‘Do not allow old, white politicians to destroy our planet’: MPP Gates
Wayne Gates has a message to young people concerned about the environment.
“Do not allow old, white politicians to destroy our planet.”
The Niagara Falls NDP MPP made those comments at Queen’s Park recently, where the opposition party’s climate emergency motion was defeated by the governing Progressive Conservatives.
“This is the biggest crisis facing us in our lifetime,” said a passionate Gates.
“Make no mistake about it.
And you know who gets it? Our kids get it. Our grand kids get it. Every school I go to — and I could be talking about anything — the minute I mention the environment, the kids applaud, and they say, ‘You finally get it, somebody’s talking about it.’”
The motion, if passed, would have recognized climate change as an imminent threat to Ontario’s environment, people and economy, and declared a climate emergency in the province.
In a social media post, Gates said whether it’s protecting water, air or addressing the realities of climate change, preserving the environment for future generations should be “one of the single most important goals of any government.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not the case in Ontario. I think it’s time this government listens to the young people of this province, because they get it. We need to act now, not later. Climate change is a crisis.”
To back its motion, the NDP pointed to wild fires, tornadoes and flooding that have occurred throughout Ontario in recent years.
Last October, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned drastic cuts to emissions are needed in the next decade to prevent global warming from becoming catastrophic.
“We believe, as a party, that there is a climate emergency and we wanted it to be agreed upon by all parties as we try to get a handle on what’s going to happen to our environment,” said Gates in an interview Wednesday.
The MPP said he has spoken with students in Niagara who are frustrated by what they see as a lack of action by government leaders when it comes to preserving the environment and tackling climate-change concerns.
“Young people are saying, ‘Hey, look, you guys are going to be dead, you guys are going to be gone and I’m going to be left with trying to survive here,’” he said.
Gates said he’s glad to see young people take part in environmental protests, and he encourages them to continue the discussion, including talking to their parents.
“I’ll tell you one thing that parents will listen to, they’ll listen to their kids.”
During the discussion about the NDP motion, Rod Phillips, minister of the environment, conservation and parks, said the government doesn’t support declaring a climate emergency, but rather supports “putting forward actual plans and approaches that will reduce climate change.”
He talked about how the government eliminated programs “that weren’t working,” such as the previous Liberal government’s cap-and-trade program, which “was going to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to other jurisdictions, in particular California.”
“We put $260 back into the pockets of Ontarians by eliminating that program and have presented a program that will meet our targets of reducing greenhouse gas by 30 per cent (by 2030).”
Phillips said the government acknowledges climate change is a “critical issue that we must deal with.”
“We promised to bring forward a plan and we promised to set targets that would demonstrate to the world and to others that Ontario was serious about attacking climate change and serious about protecting our environment.”
He said a recent national inventory report highlighting how Canada and provinces are progressing when it comes to reducing greenhouse gases shows Ontario has done “more” than any other province or jurisdiction.
“That report is recent, but I’ll remind the members of what it said, which is that Ontario has reduced emissions by 22 per cent against that 30 per cent target at the same time as the rest of Canada has increased emissions by six per cent.”