For a fragile minority government that could lose power if next springB次元官网网址檚 budget votes coincide with a bad flu season, the John Horgan B次元官网网址淕reeNDPB次元官网网址� folks certainly have a sweeping vision for your future.
Horgan and B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver rolled up in an electric Kia Soul the other day to announce that British Columbia will allow only zero-emission vehicle sales for its union-made roads B次元官网网址� starting in 2040.
This proclamation came before General Motors used electric drivetrains as a pretext to rationalize its aging North American auto assembly operations by closing five plants. Perhaps our co-premiers will summon GM executives to set up a Volt plant here in carbon-free B.C. by, say, 2030?
The zero-emission car announcement was one of several events that didnB次元官网网址檛 get much attention, what with the Victoria cops visiting the legislature to perp-walk two senior administrators out, without a hint of a charge.
In October we had an announcement about B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Poverty Reduction Strategy, which isnB次元官网网址檛 done yet. The legislation wonB次元官网网址檛 be released until February. What we got were bold targets, a 25 per cent reduction in poverty within five years, 50 per cent for child poverty.
At least Ottawa has finally figured out how to define the B次元官网网址減overty line,B次元官网网址� after many years of public sector unions distorting cost-of-living statistics to paint B.C. in particular as a Third World hellhole.
The Justin Trudeau government needed a definition for its own Poverty Reduction Act, unveiled to national media fanfare in November. ItB次元官网网址檚 nowhere near done. So far itB次元官网网址檚 mostly targets, 20 per cent below 2015 levels by 2020 and 50 per cent by 2030.
You may notice that poverty targets sound like the last two decades of greenhouse gas targets, which have an unbroken record of failure not only in B.C. and Canada, but around the world.
And yes, the GreeNDP have new climate targets. They accepted that the bad old governmentB次元官网网址檚 2020 target wonB次元官网网址檛 be met, and they have a new one for 2030. IB次元官网网址檒l spare you the numbers, but itB次元官网网址檚 big, itB次元官网网址檚 bold and itB次元官网网址檚 off in the future. A new LNG-friendly B.C. Climate Action Strategy is imminent as well, or at least the announcement is.
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Horgan and Weaver inherited the highest carbon tax in North America, imposed during the now-ritually invoked 16 years of B.C. Liberal neglect. Finance Minister Carole James led an B次元官网网址渁xe the gas taxB次元官网网址� campaign in the 2009 election, but now the planetB次元官网网址檚 future depends on her devotion to B次元官网网址渇ightingB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址渃arbon pollutionB次元官网网址� with ever-increasing taxes diverted to things like giving away electricity for cars.
HorganB次元官网网址檚 latest proclamation, announced to hundreds of Indigenous leaders at their annual meeting with cabinet ministers in Vancouver, is that B.C. is about to be the first jurisdiction in North America to embrace the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. ThatB次元官网网址檚 the one that guarantees B次元官网网址渇ree, prior and informed consentB次元官网网址� for any development affecting aboriginal territory, something politicians keep assuring us is not a veto.
And of course itB次元官网网址檚 nowhere near done, either in Ottawa or Victoria. Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould gave a speech to the same B次元官网网址渁ll chiefsB次元官网网址� gathering in Vancouver two years ago, explaining this UN deal canB次元官网网址檛 simply be imposed on Canadian law.
SheB次元官网网址檚 a lawyer and member of the Kwagiulth people of the B.C. coast. Her father Hemas Kla-Lee-Lee-Kla (Bill Wilson) was one of the architects of aboriginal rights in CanadaB次元官网网址檚 Constitution Act of 1982.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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