Sonia Furstenau says B.C. has a golden opportunity to take ambitious action on climate change as it digs itself out of the economic rubble of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have enormous potential in B.C. to be a world leader in low-carbon solutions,” the Green Party leader said at a campaign news conference Friday, as she delivered her party’s plan to rebuild the economy.
Furstenau said her plan builds on work started under the CleanBC program established by the NDP government with Green Party input, and “ensures our COVID-19 response seizes the opportunities that come from a low-carbon economy.”
The plan sets out some lofty goals, such as committing to be carbon neutral by 2045, setting emission-reduction targets for industry and ending oil and gas subsidies.
The Greens vow to establish a $1-billion investment fund to support business innovation that aligns with the province’s carbon goals, support biofuels and clean hydrogen to replace fossil fuels, and immediately reinstate the carbon tax increase with regular additional increases.
A Green government would make it a requirement that all commercial vehicles sold be zero-emission by 2035, and government agencies would have to shift to zero-emission passenger vehicles by 2030.
Furstenau said the plan would also electrify the transit system and build out the public charging system along the province’s highways, and remove the PST on zero-emission vehicle sales to make them more affordable.
The economic plan says there would be jobs in a cleaner economy, and a Green government would create a transition program for oil and gas workers and establish a clean jobs plan to help recover from COVID-19 by putting people to work restoring B.C.’s natural assets and remediating environmental liabilities.
“We cannot compound one crisis with another,” she said. “While COVID-19 requires an immediate response, we must be making investments that position us to build back a more sustainable economy.”
