It’s time for a Canadian Green New Deal

Notes from the launch of the Pact for a Green New Deal, May 6th, 2019

Find out more: https://greennewdealcanada.ca

“I’m here, as an elected official, because we need ambitious action at every level of government to truly tackle climate change and inequality.

As an activist I heard criticism it was hypocritical to call for climate action when I relied on oil and gas in my own life.

When I wrote and introduced the motion for Vancouver to declare a Climate Emergency and dramatically ramp up our climate action, prioritizing those most impacted, I heard criticism that Vancouver was too small it didn’t matter.

These are tactics designed to stall and delay. And we don’t have any more time for them.

The era of personal consumer solutions to climate change is over – long over.

The world’s leading climate scientists have made clear we have 11 years to dramatically decrease our carbon emissions. We are about to elect a Federal government to govern for the next 4 of those precious years.

It needs to be a government that recognizes the emergency we are in. That ends fossil fuel subsidies and refuses to expand fossil fuel infrastructure. That honors Indigenous Rights and prepares to welcome increasing numbers of climate refugees. And, like the last New Deal, makes significant infrastructure investments to quickly transition us into a fossil fuel free economy, including in local, clean energy, in public transportation, and in retrofitting buildings. It needs to be a government that supports workers to transition into the millions of new jobs that will be created, so that no one is left behind.

We’ve made this kind of whole-economy transformation before. When Canada joined WW2 we shifted the focus of our entire economy in the span of two years, with new crown corporations, and caps on profit, and families growing gardens to produce food to share.

This time there is more to lose if we fail, but there is also more to be gained if we succeed. A stronger economy, not so reliant on boom-and-bust cycles, more localized jobs, AND stronger relationships, less social division, healthier communities, cleaner air. This is possible. We can do this.

We have experiences to draw on within Canadian history. We have solutions ready to be implemented and scaled up. And there is momentum, as Green New Deal conversations are gaining popularity not just in the US, but in the UK, and Spain, and here.

We need political leaders willing to act in line with the science and the urgency. Leaders willing to think beyond election cycles.  

Locally elected leaders are rising to the challenge. In Quebec more than 300 local governments have declared a Climate Emergency and committed to acting at the scale that emergency requires. In English Canada, Vancouver was the first. 20 other local governments across the Country have done the same, and many more are moving in that direction, as the very real impacts of climate change are already hitting their residents.

But local governments can’t do it alone. And it’s disheartening to have local governments doing what they need to do to meet the IPCC targets, only to have the Federal government undoing their efforts by encouraging the extraction and export of fossil fuels.

We need ambitious and courageous Federal action. And we will build the people power necessary to support it – led by young people and Indigenous communities. It’s time for a made-in-Canada version of the Green New Deal.”

Find out more: https://greennewdealcanada.ca