promising to plant two billion trees to sequester carbon and finally I\’d say freedom you mentioned freedom in the question the freedom for to act yourself is good but your freedom can impinge on the on the freedom of others on the life of others in the life of our planet
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The NDP is committed to meeting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Accord the targets that are set out in that panel and there\’s going to be cost in getting there let\’s be realistic about it there\’s going to be cost but when we look at cost we also have to consider privilege because not everyone has the privilege in society to meet those costs we do have programs we do have great ideas and initiatives in our plan like electric vehicle rebates moving from
$5,000 to $15,000 later in our mandate but the order the the only way that we can get there is for the people who have privilege to start paying the cost now because if we don\’t address that privilege cost what happens as we leave people behind we leave people who can\’t afford change behind we have people in poverty right here in the Yukon right now we know what our poverty rates are like we know that there are people going to the food bank people that we wouldn\’t even begin to expect that need those services and they\’re being left behind right now so we need to make sure that we bring all those people with us and that\’s why our plan is focused on making life more affordable so yes there will be cost for people but we don\’t want to hit the people that don\’t have the privilege of paying that cost now that\’s why we\’re investing in good jobs for people that\’s why it we\’re so focused on affordability and that\’s why we want to shift the responsibility from right now with the application of the carbon tax it\’s hitting everyone and it\’s hitting a population of people unequally big corporations the biggest offenders of all those that are exempted under the current carbon tax system need to bear the responsibility because those corporations as people have the greatest privilege of all and that needs to be fixed
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So the answer is none because the People\’s Party of Canada would withdraw from the Paris Accord cause it\’s nothing but a socialist wealth redistribution scheme which relies on controlling every aspect of your life that\’s what the smart devices are for so that you don\’t get the choice of when you want your heat turned on that it\’s completely outsourced to other companies who have been lobbying for all these changes those corporations that have all those exemptions are the ones that have been lobbying for this because then they\’re on the receiving end of subsidies or tax credits and this just results in a much larger and larger government controlling more and more of everybody\’s life while at the same time outsourcing all of these these technology or pollution issues to other countries where they exploit people and so what needs to happen is ending all corporate subsidies and calling out the the fraud that\’s been perpetrated by several scientists who\’ve recently lost court cases because they refuse to turn over their data this just happened in Vancouver at the Supreme Court it was that famous hockey stick graph so if if there\’s no transparency with this data then then what\’s the real agenda here one can only look at Holland where there\’s literally thousands of farmers that have just been driving their tractors through this throughout the country protesting this eco fascism Germany has energy poverty people are choosing between their meds or whether to heat their homes or or if they\’re gonna eat same thing People\’s Party of Canada is the only party that will eliminate the carbon tax and not replace it with anything else and not worry about trying to deal with some hypothetical emissions from the rest of the world when tomorrow a volcano could erupt and and totally have more emissions than anything that Canadians could possibly do so we need a common-sense approach we need to reduce taxes that and allow people to have freedom because the more freedom you have the better ideas you have the more prosperity and when you have prosperity then you have more resources to come up with even better ways of doing things you don\’t need to force change if it\’s a good idea
Canada is way behind in reducing greenhouse gases and Yukoners and Canadians are wanting to see bold action when it comes to climate the federal government has declared a climate emergency and then the next day announced the purchase of the Kinder Morgan pipeline what would your party do going forward with the pipeline and the plan to build a new pipeline twinning it?
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So I\’ve already mentioned that we need to stop the investment in fossil fuels subsidies. That addresses the pipeline. We can\’t stand behind a pipeline that was purchased on the backs of Canadians in the face of the the very hypocritical climate change announcement the next day we need to make actions we need to act with intention that actually benefits Canadian so Canadians so when we\’re talking about investing in our energy future it doesn\’t include pipelines it includes an investment in wind solar hydro and whatever clean zero emission technologies that we have going forward into the future the future is not pipelines look at trans mountain look at the fact that there have been 86 spills of trans mountain since that pipeline was built that\’s not acceptable look at look at the the terrible tragedy of what happens when we move away from pipelines and we start to move oil across our country by rail and look at Lac Megantic that cannot be allowed to happen again we need to move away from fossil fuels by cutting the subsidies we will push Canada into a position where these new technologies can be invested in and the investment will be expedited because we will also commit three billion dollars to the establishment of a Canadian climate bank now that Bank is focused on helping entrepreneurs small businesses first nations and first nation dev corpse find opportunities to invest in the new energy future. The investment bank allows everyone to find a place in making the climate future that we have successful, and less reliant – removing that reliance- on fossil fuels.
