Environment
Statement on Canada’s Electric Vehicle Policy Report Card
Media Release: November 15th, 2016
Weaver Statement on Canada’s Electric Vehicle Policy Report Card
For Immediate Release
Victoria, B.C. – “The B.C. Liberals continue to struggle with embracing the technology of the 21st Century,” said Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head and Leader of the B.C. Green Party, in response to the near failing C- grade that B.C. has received on Canada’s Electric Vehicle Policy Report Card. The report was released today by Simon Fraser University’s Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team.
“Jurisdictions around the world are actively embracing the future of transportation and B.C. is getting left behind. We have a wonderful opportunity to get on board as a leader in this sector. I hope that we seize this opportunity instead of resisting our passage into the modern age. The BC Liberal’s uninspired approach to embracing the future is typical of a government that has dragged their feet on ridehailing and significant investment in the tech industry, while championing a return to a fossil-fuel based 20th century economy.”
“Our economy is falling further and further behind the rest of the world. B.C. needs to introduce legislation that mirrors California’s Zero Emission Vehicle Standard Program and start to lead in transportation sectors such as this.”
A Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Standard Program has also been adopted by Quebec and nine US States in addition to California (Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont).
Under the ZEV Program, automakers are required to earn a set percentage of zero emission vehicle credits, through selling electric vehicles or buying credits from other automakers who have a surplus. In Quebec, automakers must maintain ZEV credits equal to 3.4% of all sales of 2018 models, rising to 15.5% in 2025. In California, credit requirements are 4.5% in 2018 and 22% in 2025.
“With the Lower Mainland and Southern Vancouver Island geographically constrained, they represent ideal locations for the widespread adoption of zero emission electric vehicles.
“Whether we are leaders or laggards, this is where the world is heading. We ought to capitalize on that.
-30-
Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary, Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
Background:
SFU’s Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team (START) today released the first ever comprehensive assessment of electric vehicle (EV) policy progress across the country. Canada’s Electric Vehicle Policy Report Card aims to provide provincial leaders with an assessment of whether current and planned EV policies will cut transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions at the scope, scale, and speed needed to prevent dangerous climate change. B.C. scores an underwhelming C-.
Electric Vehicle Use Internationally:
The Indian government has introduced an aggressive incentive program with the goal of having every car on its roads electric by 2030, they aim to be a 100 percent electric vehicle nation. Dutch politicians have voted through a motion calling on the country to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars starting in 2025, to make their roads gradually electrify over the next decade. In June, Norway’s major parties reached an agreement to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel powered cars starting in 2025. In October, German legislators of both parties voted to ban the internal combustion engine by 2030.
Responding to the National Oceans Protection Plan
Media Release: November 7th, 2016
Andrew Weaver Responds to the National Oceans Protection Plan
For Immediate Release
Victoria, B.C. – “Though weak on details, I am supportive of the initiatives outlined in the National Oceans Protection Plan includes,” says Andrew Weaver, Leader of the BC Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.
“I am especially grateful to see derelict vessels included in this plan. As an MLA for a coastal area, it is an ongoing problem I have struggled with in my riding. Currently, local, provincial and federal governments get mired in jurisdictional squabbles as the remediation process for derelict vessels is delayed, leaving boats to rust and leak on the foreshore.
“The Heiltsuk Nation has worked tirelessly to monitor and mitigate the impact of the recent diesel spill near Bella Bella. They stepped up to fill in where the provincial and federal governments were lacking and I’m glad to see the importance of co-management with Indigenous communities acknowledged in this plan.
“That said, I am worried this announcement will be held up as a justification for the approval future heavy oil projects. Even with a full protection plan the effects of a diluted bitumen spill in our waters would be catastrophic.
“If Trans Mountain were approved, which this announcement leaves room for, the number of tankers leaving Vancouver Harbour and traveling through the south coast of B.C. would increase by 580%. Currently, five tankers per month enter the port at the Westridge Marine Terminal. With Trans Mountain that would increase to an estimate 34 tankers per month. At 408 tankers transiting into and out of the Vancouver Harbour per year, over the project’s estimated 50 year lifespan that would be 40,800 tanker trips past the Gulf Islands and Southern Vancouver Island through the Juan de Fuca Strait – a route the Federal Tanker Safety Expert Panel has deemed “very high risk.”
“In both my professional and political capacity, and my role as a Trans Mountain intervener, I can state with certainty that the project must be rejected if we are to move in the right direction. The time for halfway measures – both to protect our marine environment and to reach our pledge to cap global warming well below 2.0°C – is at an end.”
“If world leaders understood what they signed in Paris, they would know that meeting the 2.0°C target is incompatible with the investment in any new fossil fuel infrastructure that is planned to be used in the next several decades.”
-30-
Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary
Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
Responding to Ministerial Panel Report on Trans Mountain Pipeline
Media Release: November 3rd, 2016
Andrew Weaver responds to Ministerial Panel Report on Trans Mountain Pipeline
For Immediate Release
Victoria, B.C. – Andrew Weaver, Leader of the BC Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head has issued the following statement in response to the publication of the Report from the Ministerial Panel for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project:
“I want to commend this panel for identifying and discussing a number of the gaps that existed in the NEB hearing process into the Trans Mountain Pipeline. As an intervenor in the process, my office was continually struck by the narrow and limited perspective that was used in assessing a project that has significant national and intergenerational ramifications.”
“I have heard from thousands of students during my time as a professor at the University of Victoria, and there is a real sentiment of disillusionment and hopelessness that threatens to take hold if governments don’t start acting in the interests of the next generation of Canadians.”
