Environment

Today I had the distinct honour of standing with the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Nation in demanding the removal of open net fish farms from their traditional territories. I went one step further in stating that a BC Green government would ensure that those holding permits for open net fish farming along the migratory route of wild sockeye salmon would be given 90 days notice that their permits would be revoked. In addition, and unlike both the BC NDP and the BC Liberals, the BC Greens will not accept corporate donations from those involved in the open-net Atlantic Salmon farming industry,.

It’s not that the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Nation and I are alone. In May 2015 I introduced a petition by 108,848 people who asked the government to please not issue licenses of occupation to salmon farms trying to expand in British Columbia. I also introduced a second petition signed by more than 100 business organizations across the province who supported the individuals who signed the larger petition. The business organizations argued that they are convinced by the published scientific evidence that open net salmon farms are a threat to B.C. wild pacific salmon.

This doesn’t mean that we have to shut down salmon farming. Rather, it means that we have to start using closed containment systems that pose no threat to our wild salmon. In fact, we need look no further than the Namgis First Nation on Vancouver Island who have initiated a sustainable land-based salmon farming industry on their traditional lands.

Media Statement – August 19, 2016
Climate Action Announcement Definitely Not Leadership
For immediate release

Victoria B.C. – Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head and leader of the B.C. Green Party calls the B.C. Government Climate Action announcement disappointing and lacking leadership.

“Not only has the Clark government dismantled many of the existing climate policies, but they are also ignoring key recommendations from their own expert panel on what needs to happen for B.C. to once again become a climate leader.

“For the past few years it has become painfully clear that the B.C. Liberals have chosen to forgo any leadership on this file, instead choosing to chase the LNG pipedream.

“As we go into another year with temperature records again being smashed across the world and in B.C., this government is content to fiddle and play games with carbon accounting. Without increasing the carbon levy there is no hope that British Columbia will meet its GHG reduction targets.

“For fifteenth consecutive month in a row, July 2016 emerged as the warmest month since measurements have been collected. Average global temperatures for the year-to-date period January-July 2016 shattered the previous record set in 2015. The government’s plan doesn’t demonstrate leadership. It demonstrates complacency and a wilful disregard of the urgency of dealing with climate change.

“British Columbia has an opportunity to become a leader in this world, establishing a 21st century economy built on innovation and clean technology. This goal cannot be realized with the current administration’s directionless approach to governance.

– 30 –

Backgrounder – Changes since Christy Clark became Premier

Under Premier Gordon Campbell, British Columbia emerged as an international leader in climate policy. But since Christy Clark has taken over at the helm, we’ve move from being a leader to becoming a laggard. The legacy of Premier Clark’s so-called climate leadership to date is as follows:

1. The Clean Energy Act was amended to exclude emissions for liquefaction in LNG industry;
2. The Pacific Carbon Trust was shut down;
3. Carbon tax increase were halted;
4. Cap and Trade enabling legislation (designed to bring big point source emitters in with California) has been repealed;
5. We have a new Greenhouse Gas Industrial Reporting and Control Act that introduces an “emissions intensity” framework that is more about supporting an LNG industry than limiting emissions;
6. The LiveSmart BC program has essentially shut down;
7. Emissions have gone up year after year;
8. We will not reach our legislated 2020 GHG reduction target.

Media contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary, Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca

It’s been more than seven months since Premier Clark’s Climate Leadership Team released its suite of recommendations for British Columbia’s climate action plan, yet we are still awaiting the government’s response. To provide some context, in an earlier post I noted that the BC Liberals have been inactive on the climate change file for more than three years now. As a province we can no longer claim climate leadership. Wishing it were so does not mean it is so.

On May 16, seven members of that Climate Leadership Team took the unprecedented response of writing a scathing condemnation of the government’s delay. They stated:

You initially committed to having a draft plan in advance of the Paris climate talks last December and a final plan by this March. The draft plan was cancelled and the deadline for the final plan was pushed to June.

