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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-10-17, Page 26PAGE 26. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019. In advance of the Oct. 21 federal election, The Citizen asked the five Huron-Bruce candidates a number of questions about their platforms, the environment, crucial issues facing the country and about themselves. • Can you please explain your party’s platform and highlight some of its key points? Ben Lobb (Conservative): This election is about making life more affordable for Canadians, while making key investments for families, for agriculture, and for our environment. This election is about reviving our embattled energy sector while maintaining the strong level of environmental standards for which Canada is renowned. When it comes to affordability, we trust you to make the best choices for your families – and we’re going to help give you the means to do so. We will provide a universal tax cut for all Canadians, while making parental benefits tax-free and increasing the age credit for our seniors. We will also re-instate the tax credits for enrolling your kids in sports or fitness activities, or for putting them in arts and educational programs. We will remove the federal portion of the HST from your home heating bills, and we will scrap the carbon tax. We’ve also developed a comprehensive plan to protect Canada’s natural environment – and we’ve done it without making life more expensive for Canadians. We will establish a hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions, and make our big polluters invest in green technology that will reduce their own emissions – and can be exported to help other countries reduce theirs. We will end the export of plastics unless the exporter can prove it will be recycled at the other end, and we will work to end the dumping of raw sewage into our lakes and rivers. Allan Thompson (Liberal): Canada’s economy is strong and growing, but the rising cost of living is making it harder for everyone to share in that success. For too many families, it’s still tough to make ends meet. We will move forward with a real plan to make life more affordable for Canadians – especially the middle class and people who are working hard to join it. Strong, reliable, and publicly funded universal health care is important to everyone and to our economy. When we are in good physical and mental health, with good access to health care and affordable access to the prescription drugs we need to get and stay healthy, we are better able to work, contribute to our communities, and care for our families. Canadians are among the most skilled and highly educated workers in the world, but even at a time of record-low unemployment, the changing nature of work can make finding and keeping a good job a challenge. We will give working Canadians the help they need to get ahead and keep our economy moving forward. After a lifetime of hard work, Canada’s seniors have earned a secure and dignified retirement. They deserve a retirement filled with family and friends, not financial worries. We will continue to move forward with investments that give our seniors a better quality of life, with stronger supports to help make ends meet – especially for our most vulnerable seniors. Tony McQuail (NDP): When I was deciding to run in this election there were three words that described my reasons: representation, regeneration and redistribution. The NDP’s platform solidly addresses all three. Representation because, at its best, democracy lets us find our collective wisdom – but only if everyone is fairly represented. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to fix our electoral system, but he did not! The NDP will set up a citizen’s assembly to design a mixed-member proportional system for Canada and then implement it so that every Canadian’s vote will earn representation in every election. That is how you create parliaments that truly represent the majority and provide stable government, rather than the policy lurch we see now. I’ll address regeneration in the next question, but redistribution, because for decades out tax system and economy have funneled the wealth that we all help create to the top. Money’s like manure, it does the most good when you spread it around. We will put a one per cent tax on wealth over $20 million, vigorously pursue tax evaders and offshore tax havens, return corporate taxes to their 2010 pre-Harper levels while maintaining the small business tax rate. We will then invest in services and infrastructure that will help Canadians across the country and society. These include universal pharmacare and dentalcare programs as part of our healthcare system and building 500,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years. Invest $1 billion in affordable childcare and build toward making post-secondary education part of our public education system. Nicholas Wendler (Green Party): The Green Party platform covers a wide range of issues from affordable housing (for which I would advocate barrier-free design, making it work for people with disabilities and others to live independently to be included in the plan), supporting seniors, Pharma- care for all, dental for low-income Canadians, poverty eradication, to the things that the party is perhaps better known for like our focus on the environment and particularly the issue of climate change. Our plan to reduce greenhouse gases to 60 per cent below 2005 levels includes moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy. We would work toward stopping the sale of the internal combustion engine by 2030, using zero-emission vehicles only. We have a plan to work with farmers, workers in the fossil fuels industry, among others, to decrease emissions and increase quality of living for a longer future of a livable earth. We would support small, local farms, reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers. We would move from a more industrialized farming to regenerative farming allowing farms to be able to sequester carbon rather than emit carbon. We also value fiscal responsibility, planning to balance the budget by 2024. Kevin Klerks (People’s Party of Canada): The People’s Party of Canada wants to lower immigration to sustainable levels and accept a majority of economic immigrants who will help to stabilize and re- grow our economy. We will pay off the deficit in two years by putting an end to corporate bailouts and wasteful foreign aid programs. We will lower personal and corporate taxes and give the GST to provinces to fund their own health care systems. We will give our