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Our party is opposed to the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline I think that\’s very well known. Elizabeth may was arrested protesting the pipeline last year, so we\’ve been opposed to it for a very long time. The two big parties here in Canada – both the Conservatives and the Liberal Party – are in favor of more pipelines. The Green Party absolutely is not. I\’m looking at a little chart here and I just want to point out that between 2007 and 2017 there was a huge expansion of the oil industry in Canada. We went from producing 2.5 million barrels a day to producing 4.5 million barrels a day, which I think is a surprise to most people. I don\’t think most people realize that in the last 20 years, the oil industry production in Canada has approximately doubled. What\’s interesting about that 2007 to 2017 number as well, is that we\’ve got this almost doubling of the oil industry production and that during that time periods the employment in the oil industry actually fell. It fell by 8.1 percent and it fell because during that time there were actually two big drops in the oil price, and on each of those occasions the oil industry laid off people and they didn\’t hire them back. So they\’re able to produce a lot more because they have been mechanizing and they have been automating jobs out of existence for a long time because that\’s what big corporations do. So we say that the further expansion of the oil industry, which is the only reason why we need another pipeline – a big pipeline expansion like the trans mountain – is to further expand the oil industry that\’s inconsistent with meeting our Paris Accord commitments.
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I\’ve never promoted the pipeline and I won\’t do that, but I\’ll just add some facts for people to add to the discussion. First of all, it\’s not increasing the amount of oil we produce because that oil could go to the United States through our pipelines there. Or even worse, it\’s as you see, people interested are buying more and more rail cars and most environmentalists don\’t think it should be going by rail. The emissions on the pipeline were included in our plan and one of the benefits is it led to a cap on emission – oil sands emissions – for the first time in history. So it fit within our plan to meet the 2030 targets. In fact some of the new things I announced in my list of things we’ll actually will reach our 2030 targets before 2030. I listed probably at the beginning you saw with this fine print probably more comprehensive list of actions of the any of the parties and so that is what\’s going to reduce our greenhouse gases while we transition. The 500 million dollars or so the pipeline makes in revenue, whether the first through some first nations want to fight whoever owns it but right now while the government owns it is going to go to this transition to get us to renewable energy as fast as we can. We\’re about 3/4 of the way, where the actions that I mentioned we took in the first four years, three-quarters of the way to our 2030 targets and we have 11 years left to get there. So, and as I said where I think we\’re gonna get there early, and we agree with eliminating the subsidies for fossil fuels I mean eight of nine of the tax subsidies are gone and the rest we\’re gonna eliminate in the next few years.
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As I mentioned in one of my earlier responses our modern Western lifestyle is overly consumptive and wasteful I mean there\’s there\’s no doubt about that and it\’s having an irreversible effect on on our environment or on biodiversity on wildlife habitat. I mean anyone who questions the mortal realities of climate change just needs to go next door and have a look at the woolly mammoth skeleton right. but I\’m gonna say something that\’s not going to be popular in this room and that is I categorically disagree with the alarmist narrative when we talk about climate change. I think it diverts our attention and our efforts from the things that we can actually change. I think we need to be weary of anyone that uses fear as a motivator. right now we\’ve got political parties using fear as a motivator yet they offer the solution to alleviate that fear and that solution is just a hand over more ofyour money you know. And more than anything I think it\’s absolutely despicable that we are teaching our children to live in despair and fear. I think we should teach our children hope and when I hear people talk about the climate crisis and emergency and I have to question why do you live here in the Yukon where you have to heat your home ten months of the year and every single necessity you consume is transported up here you know. I believe in people I believe in hope and I believe that we can do better. So specific to the question of a pipeline I am unapologetic in my support for domestic energy production I think that the candidate needs more or the world needs more Canadian oil and I think that will generate the wealth that we need in order to transition into the future. So thank you for the question.
