Trudeau pledges ‘greener’ platform
Will reduce fuel subsidies
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has unveiled his party’s environmental platform, saying it would be vital to a strong Canadian economy, though some groups said his policies don’t go far enough.
Trudeau said phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and making investments in clean technologies would be among the Liberals’ top strategies if he unseats Prime Minister Stephen Harper in October.
“The only way to build a strong economy is to protect the environment,” he said Monday. “The old saw of picking one or the other, which Mr. Harper seems to believe, no longer works,” he told reporters while standing before a backdrop of the ocean and massive ships at Jericho Beach.
He said formalizing a moratorium on tanker traffic in northern British Columbia would protect marine coastal areas and provide benefits for international trade.
Trudeau said he would work with the provinces to map out a plan to reduce Canada’s collective carbon footprint within 90 days of taking office.
He said he would also invite premiers across the country to join him at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of this year and put “teeth” back into the federal environmental review process.
He said increasing consultation on projects such as the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would increase tanker traffic in Vancouver’s harbour, would be part of the revamped measures.
Groups including ForestEthics Advocacy called some of Trudeau’s proposals a “good first step.” The group lauded a tanker ban as the “final nail in the coffin” for Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, which would see Alberta crude flow to Kitimat, B.C.