“I hope that this report and the questions it asks regarding Canada’s climate change commitments, its responsibilities to first nations, and the lack of a comprehensive energy strategy are taken seriously and afforded the appropriate weight as the Federal cabinet deliberates on the fate of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.”
“In both my professional and political capacity I can state with certainty that the Trans Mountain pipeline must be rejected if we are to move in the right direction on these important questions. The time for halfway measures is at an end.”
“The Ministerial Panel Report was released the same day as the United Nations Environment Programme released its Emissions Gap Report 2016 noting that the world is on track to break 3.0°C warming this century, well above the “well below 2.0°C” value pledged at COP21 in Paris.”
“If world leaders understood what they signed in Paris, they would know that meeting the 2.0°C target is incompatible with the investment in any new fossil fuel infrastructure that is planned to be used in the next several decades.”
Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
Background Information :
Calling for the Resignation of B.C. Minister of Environment
Media Statement: October 27th, 2016
Weaver Calls for the Resignation of B.C. Minister of Environment
For Immediate Release
Victoria, B.C. – “I do not call for this lightly. I have spent my career in the climate science field advising provincial, federal, and international governments on their climate policies. Never in my life have I witnessed a government using such outrageous rhetoric to describe subpar efforts to protect the environment,” said Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head and Leader of the B.C. Green Party.
“The ministry’s responsibilities have too often been neglected, forcing citizens to step in and try to protect the environment themselves. British Columbians have been left investigating and mitigating the impacts of environmental tragedies like what happened at the Mt. Polley mine, the Shawnigan contaminated soil facility, and the Bella Bella diesel spill with their own time and money, often employing the courts to force the Ministry to do their job,” said Weaver. “This government’s policy continues to put vested and private interests ahead of their responsibilities they have to the people of British Columbia.
“I now lack confidence in Minister Polak to uphold the obligations outlined in her ministerial mandate letter. As such, I am calling for her to be replaced by a minister who will stand up for the people of B.C. and the water and environment that we all rely on.
“The absence of a real climate policy, the reaction to the Mount Polley tailings pond breach, and the repeated compliance failures at the Shawnigan contaminated soil facility with no real ministerial response are egregious examples that I have tried to work with the Ministry on,” said Weaver. “The Minister’s failed response to the diesel spill in Heiltsuk Territory is the last straw for me.
“It is appalling that the B.C. Liberals can look British Columbians in the eye and tell them that they have a climate leadership plan. They are not climate leaders, and they don’t even have a plan. At least when Mr. Harper was Prime Minister we knew where he stood on environmental protection. Premier Clark and the Minister of Environment claim one thing and does the complete opposite.”
Sonia Furstenau, CVRD Director and BC Green Party candidate for Cowichan Valley is equally frustrated with the impacts provincial policy is having on her community. “In Shawnigan, we are experiencing first-hand the downside of this government’s insistence on ‘getting to yes’ at all costs. The people of Shawnigan are suffering from ongoing stress and anxiety while the Ministry of Environment allows for ongoing non-compliance with the contaminated landfill permit, and compounding failures at the site. This ministry promised the community that all water leaving this site would meet the strictest aquatic and drinking water guidelines, and already, 20 months into the permit, levels of toluene, copper, iron, manganese, aluminum and more have exceeded these guidelines.”
Furstenau has consistently urged the Minister to act. “Under the Environmental Management Act, misrepresentation during permit application stage and ongoing non-compliance since this company began operations gives the Minister more than adequate grounds to revoke this permit. If she won’t use her authority to revoke this permit and protect the people of Shawnigan Lake, she should step down.
-30-
Media Contacts
Mat Wright
Press Secretary for MLA Andrew Weaver
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
250 216 3382
Sonia Furstenau
sonia.furstenau@bcgreens.ca
250 812 6136
Bella Bella Spill a Wake up Call on Failed “World Class” Containment
Media Statement: October 24th, 2016
Bella Bella Spill a Wake up Call on Failed “World Class” Containment
For immediate release
Victoria, B.C. – “The provincial and federal government’s ability to respond to spills is nowhere near ‘world class’ — it is not even passingly adequate,” says Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head and leader of the B.C. Green Party.
“The diesel spill near Bella Bella, B.C. has been ongoing since the 13th and they can’t even keep a containment boom around the leak. What’s even worse is that a spill response boat responding to the accident also sank. You literally can’t make this stuff up.”
The Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett reported that the containment booms around the sunken tug had failed in the face of continuing storms and waves as high as three metres, and the spill had spread. That was later confirmed by the owner of the sunken tug, Kirby Offshore Marine.
“This is devastating to the Heiltsuk Nation and everyone who lives in the region reliant on the coast for sustenance and income,” says Andrew Weaver “This spill, as well as the bunker oil leak in Vancouver Harbour that closed beaches, demonstrate that it is impossible for the provincial and federal governments to meet all of the five conditions set by the province regarding pipeline expansion.
“The people who live in the Bella Bella region deserve to know how this spill will impact their home and health, and how they will be compensated. They are on the front lines trying to save the clam beds and prevent the damage from spreading. The provincial government needs to step up and take an active stake.
“While the news that marine pilots will now be required on all vessels transporting fuel is welcome, this retroactive response clearly demonstrates spill prevention is not the priority it should be.
-30-
Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary, Andrew Weaver MLA
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
250 216 3382
Latest Posts
Recent Comments
- on The Paris Agreement is in trouble: UNFCCC needs to ratchet up their climate efforts
- on How can BC’s environmental organizations be more effective?
- on How can BC’s environmental organizations be more effective?
- on How can BC’s environmental organizations be more effective?
- on How can BC’s environmental organizations be more effective?