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So Jonas made some good points but at the same time the Conservative Party had over a decade to get more pipelines built and they didn\’t do so. Same thing with the Liberals. This is nothing but trying to buy votes and one of the first actions that Andrew Scheer did after becoming a Conservative Party leader was force all his MPs to vote in favour of the Paris Accord and so the hypocrisy just never ends with the mainstream parties you know. I\’m not pretending anything, I say what I think and if it\’s not popular great you can express your opinion absolutely and let\’s have a discussion, but the alarmism and it\’s been going on for decades right and none of these end-of-the-world predictions have come true and really it\’s politicizing science it\’s pitting people against each other in an attempt to just get more and more control. I mean that there\’s great great technology that\’s that\’s being prevented from being used right because of the level of corruption in government and the lobbying and and you know for example if you if if you follow the money then there\’s been some sizeable investments made into rail – oil by rail infrastructure – and so those groups have been funding some of the initiatives to to prevent pipelines because it would upset their economic decisions that they\’ve made and their investments and so really the the number one thing for Canadians is is honesty integrity and not this hypocrisy and and cleaning up the corruption it\’s just it\’s it\’s everywhere and it\’s doing everybody at disservice because we\’re squandering billions of dollars there\’s no incentive to to find efficiencies or better ways of doing things because somebody\’s pocket wouldn\’t be padded and so and just to Lenore\’s point about fewer jobs in the oil sense that\’s because there\’s no new exploration there\’s no new construction that\’s why those jobs went away and it\’s going to result in much higher fuel prices because we haven\’t kept up with demand which is growing around the world.
First Nations final agreements provide for regional land use plans the federal government is a signatory to the two treaties if elected and whether you form the government or not will you advocate for expediting those plans by having more than one taken at a time?
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So I think there\’s a much higher priorities at the rate our economy is going things honestly aren\’t looking good. We\’ve got an inverted yield curve and that precedes a recession. Yes in dollar amounts things are definitely higher but that\’s because of record high debt levels at every level of government and corporations as well. It’s absolutely unsustainable and if it was you or I you know we would have already been homeless and because our credit card would have been maxed out. And so this is actually doing a huge disservice to future generations because it\’s loading up this debt and it\’s sabotaging our domestic industry. In the meantime we\’ve got foreign companies that are snooping and buying up resource claims for pennies on the dollar because of our stress our domestic distressed companies. And so we really need some common sense and focus on doing things the best way possible absolutely I\’m a strong advocate for that. but at the same time we need to ensure that the levels of funding and government services can be maintained and we can only do that if we kick start our kick start the economy and we\’ll do that by cutting income taxes for everybody simplifying it so that it\’s only zero fifteen or twenty five percent. Completely eliminating capital gains tax completely eliminating carbon tax. Cutting business and farm taxes from fifteen to ten percent. This will give more this will enable more prosperity and for people to figure out what they want to do with their lives and for their young ones and you know give back some freedom. There\’s been decades and decades of less freedom less rights more government control of everything and it\’s just it\’s gotten to a level where there\’s been a lot of Yukoners I’ve spoken to and depending on how this elections goes they\’re looking at leaving Canada it\’s just too expensive to live here and it\’s not reflective of Canadian values of fairness and respect freedom and personal responsibility so just common sense.
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Respecting the final agreements is critical and when we\’re looking at the relationship what we owe to Yukon first nations we have to make sure that we\’re giving them not only due respect but also the ability to voice their concerns so expediting is is a dangerous word for me because what it means is that when we are going through any type of land-use signing process we may be giving power to lobbyists. Lobbyists that are well-funded well-heeled and have a vested outcome. The only way that I would be willing to support the expedited signing of a land use agreement is if the First Nations are fully on board with that solution. I would like I would petition I would work as a Member of Parliament to ensure that the First Nations have all the adequate supports in hand to do that. Because my fear is that they would be overwrought overrun by the lobbyists the industry groups that have the money to champion their special interests. So the answer is only if it works for those First Nations who are directly affected