The seven signatories further concluded that

The Climate Leadership Team recommendations, implemented in their entirety, provide the blueprint for a B.C. climate plan to put the province back on track for the 2050 and interim 2030 targets. Anything less is not climate leadership.

Well yet another deadline has passed. Nevertheless, here’s what we might expect to see in the government’s “climate leadership plan” — a plan to reach 80% greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 — that will appear in two parts.

The first part will likely be released within two weeks. It will almost certainly involve photo ops with forestry leaders, leaders in cement manufacturing and leaders in the oil and gas sector. A smiling Premier, flanked by the Minister of the Environment will beam as she announces British Columbia’s commitment to climate leadership. She’ll proceed to announce that something like 25% of our 2050 greenhouse gas targets will be met by forestry. And then, in the next breath, the government will announce a major tree planting initiative to reseed forests that were lost by the mountain pine beetle. They’ll claim that they’re creating jobs abound for British Columbians in tree seedling planting and through digging up stumps — jobs for those who were newly re-engineered for the non-existent LNG sector through BC’s skills for jobs blueprint: reengineering education and training.  Millions of dollars of taxpayers money will be committed to reforest an already active forest and then the government will claim that this qualifies them for a carbon credit. You simply can’t make this stuff up. It could only happen in British Columbia.

Sorry, but that emperor has no clothes. I might as well point this out now, before the province tries to claim that it does. The province never claimed the carbon deficit from the pine beetle destruction in the first place and so cannot claim a carbon credit for its reseeding. This was an existing forest — there is no afforestation involved. Will the province claim a negative carbon credit for the recent forest fires in British Columbia’s northeast? No. Will they claim a negative credit if there is a forest fire after the seedlings are planted? No.

Stop and think about this for a minute. The mountain pine beetle devastated vast quantities of BC’s lodgepole pine forests because of the age profile of the trees combined with multiple warm winters that led to low larvae mortality. Climate change played a role in the destruction of these forests and now the government wants to get credit for replanting them while, get this, continuing to search for the elusive LNG windfall. The irony is baffling.

But it gets worse. Desperate for a consumer of site C power, the government will hail the future electrification of the upstream natural gas industry — an industry that has essentially shut down in northeastern BC because of a glut in global supply. Where there is drilling left, it is for the liquids with the methane in many cases being pumped back underground. This electrification, of course, means more public investment in transmission lines and so forth.

And then, a couple of low hanging fruit regarding methane abatement in the natural gas sector will be announced. We can thank the Trudeau Liberals for initiating this latter small, but positive, development.

So let’s be very clear, when the BC Government announces it’s first phase of its climate leadership plan, it will be nothing short of a colossal failure, spun with photo ops, smiling politicians and glib industry leaders. British Columbians deserve better.

I cannot wait until the fall when part two of the plan is supposed to be announced. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that ends up being delayed until after the Federal Liberals have developed their plans. In the fall, we can look forward to the premier promising climate leadership — but only after the 2017 election.

British Columbians have been sold yet another bill of goods. As I mentioned last year, in my view the well meaning members of the climate leadership team were co-opted to provide the premier with a credibility panel that would allow her to have photo ops at the Paris Climate Conference last fall.

The disastrous approach that this government has taken to climate change mitigation combined with their dismantling of so many of Gordon Campbell’s prior policy initiatives truly underscores that British Columbia has moved from climate leader to climate laggard.

Media Statement: July 5th, 2016
Weaver responds to government inaction on campsite booking system
For immediate release

Victoria B.C. – Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head, today responded to the provincial government’s encouragement of a campground booking system that excludes British Columbians from accessing public campgrounds and allows private for-profit companies to compete with B.C. families.
“In a new practice welcomed by the B.C. Liberals, B.C. residents are being told they have to pay more to compete with companies who book provincial campsites in bulk and resell them at double the price,” says Andrew Weaver.