veterans and armed forces the respect and dignity they deserve and by legislation prove that they will never ask for more than we can give them. We will respect the rights of gun owners and only treat the criminals like criminals. We will repair the bridges between the federal government and the First Nations, guaranteeing equal rights and responsibilities, ending third world conditions in reserves with the higher standards of clean water and safe living conditions expected by all Canadians. The pillars that founded the People’s Party of Canada: individual freedom, respect, fairness and personal responsibility are those fundamental truths that I hold near and dear to my heart. We are the principled alternative. We will bring common sense back to our government and our beautiful strong and free nation of Canada. • With Greta Thunberg’s climate strike growing every week in Canada and around the world, what is your party’s plan to improve Canada’s environmental footprint and ensure a healthy future for the youth of Huron- Bruce and beyond? BL: Canada produces about 1.6 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the emissions of China, India and Russia increased by more than Canada’s entire output. If we want to ensure a healthy future for all Canadians, we need to do more than improve Canada’s environmental footprint – we need to leverage Canada’s strengths to improve the environ- mental footprint of the countries driving climate change today. Taxing our own economy will not do that. It simply gives other countries a competitive advantage against Canada as long as they keep on polluting. We are going to take a different approach. Rather than making life harder for Canadians and hoping it drives people to create fewer greenhouse gas emissions, we’re going to focus on our big emitters. We’re going to impose a hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions, and companies that go over that cap will have to invest in green technologies that are relevant to their industry to bring their emissions down. There’s more to improving Canada’s environmental footprint than just greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why we’re committed to ending the dumping of raw sewage into our waterways. It’s why we’re going to create a nationally- harmonized recycling regime for plastics recycling, and it’s why we’re going to modernize air quality standards and regulations. We’re proud to keep our natural environment clean and green for our children and grandchildren to enjoy. AT: Climate change represents an existential threat and Canadians are taking to the streets to demand stronger action to fight it. The Liberal Party of Canada joined 65 other countries and the European Union in its commitment to get Canada to net-zero emission by 2050 and proposed a plan to seize the economic opportunity for countries that foster technologies that address greenhouse gas emissions. We will set legally-binding, five-year milestones, based on the advice of the experts and consultations with Canadians, to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Net-zero means some sectors could still emit carbon pollution, but these emissions will be offset by other actions – such as planting 2 billion trees over 10 years. We will ensure energy workers and communities can shape their own futures by introducing a Just Transition Act, giving workers access to the training, support, and new opportunities needed to succeed in the future economy. We also propose to cut in half corporate taxes for companies that develop technologies or manufacture products that have zero emissions to make Canada a leader in the $2.5 trillion clean technology market. We will help retrofit 1.5 million homes to help Canadians make their homes more energy efficient, and better protect them from climate- related risks by giving them up to $40,000 interest-free loans. To help people prepare for climate risks: create a low-cost national flood insurance program, work with provinces and territories to complete all flood maps, develop a national action plan to help with potential relocation. And all of the expected $500 million per year earned from Trans-Mountain Expansion Project will be invested in natural climate solutions and clean energy projects. TM: We need to fight the climate crisis like we want to win. I ran federally in 1980 because the NDP was calling for conservation and renewable energy to fight inflation caused by a quadrupling of oil prices following the Arab oil embargo. The Liberals and Conservative used high interest rates to fight that energy price inflation making the rich richer while hurting farmers, small businesses and home mortgage holders. We lost nearly 40 years that we could have been transitioning to a lower energy/renewable energy economy, instead subsidizing big oil companies and buying pipelines while declaring a “climate emergency”. We need to get serious about regeneration, because if we don’t start taking better care of the planet it will stop taking care of us. The NDP’s “New Deal for People” is a comprehensive plan for tackling the climate crisis and caring for the environment while creating 300,000 jobs in new green industries across the country. We propose investing in clean energy projects with a Climate Bank, retrofitting homes across the country, putting more Canadian- made zero-emission vehicles on the road and massive investment in transit. We will keep the carbon tax and remove the exemptions given to big polluters by the Liberals. In the 2008 election, I encouraged the concept of “ride sharing”, something like a co- operative Uber where we could reduce fuel use and increase community. We need to design rural transportation that works. With forest fires and flooding we are already paying a price for climate change. NW: Our plan is comprehensive, including maintaining a carbon fee and dividend plan which we understand will help people start making a shift toward cleaner living such as moving to electric vehicles, but it is not the only thing we can do. We would establish an inner cabinet for dealing with climate change that includes members from all parties, akin to war cabinets of Winston Churchill. We believe a livable planet The big questions Four of the five Huron-Bruce candidates were in Holmesville last week to debate farm-related issues at an all-candidates meeting hosted by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture. The Citizen asked each candidate six questions ahead of the Oct. 21 election, their answers are featured below. (Shawn Loughlin photo) Candidates outline platforms, climate change plans Continued on page 32