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if all of the land-use planning processes take as long as it took to come to a determination of the of the peel watershed then we\’ll be in a lot of trouble if we don\’t expedite that process. Hopefully the lessons that were learned from that process will mean that the subsequent processes will be much faster and much simpler. There certainly are benefits to users of the land to have the land use management processes completed. I understand that. I also understand that First Nations absolutely are such an essential part to that and furthermore that they have traditional territories that overlap like. It’s inconceivable that they could possibly have to be dealing with more than one process at the same time. So I would say that although there\’s certainly some advantages to speeding up the process not if it means that the process itself is not as fair and as efficient and as what’s the word that it works that it produces the right outcome. I mean at the end of the day the process is important but the outcome is important too so unless all of the parties were in agreement to expedite and have potentially more than one land-use planning process going on at the same time I would be opposed to it
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Thank you. Just because it\’s in the final agreements and treaties the modern trees we have with 11 First Nations doesn\’t mean we should disrespect the other three. It’s a federal – it\’s a Canadian responsibility to respect all Aboriginal peoples whether or not they\’ve chosen finished final agreement a self-government agreement so they should all be included in any land-use planning exercises. I definitely agree as Lenore said will be several generations if we continue at this rate and I think some of the first nations are anxious to get the land-use planning in their area done. You can you know when you don\’t have land-use planning in place there\’s no filter over what happens in vast spanses of area and things just get established without a plan in place. When you have land-use planning it\’s for it\’s a great guide for developers for parks for everyone to know what you can\’t do in certain areas and you can go ahead. as the other set of course just because you\’re you may be funding you know one committee in this part of the Yukon you\’ve got another community in the other part of Yukon it shouldn\’t at all deter from the quality of those land use plans or and if any First Nations don\’t think they have the resources or the number of people to participate then of course they shouldn\’t. It should be an agreement. but they it\’s in the hands of Yukoners they have to do their recruitment for the boards they have to do sufficient consultation so that all Yukoners get input into it and but to the extent that we they want us as the federal government to provide more funds and help in any way we can we certainly will
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Thank you to the specific question of what I support expediting my answer is no I think expediting is absolutely the wrong approach I\’m sure the vast majority of people in this room tonight are supportive of the final outcome of the peel planning process but you know is a pretty bumpy road to get there. 20 years ago one of the first nations that took the Yukon government all the way of the Supreme Court was actually a proponent of developing the iron ore deposit within the peel and use the coal deposits to build a railroad and in a smelter. So you know things change over time and you know that\’s life but these were meant to be land-use plans as opposed to protected area strategies. and whether you like it or not there is pre-existing land tenure out there which people have invested an awful lot of money in and so let\’s look at the peel process the recommended plan said fifty-five percent permanent protection industry was told it\’s just a little bit more than half that\’s pretty balanced that 25% is interim you know we can have a look in in ten years and see where we\’re at we have since found out that that 25% interim protection will only change if all five orders of government agree to open it up and the final plan also included an additional 3% of protection which and the 17% remaining land not only is not very perspective but access is not feasible so you have essentially have 100% protection there and yet the proponents for expediting yeah so fair enough you\’re welcome to that opinion but the proponents for expediting the process are asking industry and other stakeholders to participate in future land use planning processes in good faith yet the Yukon government has said that they\’re not willing to compensate for the millions and millions of dollars that these proponents have invested in these areas over the years so absolutely not I would not propose expediting. Thank you
To what extent do you see climate change and inequality as interconnected crises and what policies do you personally support that would work to tackle both?
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Just on the first of all poverty is a huge part of our platform and we\’ve done a lot of I won\’t discuss it tonight it\’s a different we did I did it about poverty for him but the money that we\’ve provided for low-income people for low-income women raised eight hundred thousand people out of poverty it\’s a very high priority for us as is climate change. but we set aside related to tax havens we\’ve set aside three hundred million dollars to and it\’s resulted in catching some of those people trying to escape to tax havens to those corporations that are acting illegally to escape their taxes so it\’s being the biggest investment in history to do that we\’re continuing to do that. the number of the transit projects that we\’re talking about are certainly going to help low income people. we\’ve also we\’re going to reduce the income tax so right now you get approximately $12,000 everyone gets $12,000 off except for before they start paying taxes we\’re gonna increase that to $15,000 which will take about 78,000 seniors and youth out of poverty. the so a lot of the items that that that might cost related to climate change were providing more more funds for seniors for youth for working poor so that they\’ll be able to afford anything. as I said that we\’re all committed to making these things to save the earth but there is some cost to them what we want to make sure that doesn\’t disproportionately affect the poor.
