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Can British Columbians Cast a Vote for Climate Action This Election?

We looked at the parties’ platforms, records and statements, and asked an expert.

Amanda Follett Hosgood 14 Oct 2024The Tyee

Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter. She lives in Wet’suwet’en territory. Find her on X @amandajfollett.

As voters go to the polls this Saturday, some might be staring at their ballots and wondering how to cast a vote for serious action on climate change.

From the BC NDP’s expansion of LNG and recent change in course on the carbon tax to Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad’s insistence that there is no climate crisis, neither of the two parties currently neck and neck to form the next government appear serious about addressing carbon emissions.

Only the Greens, who are projected to win at least one seat in the Oct. 19 election, have a platform that envisions a “fossil fuel-free future for B.C.”

“We cannot pretend that climate change isn't real. We cannot pretend that climate change is real and the solution is to build more fossil fuel infrastructure,” BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said at last week’s leaders’ debate. “We are the only party that has a serious platform that is costed and that focuses on getting us to a much better place in this province.”

In recent years, B.C. has seen its worst wildfire season in recorded history, atmospheric rivers causing catastrophic flooding, and a heat dome that killed nearly 600 British Columbians. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives puts B.C.’s estimated economic toll from extreme weather events in 2021 at more than $10 billion.

But with the Green Party running just 69 candidates across the province’s 93 ridings, voters in many remote regions — often those most affected by climate disasters — could face a dilemma.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do on election day,” Prince Rupert resident Hondo Arendt recently told The Tyee. “There are a lot of people who don't really support one of the two big parties and end up voting for the least objectionable.”

Arendt has run as the BC Green Party candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii in three previous provincial elections. In a riding affected by pipelines, fish farms, tanker traffic and port expansion, he often took about 10 per cent of the vote. On Haida Gwaii, Arendt said, the Greens picked up close to 25 per cent at some polling stations.

But the riding is among two dozen that don’t have Green Party representation this election, leaving voters in large rural ridings like Peace River North, Peace River South and Cariboo-Chilcotin without an option for sending a strong message on climate action.

An aerial photograph of a house that sits in the centre of a flooded field surrounded by muddy water.
In 2021, an atmospheric river caused catastrophic flooding throughout BC’s Lower Mainland. BC’s costs for climate change events that year are estimated at more than $10 billion. Photo via BC government.

Unpacking the NDP’s stance on climate action

The governing NDP has made some headway on cutting carbon emissions since it was first elected in 2017. But it has also alienated some voters with decisions like promising to abandon B.C.’s carbon tax for “everyday British Columbians.”

The NDP’s platform, which includes a section titled “Reducing Carbon Pollution, Protecting Nature,” promises to put B.C. “on the front lines of climate action” by making it “a clean energy superpower.” The party has budgeted $556 million over the next two years to establishing a “climate-ready economy.”

Some specifics include doubling electricity generation by 2050, capping emissions from the oil and gas sector and directing a portion of fossil fuel industry revenues to a clean economy transition fund.

The party has also promised incentives for home solar panels and retrofits and says it is “moving swiftly to develop new sources of clean energy” like wind, solar and hydrogen.

But voters may also remember that Premier David Eby, shortly before he was acclaimed NDP party leader in 2022, appeared poised to halt oil and gas development, saying, “We cannot continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure and hit our climate goals.”

Eby appeared to change course in an interview with Bloomberg News earlier this year, in which he said the government is in discussions with LNG Canada about how to double the export facility’s capacity while meeting B.C.’s climate goals.

LNG Canada, a consortium led by Shell that includes Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Korea Gas Corp., connects to the recently completed Coastal GasLink pipeline. The facility is expected to begin shipping liquefied natural gas exports to overseas markets next year.

While carbon emissions from exported fossil fuels would not count toward B.C.’s carbon budget, the process of liquefying gas is energy intensive. In order to move ahead, the already permitted LNG Canada expansion would need to be carbon neutral in order to fit within the province’s energy action framework.

That would mean powering the facility with B.C.’s limited hydroelectricity supply.

Based on figures released by the Pembina Institute, it would take about a quarter of the province’s entire electricity supply to power LNG Canada’s second phase. Despite a strong response to B.C.’s call for power earlier this year, the proposals for 9,000 gigawatt hours per year of additional power generation fall significantly short of the 13,000 gigawatt hours per year to power LNG Canada Phase 2.

The Tyee has been requesting an interview with Eby on the topic since July, but the premier has not been made available to discuss LNG expansion in the province.

A very tall light-skinned man holds a microphone while a man with medium-toned skin and other people stand behind him. There are orange political campaign signs behind the two principal figures.
BC NDP Leader David Eby announces in September that his party will reverse course on plans for a carbon tax if the federal government removes its national requirement. Photo for The Tyee by Michelle Gamage.

At recent debates, Eby hasn’t answered questions on the NDP’s climate policy directly. Instead, he’s deflected attention towards Rustad’s climate skepticism.

“I think climate change is real. John Rustad thinks climate science is a ‘hoax,’” Eby said when asked at a recent leaders’ debate about the NDP’s plans to scrap a carbon tax if the federal government removes its national requirement. “Recognizing that climate science is real, that should be a major piece.”

