Once a sleeper issue confined to the bottom of the ballot in B.C. politics, climate change has roared back onto the political agenda in response to record wildfires, droughts and flooding. Yet discussion of how provincial parties would tackle the climate crisis during an election year has been complicated by a crisis of another kind: Affordability.
While much of the debate has centred around the carbon tax—BC United proposes to pause it, the Conservatives to end it, the NDP to continue scheduled increases and the Greens to dramatically increase the rate—it is but only one component of the NDP government’s CleanBC plan. “Underpinning all of that is our commitment to doing our best to keep life affordable for British Columbians and ensure our economy is healthy,” said Environment Minister George Heyman.
BC Conservative leader John Rustad said the harms caused by the CleanBC plan are too great compared to the impact. His critics say he barely believes in climate change. Any gains to be found in CleanBC are dwarfed by the NDP’s continued approval of massive pollution projects like liquefied natural gas plants, said BC Green leader Sonia Furstenau.
“It’s this technocratic emissions-oriented plan that is really absent two critical things: nature and humans,” she said, calling it short-sighted in the areas of public transit investment, for example.“I think that’s still pretty good,” said Heyman. “We’ve reduced emissions five per cent since 2018, despite significant population growth and economic growth.”