Yesterday in the BC Legislature I rose during Question Period to ask the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy about the inconsistency between British Columbia’s CleanBC plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that the Deputy Minister of  Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources recently went to Japan to tout the idea of even more LNG development in B.C.

Below I reproduce the video and text of our exchange. The BC Liberals were quite boisterous in heckling the Environment Minister as he tried to respond to my question.

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: It’s been troubling to hear some B.C. organizations recently push the false narrative that by exporting LNG we are somehow helping to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not surprising to see them puppet the LNG rhetoric from the previous government, since the signals being sent by this government are often in conflict with one another. For example, we know that increasing an LNG export capacity is inconsistent with CleanBC and our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Yet despite this, earlier this month the Deputy Minister for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources went to Japan to tout the idea of even more LNG development in B.C.

My question is to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. How can British Columbians have confidence that this government is serious about being a climate leader when a deputy minister is travelling abroad stumping for further fossil fuel development?

Answer

Hon. G. Heyman: Thank you to the Leader of the Third Party for the question.

As the Leader of the Third Party knows well, both his party and our party on the government side were convinced going into the last election that we had a serious climate credibility problem in British Columbia, despite the fact that B.C. was the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce a carbon tax. We felt that way because we had seen a complete reversal of intention to do anything whatsoever about reducing…

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

Hon. G. Heyman: …emissions in B.C.

In fact, don’t take my word for it. Even former Premier Gordon Campbell expressed disappointment with his party’s approach under Christy Clark. That led to the Green Party caucus and our caucus agreeing that it was important to have a serious, quantifiable climate action plan in British Columbia, and we set about to do exactly that together. That resulted in CleanBC.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

Hon. G. Heyman: That resulted in a plan that’s measurable to meet our climate targets.

I’m pleased to have worked with the Leader of the Third Party and their caucus on putting in place a robust accountability framework so British Columbians won’t have to take our word for it. They will be able to rely on regular reporting and verification that we are on a path to do what we say we will do. What we have said we will do is reduce emissions, and what we have said we will do is that the development of LNG must fit within our CleanBC plan.