NDP candidate Nathan Cullen, who is running in Bulkley Valley-Stikine, responded similarly when asked how his party would manage the climate crisis.

“The first thing is to acknowledge that there is a crisis,” Cullen said at a debate last week in Smithers. “If we don't elect people that believe in science, how can we possibly expect them to act upon what the science is telling us?”

What we can expect from the Conservatives

In a recent Globe and Mail editorial, the outlet said Rustad had told its editorial board that it was “false” that humans cause climate change.

“It doesn’t matter how much we try to reduce carbon... it is not going to change the weather,” Rustad is reported to have said during the interview.

Rustad also suggested during an interview last month with far-right commentator Jordan Peterson that an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good for the planet.

“How is it that we’ve convinced carbon-based beings that carbon is a problem?” he mused.

While the Conservatives do not directly address climate change on their “platform” web page, which is light on details and doesn’t cost out the party’s promises, they did release a statement last November on climate policy that promised to eliminate CleanBC, the province’s ambitious plan to reduce carbon emissions by 40 per cent over the next five years, and other financial tools such as the carbon tax.

“British Columbians are NOT facing an existential threat from our changing climate. It isn’t a crisis,” the party leader said in the statement. It went on to call for “leadership which believes in the power of building science and technology to adapt and solve problems — as man has always done — rather than a climate doom-cult.”

A section on the party’s “platform” web page mentions food security and nods to “climate-resilient farming practices” and the effects of extreme weather events on agriculture, but does not mention the climate crisis.

Content that previously appeared on the page, but was removed several weeks ago, included plans to “dramatically expand” LNG production, “get pipelines built” and “hold activists accountable” for impeding resource development — an apparent reference to pipeline opposition.

When it comes to meeting the province’s growing energy needs in the northwest, Conservatives have rejected upgrading the power grid by “building costly power lines” in favour of using waste wood and gas to meet the region’s growing energy needs. The party has also suggested lifting a ban on nuclear energy.

Climate is no longer a top-three issue for voters

Kathryn Harrison, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia who studies environmental policy, doesn’t believe there is only one option for those seeking climate action on the ballot this fall.

Harrison pointed to progress under the NDP on things like CleanBC, phasing out the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, tighter regulations on methane emissions and the low-carbon fuel standard, and plans to match California’s emission reduction targets in the transportation sector.

“That's very different than the Conservatives,” Harrison said. “Certainly, the NDP has approved additional LNG terminals, but I think a critical difference is the commitment that any further LNG terminals would have to have net-zero emissions in B.C.”

She agreed that not having a Green Party candidate on some ballots “weakens the threat” to the NDP by removing an option for those seeking a strong voice on climate. But she added that climate change has dropped as a priority for B.C. voters as other challenges take precedence.

While Harrison said voters ranked climate change within their top three concerns five years ago, the Angus Reid Institute currently puts cost of living, health care and housing affordability as voters’ top three concerns. Environment and climate change is ranked seventh.

Bulldozer-mounted cranes lower a large section of pipeline into a trench.
‘We cannot pretend that climate change is real and the solution is to build more fossil fuel infrastructure,’ BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said at a recent debate. While the party is the only one taking a strong stance on LNG expansion, it isn’t running candidates in many ridings. Photo via Coastal GasLink.

Are the Greens a greener pasture?

The BC Greens’ Furstenau points out that the party is running on more than a single issue. Its platform addresses education, housing, free transit and ending poverty — with an overall focus on well-being.

“Greens around the world were the first political movement to say, ‘We should be looking at the evidence on climate and responding appropriately,’” Furstenau said in a recent interview with The Tyee. “But now we look at social issues, we look at growing inequality, we look at the impacts of financialization in the housing market, of privatization and health care.”

Furstenau described the Greens as “the most progressive party right now” and said they saw an influx of donations and volunteers after the NDP announced it would scrap the carbon tax.

The party also draws from across the political spectrum, and Furstenau hopes they will attract former supporters of the BC Liberals, the party that rebranded last year as BC United before party leader Kevin Falcon suspended its campaign.

Hilary Crowley, a Green Party volunteer and former candidate in Prince George, told The Tyee she’s spoken to former Liberal voters feeling alienated by the BC United alliance with the Conservatives who are considering voting Green.

“I was talking to somebody in Valemount last week and she was going to spoil her ballot,” she said, adding that the voter planned to reconsider after learning about the local Green candidate. “The people that voted Liberal, they won't want to vote NDP. The ones that have been burned by Kevin Falcon, they won't want to vote Conservative. I think we should be an obvious choice.”

But voter support for the Greens may be waning. Angus Reid recently reported that more than half the Green Party’s supporters in the last election planned to vote for another party — 22 per cent of them NDP and 30 per cent in support of the Conservatives.

Harrison added that those moving from the Green Party to the Conservatives “are not voters driven by climate concerns.”

She suggested that anyone wanting strong climate action who feels unrepresented on the ballot should meet with local candidates and ask tough questions, such as: What would replace the carbon tax? How will you meet 2030 emissions targets? And, how will you offset emissions from LNG expansion?

“New Democrats have to be worried not just about a threat that the Greens will siphon away their voters, but that their voters would stay home on election day,” Harrison said.


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