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thank you. you know I want to start talking about the carbon tax. I think it\’s ironic that the most vocal supporters of carbon tax as a initiative to reduce emissions and fight climate change all agree that the current model that\’s being proposed won\’t work. it won\’t change anyone\’s behavior won\’t reduce our emissions it won\’t meet international commitments and because the tax would have to be orders of magnitude higher than what it is right now. and so we\’re talking about any inequality so how high do we want that carbon tax want to go? and you know in one hand we\’re being told that the carbon tax is going to make us reconsider our purchasing options that at every every opportunity but on the other hand we\’re told what\’s so low you won\’t even notice it. but you know it can\’t work both ways you know. first of all you know we\’ve got intentionally punitive measures limiting our decisions which I don\’t agree with is government\’s role and on the flip side you\’re suggesting that there are people in Canada that even the slightest increase in in price would have a significant impact on their lifestyle. and but in you know I hear people say but the price of doing nothing is too high but that\’s assuming the only thing to do is to raise the price of everything and that\’s not true we have lots of things we can do. and so one of the things that conservative party is proposing is a very comprehensive suite of tax cuts I\’ve referred to some of them earlier but personal tax cuts small business tax cuts tax cuts for seniors removing GST on home heating removing income tax on maternity leave benefits that\’s about $4,000 back in your pocket when you\’re trying to buy a crib and a car seat. these are the kinds of things that will reduce inequality and allow us to make the better decisions that we can make it a personal level to leave a better world to our children thank you.
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so it\’s funny because a couple months ago everybody was kind of ignoring the People\’s Party of Canada platform and now everybody\’s trying to copy it except they\’re doing it kind of uh you know you know like a 50% way I was gonna use a different word but I\’ll be polite. so basically what it shows is again hypocrisy it also shows there\’s no backbone there\’s no spine to these parties because they flip-flop they change their answers to try and please the greatest amount of voters and they\’ve been doing this for decades. conservative and liberal governments back and forth like a ping-pong ball every single time. more debt higher cost of living and actually growing poverty and so if a hundred years does it we still have poverty so it\’s showing that their approach hasn\’t worked. and that\’s why the People\’s Party of Canada is the fastest growing political movement in Canadian history and we have in one year 315 out of 338 candidates across the country that\’s that\’s unheard of that\’s more in one year than the Green Party\’s done in 35 years. and so it shows that there\’s there\’s an appetite for it for change and and to clean stuff up and make it fair for everybody and so apart from all the better tax cuts and ending all the wasteful spending and also ending government choosing winners and losers we’ll also phase out Supply Management which artificially doubles the cost of dairy and poultry products in Canada and we also have inter territorial and interprovincial trade barriers that don\’t make any sense because it\’s in some cases cheaper to get goods from from China than it is from Alberta or British Columbia. and so we need fairness across the board and and we\’ll do this by eliminating all corporate welfare and all foreign spending and put Canadians first and and make life easier and cheaper for Canadians and not try to micromanage them and buy their votes
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A link between climate change and inequality who knew oh wait that\’s us. so I want to address a comment earlier about fear and I want to make it clear that fear is irrelevant because it\’s science. science is speaking science is my motivation and what the scientists are saying is pay attention. not be afraid pay attention and there\’s a critical difference because if we act in fear then we make poor choices so we\’re paying attention our plan is paying attention to what people need. that\’s why the NDP commits to closing corporate tax loopholes that\’s why we commit to cracking down on companies that are evading taxes that\’s because that\’s why we want to make sure that our tax system is fair. fair for everyone. not just for the big companies that have all the advantages but for the people. I don\’t know how actually I know exactly how many times as a student here in the Yukon I was audited over taxes. three times and that took five years to resolve. so we need to ensure that our tax system works for everybody but more fundamentally the inequality issue. we need to ensure that it\’s affordable for everybody because affordability will be how people are moved to be able to live in the new climate future. if you\’re already living in poverty and you can\’t afford to upgrade your home then you have no resources to work with. so that\’s why our plan focuses on ending poverty on making sure that people have guaranteed basic income on making sure that people can afford their rent their rooves their food their furniture their childcare their cell phone their internet. we have a plan for i.t it is our New Deal for people because the way that we help people the way that we address climate change is by doing both together
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so there\’s no question about it that the climate crisis both within Canada but more importantly internationally is the effects of it are very very disproportionate and we live close to the poles we\’re not you know we\’re above the 60th parallel most of the people in the world live pretty close to the equator and they are going to be affected a lot more than by climate change than we are in the sense that they are they\’re so crowded they\’re not going to have places to move to and that\’s going to be a serious problem that we\’re gonna have to deal with. a lot of this the other comments were about taxation and I am going to talk about taxation here because we are already having the effects of climate change now and mitigation of those effects is going to cost money so that money does have to come from somewhere the Green Party says that the burden of Taxation is not fairly distributed now and that we would we want to look at the whole taxation we\’ve got an incredibly complicated tax system I studied tax when I was at Law School and the income tax Act is about the size of what used to be a city of like a City of Vancouver phonebook it\’s just absolutely massive and it\’s very very complicated it really needs to be streamlined. we so we say that there should be establishing a federal tax commission to analyze the tax system for fairness and accessibility based on the principles of progressive taxation. meaning yes that people who earn more money will pay a higher rate of Taxation though there have been tax commissions before but the last one was in 1960s so long overdue. we would close tax loopholes for the wealthy my friends Mr. Zelezny mentioned capital gains tax we actually would go the opposite direction on capital gains capital gains the capital gains [end of time]
If your party forms the next federal government will you, as our MP, work to protect the moratorium on fracking in the Yukon?