“It seems like the B.C. government has lost sight of the public purpose of our parks and campgrounds. Our provincial campsites are not products to be sold, they belong to the people of B.C.

Government agencies have been entrusted by the public to manage our parks as a collective good so they can be preserved and maintained into the future. Instead they are managing them as if they were a nothing more than a commodity.

The public is the owner, not the customer, and the current system is excluding B.C. families from accessing their parks.

The reservation system should give British Columbians priority, either by allocating enough resident – specific sites to meet local demand or by staggering booking openings so British Columbians have first shot at reserving a spot.”

 
Media contact:
Mat Wright
Press Secretary – Andrew Weaver MLA
Cell: 250 216 3382
Mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
Twitter: @MatVic

Parliament Buildings
Room 027C
Victoria BC V8V 1X4

In 2013 representatives from California, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia came together to form the Pacific Coast Collaborative (PCC) and sign a non-binding climate and energy action plan. Yesterday, in San Francisco they renewed their commitment to the Pacific North America Climate Leadership Agreement and Action Plan, claiming to have updated their previous agreement with increasingly bold goals that reflect the need for decisive climate action.

Unfortunately, from a British Columbia perspective, the press conference was high on political rhetoric and short on any real action.

Minister Polak suggested that there weren’t many easy places to look for further greenhouse gas reductions because we already have the lowest rate in the country – this is false on both accounts:

(i) More than 40% of our household GHG emissions and over 30% of BC’s emissions come from transportation, a sector with enormous emission-reducing potential.

(ii) By 2014 and relative to 1990 levels, five provinces have actually realized net overall greenhouse gas reductions: Nova Scotia (-17%), New Brunswick (-9%), PEI (-8%), Quebec (-7%) and Ontario (-6%).

BC has the third highest overall increase: Saskatchewan (+68%), Alberta (+56%) and British Columbia (+19%). BC is only 4th best in terms of per capita emissions (behind Quebec, PEI and Ontario).

It is beyond any doubt that the current government intends to ride the ambition of the previous Campbell administration. Since Premier Clark has taken the helm, the current government has done virtually nothing to advance any serious climate action and emissions have gone up as a direct consequence.

In the press release accompanying the PCC signing, our Minister states: “We will build on momentum gained from the Paris agreement by not only continuing to reduce emissions at home, but also by helping other countries transition away from dirty fossil fuels.” What this means is that instead of climate action, the BC Liberals will continue to chase a hypothetical LNG industry. In so doing, they are ignoring the words of more than 90 international scientists who recently pointed out in an open letter that it makes no sense from a greenhouse gas reduction perspective. Climate policy, of course, gets in the way of the LNG pipedream.

So while California introduces Cap and Trade legislation, in BC we repeal our legislation. While Ontario and Alberta launch ambitious climate action plans, we watch our carbon tax become less and less affective. This is what our climate record look like over the past few years:

1. The Clean Energy Act was amended to exclude emissions for liquefaction in LNG industry;
2. The Pacific Carbon Trust was shut down;
3. Carbon tax increase were halted;
4. Cap and Trade enabling legislation (designed to bring big point source emitters in with California) has been repealed;
5. We have a new Greenhouse Gas Industrial Reporting and Control Act that introduces an “emissions intensity” framework that is more about supporting an LNG industry than limiting emissions;
6. The LiveSmart BC program has essentially shut down;
7. Emissions have gone up year after year;
8. We will not reach our legislated 2020 GHG reduction target.

As a province we can no longer claim climate leadership. Wishing it were so does not mean it is so. Our government may have reaffirmed their commitment to the PCC action plan, but their inaction over the last three years indicates that they do not take the agreement seriously.

As other provinces are stepping up and getting more ambitious, the B.C. Liberals seem content to coast as we fall behind. On top of that, if the LNG sector expanded the way the government has promised our GHG emissions would skyrocket.

Addressing climate changes requires direct action, not more promises, targets, political posturing and rhetoric.