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So I\’ve actually heard things contrary to that there are other ways of being able to extract resources that are much more environmentally friendly and don\’t put at risk calving grounds or water supply and so we need to come up with a common-sense approach using the absolute best methods and technology because for example if done right the environment would be protected and people would have very cheap heating costs for example and we wouldn\’t be trucking fuel or barging it up from from Washington State and so this would also enable First Nations to fund their their self governments and to be sustainable and unfortunately what\’s happened over the years across Canada is that there\’s been this established poverty trap where everybody talks about empowering First Nations self governments or their development corporations but on the other hand sabotages their efforts there\’s even been a third party or a foreign funded lobby groups pretending to be First Nations groups to actually set up a corporation that had the name of First Nations band that actually did have a treaty with the federal government and essentially sabotage their efforts to provide jobs for their communities to enable their youth to thrive and so you know it\’s a double-edged sword and we just need common sense and and and and off of this this sort of saying one thing and doing another it\’s not fair to anybody and it perpetuates dependence and it really only favors whoever\’s doing the the lobbying or or who wants to profit based on investments made with certain expectations that either things happen or don\’t happen and so that needs to stop and there\’s treaties in place that need to be respected and not sabotage the economy
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So fracking is illegal for lack of a better term in Yukon and it\’s absolutely not my place as Member of Parliament to tell the territory how to manage its lands and resources that was part of devolution. that said I do want to make another couple statements I fully support protecting ANWR. Period. but I also fully support developing Eagle Plains I\’m gonna disagree with whatever source you cited that fracking is necessary to develop that resource that is not at all consistent with what I have been told I have met with a proponent chance oil and gas on a number of occasions many of whom their senior management team are Vuntut Gwitchin citizens who have significant personal interest in the project I\’ve spoken about this with the Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin when I was in Old Crow not so long ago a few weeks ago I talked to citizens there there is significant support for dell developing the resource i think that as long as we need oil and gas and we are going to need oil and gas for the foreseeable future we should be developing it here at home reduce the costs and emissions related with transportation we have oversight here we have the ability for First Nations citizens to prosper significantly and we can do it responsibly so you very much
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So the Green Party of Canada is simply opposed to fracking across Canada so in the Yukon and across Canada for the reasons that were mentioned it causes a huge amount of environmental problems which we say are not justified by the benefits they in general we are opposed to the extent expansion of both the oil and the gas as well as the coal industry in Canada and although what\’s called natural gas but it used to be called methane is has been put out there as being a better alternative to oil and to coal that is far far less true if it\’s coming from fracking. methane is a very very serious greenhouse gas and part of the production process results in large amounts of it being released into the atmosphere lots of it’s flared meaning it\’s burned off and the furthermore in the distribution process lots of it ends up in the atmosphere methane is as a greenhouse gas is eight times as powerful as is carbon in the atmosphere one of the I\’m gonna use my extra minute to respond to one comment earlier so there\’s this argument made all the time that we need the wealth from our fossil fuel industries to finance the transition and I say that that arguments simply nonsense because as long as that wealth is in the hand of corporations and in particular as long as Jason Kenney is the premier of Alberta they are not going to use that wealth to finance the transition
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Thank you I agree totally with Lenore on methane. It\’s way more dangerous than than carbon dioxide and so we don\’t want that released in fact we put in more restrictions on that around leakage from oil wells methane so ANWR was also mentioned as I think most you know I\’ve had a lengthy battle to try and preserve ANWR so and the porcupine caribou herd. I\’ve gone to Washington sometimes on my own expense and it\’s absolutely had passionate time trying to do that – protect that. I\’m against the Americans over many many years and continue to do in fact I did some of it even after the election started. On fracking the that\’s true devol – one of the things I\’m proud of its devolution where we we got the residual most of the residual provincial powers do the Yukon government that includes control of resources so they make the decision on resources and they put a moratorium on that. That being said I will just give my personal opinion on fracking I\’ve I did a lot of reading of some very thick documents to educate myself on that and I am totally totally opposed to fracking from what I\’ve seen and one of the reasons is that part of the process for fracking involves pumping carcinogenic chemicals into the ground and far be it for me to ever think that those are gonna stay there forever they gonna come out somehow and that\’s gonna pollute our water supply or whatever and what really upsets me is that the companies don\’t even have to tell us what those chemicals are because of proprietary rights and I think that\’s absolutely ridiculous and so I\’m against fracking.
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I am anti-fracking and the NDP does not support fracking and let\’s talk about what fracking is because we\’ve heard of other couple terms this evening so when we hear the term geothermal that\’s fracking when we hear we didn\’t hear this one but it\’s in the chance oil and gas exploration project when we hear non-conventional drilling that\’s fracking so fracking is a dangerous activity because it actually destabilizes the ground beneath their feet not only does it put toxic chemicals in our water supply and our water tables it actually causes earthquakes and we\’ve seen the science of that and remember folks believe science so there have been earthquakes in BC and Alberta that have been directly attributed to fracking activities so we need to ensure that we do not support fracking so I as a member of parliament would not support fracking or development of the animal grounds and that also means working with our First Nation partners and those communities that are affected by those activities so I was just up in Old Crow and it\’s a small place and I didn\’t meet a single person who is in favor of fracking so I\’m a little confused about that but regardless of that I would also point out that we need to look broader than ANWR because we need to look broader than just the boarder of the yukon because ANWR is an international project and that\’s what a member of parliament really should be doing is focusing on how to protect those rights not only within the borders of Canada but also internationally working with our partner or if our partner is reluctant in the face of our partner to make sure that the values that the Gwich\’in people hold dear are protected
Closing Statements
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Thank you. As I said, for 13 years I\’ve, it\’s been a battle too, I\’ve been supporting putting a price on pollution and so it\’s – and been fought against for that – and so it\’s very moving, your support for a clean a clean world, a clean Canada, clean Yukon, and what that would take and someone to talk about one of our things I said I would talk a bit more about transit you know. If you do a transit project, let\’s say the Edmonton high-speed line you\’re saving million – tons and tons and tons of carbon, of greenhouse gases, because people aren\’t driving their cars. But we\’re doing it. We\’ve done an absolutely terrible job of saying the various things we\’ve done so how many transit projects you think we\’ve done across the country 10 20 30? We\’ve done over a thousand I just want to use the rest of my time to debate some of the items from the other people. The alarmists people saying it\’s alarmist, a vast majority of scientists say this climate change is real so I don\’t imagine how anyone can go against that the item that Joseph said about your heat being turned on controlling your life. There\’s an override for that, the the fact that he said there\’s growing poverty while we\’ve reduced poverty by 800,000 people, they said growing unemployment, we have the lowest unemployment in Canadian history ever since stats have been collected. In fact right now the Yukon has been leading Canada which is amazing and the carbon tax those that say it doesn\’t work it\’s already proven to work in Quebec and BC and EU and California and it will work here. Obviously no money overseas you know we\’ve put lots of money into poverty as I said earlier but I saw our troops in Afghanistan for instance with people living in dirt floors one meal a day a little if any fire wood millions trapped in refugee camps. The two of the parties here want to reduce foreign aid or eliminate it we\’re not gonna give up on those people over there and those people who can\’t even eat so they can\’t think about climate change. So we\’re gonna continue strong support of very very poor people around the world.
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So again the kind of hypocrisy speaks for itself you know it it doesn\’t make any sense to have an open borders policy and to actually incentivize people to to leave along the logic of liberals to leave low carbon emission lifestyles and countries to come to Canada and and we are having troubles affording the the systems we have here and so we\’ve actually got new people coming in who end up homeless we\’ve got in some cases 40 percent of refugees or new immigrants coming in are homeless on the streets same thing with veterans who have been treated terribly same thing with with the elderly and so it\’s all smoke and mirrors and really the accountability of the federal government it\’s it\’s not being a it\’s very disingenuous in how you know they provide over 600 million dollars in in tax credits and subsidies to the media specifically to spew their their election platform over the last couple months and we\’re where was all the where were all these funding announcements when they were needed most why does everything always wait for an election period to try and buy votes and then those promises are broken we\’ve got a prime minister who has multiple ethics violations there\’s no trust in in in the establishment parties it\’s been over a hundred years of back-and-forth and crazy debt and and people feel like there\’s no not much hope to to be able to have a better career or to have more prosperity and it\’s come at the expense of a lot of money being wasted and and more and more attempts to micromanage how people whatthey do with their lives and and and with their earnings and it\’s inherently unfair so we need to stop the double standards the hypocrisy and just have a common sense government that puts Canadians first because that\’s the duty of a Canadian federal government if people want to donate that\’s their own prerogative
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I\’m going to take a slightly different approach and not talk about the environment but talk about strategic voting for me as a Green Party Canada strategic voting that\’s been my real opponent in this campaign so for everybody there are two kinds of votes that you can make you can make a sincere vote meaning voting for the person in the party that you want elected or you could make a strategic vote citizens will consider a strategic voting any time a country combines a first-past-the-post voting system which is to say the kind that the Liberals promised four years ago to abolish with more than two major parties something that we\’ve had in Canada for almost a century in this election in the Yukon I wouldn\’t be running if I didn\’t think it was more important to possibly elect a green than to risk further splitting the vote and elect a conservative this is nothing to do with Jonas Smith the ABC movement predates him for a very long time I my opera issue is the environment and I\’ve come to the sad conclusion that on environmental issues the Liberals aren\’t that different from the Conservatives in some ways they are they certainly talk a better game they don\’t do things that much different the Liberals after scorning the Conservatives modest greenhouse gas emissions when they were in opposition proceeded to adopt those same unambitious targets they\’re pushing for the expansion of LNG in British Columbia they\’re pushing for expansion of the oil industry in Alberta they bought a pipeline for crying out loud they we will not change our government policies until we put different people into government the Yukon is full of people for whom the environment is a top priority all we need to elect we need to elect an environment is environmentalists to government is to vote together
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Well thank you everyone and thank you to our organizers tonight. Thank you Moira for for moderating and keeping us on time and not making me bhangra dance. I\’ve been campaigning for over a year now I\’ve been to every community the Yukon at least once I\’ve knocked on thousands and thousands and thousands of doors and in that time I\’ve I\’ve missed a lot of a lot of time with my children with my family. I\’ve missed a lot of bedtime I\’ve missed a lot of story time and I\’m never gonna get that time back but I\’ve worked this hard because I want to represent all Yukoners in Ottawa and many of you here tonight in particular might not normally consider voting for me you might not like my leader you might not like my party but I\’m not asking you to vote for them I\’m asking you for me. I walk the talk when it comes to conservation I think I\’ve proven to myself anyway over the course of my life so I encourage you all to do it as well and I\’m asking for your support on October 21st thank you very much
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We\’ve been having this electoral experiment in Canada for the last many many decades and we keep expecting different outcomes and we\’re always disappointed when we don\’t get something new and fresh so I\’m here to offer you something new and fresh. I\’m here to offer you something that actually works for people and when it\’s about when we\’re talking to this evening about the climate change and environment and how it relates to people then that\’s what we\’re offering that\’s what the NDP does with our plan. We offer you a concrete plan that addresses all of those things together and let\’s talk about water specifically for a moment and what our plan doesn\’t do because Elizabeth May has said that she thinks it\’s a good idea to put the management of First Nation water supplies into the hands of SNC Lavalin. That\’s a company that\’s been charged with corruption activities I don\’t think that\’s a good idea and also we know that on the climate change front Elizabeth May has said that she is willing to prop up a Conservative government to support the agenda that she sees fit for the country. What a dichotomy for a party that is so supportive of a climate change plan to be willing to prop up a government that denies climate change. I believe there\’s a better path I know there\’s a better path the NDP has that path. It\’s our plan our new deal for people, our power to change. we have the solution. I as your Member of Parliament will work with you for you to ensure that we move into a climate future together
Thank you to everyone who helped put this event together!