Green Party of Canada Platform: 4.5 A fair deal for youth

A continuing review of  the Green Party of Canada’s Platform:

4.5 A fair deal for youth

A Nation-wide Employment and Education Initiative For Youth 18 -25.

Economic recessions – especially severe ones like the recession of 2009 -are especially challenging for youth at the beginning of their work careers or in post-secondary studies. They are vulnerable to economic and social dislocation because they lack the skills to compete strongly for scarce new jobs and yet cannot gain these skills without a job. They are in a Catch-22. That is why their unemployment and underemployment numbers often rise the fastest and ultimately go the highest among all demographic groups during economic downturns. To compound their predicament, they often have difficulty paying for rapidly rising post-secondary education tuition because they cannot save up at least some money from summer jobs or find part-time work during the academic year.

The long-term economic and social implications of a growing group of economically disconnected and socially alienated youth is very serious and very costly – in Europe they are called the “NEET” group (Not in Employment, Education or Training). Canada is headed in a similar direction if the economic recovery is slow – as many are now predicting. We absolutely need to be decisive – and not reactive in three or four years – in addressing this emerging youth unemployment/under-employment and education affordability situation while the cost of intervention is in relative terms still low.

Green Party MPs will:

• Develop a Youth Community and Environment Service Corps that will provide federal minimum wage employment for 40,000 youth aged 18 – 25 every year for four years for a total of 160,000 youth positions. At the successful completion of each year-long program, there will be a $4,000 tuition credit awarded to each participant that can be applied to further education and training. Youth Service teams will vary in size depending on the projects undertaken, and will be given opportunities for career counseling and employment skills training during the course of the program.
• Ensure Youth Community and Environmental Service Corps projects are developed in partnership with municipalities and based on local priorities. They can include numerous measures to minimize damage and injury from future climate change impacts, many different types of environmental protection & rehabilitation work, specially-focused teams that provide social stimulation to institutionalized elderly through arts and music, assistance to low income households for energy efficiency upgrades, recreation programs for children at risk, capacity building for local food systems, etc.

This initiative will employ 160,000 youth over its 4-year life and is budgeted at $1.25 billion dollars a year for a combined total of $5 billion.

Comments and discussion are welcomed.  I am examining this as I go to gain a better grasp of their platform and invite all who are interested to do the same with comments and discussion.

Green Party of Canada Platform: 4.4 Seniors

A continuing review of  the Green Party of Canada’s Platform:

4.4 Seniors

Canada is an aging society. Baby boomers are now swelling the ranks of the senior population that is growing in both number and as a proportion of Canada’s total population. Canada’s seniors are also a diverse population, with varying levels of activity and health, living in urban, rural, and First Nations communities. The majority of these older Canadians are women.

It is true that seniors use a disproportionate amount of health care dollars. Life expectancy is increasing and chronic diseases increase with age. Within 25 years, the number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia could reach 1.3 million and will have the highest economic, social and health costs of all diseases in Canada. Although many anticipate that this will precipitate a crisis for health care and social services, the Green challenge and opportunity is to provide our seniors with independence, well-being and dignity.

Seniors have a wealth of experience and have contributed immeasurably to the development of the nation we currently celebrate. Seniors are a resource who can contribute to the economic and social life of their communities and country.

Older Canadians are also a vital and vibrant population, embracing healthy life-style choices and an active retirement. Many social policies impact the ability of aging boomers to stay active. Access to preventative and complimentary medicine (see Health care section); access to convenient mass transit as driving may be limited (see climate policy); safe communities (see restorative justice), secure pensions and fairer taxes are all significant Green party policies with real benefits for older Canadians.

Recent debates about pension reform have pitted the Harper government, with its refusal to enhance CPP, against many premiers and Opposition parties. Pension reforms must be built upon the system that will best create decent pensions that will keep the elderly out of poverty, require minimum additional contributions and have low administrative and investment costs.

The only system that is capable of meeting these goals is the CPP – a proven system that is the envy of many countries. Its systems can be modified to offer enhanced benefits. Everyone is familiar with the CPP, which is in sound financial health with the latest actuarial report noting that it is sound for at least the next 70 years.

Approximately 35% of older citizens are still dependent upon Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) to keep them out of poverty. This is partly because current the CPP objective of just replacing 25% of the average industrial wage is too low. A 50% income replacement ratio would dramatically reduce the reliance on GIS to keep the elderly out of poverty and reduce the cost of GIS to the federal government by billions annually.

The Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) should be raised to at least $90,000 and consideration given to raising it to the full ITA limit for Registered Pension Plans (RPP) of ($122,222 in 2009) pending an evaluation/review in a decade.

Subject to an actuarial evaluation, it is expected that these benefits could be achieved with a phased-in increase of CPP contribution rates, although not through increased contributions by employers or deductions from employee wages. Some of the increase could be covered by redirected reductions in workplace pensions for those with workplace pensions. Redirected GIS savings could be used to offset some of the required contribution increase.

An honest evaluation of the effectiveness of current tax policy will illustrate how inefficient it is for most retirement savings. Net federal RPP’s tax expenditures (concessions) were worth $17.6 and $11.3 billion in 2007 and 2009. RRSP’s cost $12.1 and $8.5 billion in the same years. The loss of provincial revenues adds another 35-40%.

Defined Benefit (DB) plans are much more efficient than Defined Contribution (DC) plans in that they produce significantly higher pensions for the same contributions, yet DC plans get the same tax support.

RRSP’s are terribly tax inefficient in that for the $8.5 – $12.1 billion in annual net tax expenditures (around 30% of total contributions), the median value of RRSP assets by Canadians under age 65 is a woeful $40,000 and those over 65 have less than $55,000 – not enough to rely on to supplement to one’s pension, especially at today’s annuity rates. Only 25% of working Canadians contribute to RRSP’s, only 6% with incomes under $20,000. Prorating tax expenditures to the value of projected pension would bring fairness and equity back into the system.

Phasing in the doubling the target income replacement rate to 50% and the doubling the YMPE over the next 47 years is the most efficient way to ensure that future retirees will be able to retire with dignity without intergenerational subsidies.

Green Party policies will create age-friendly communities, where active living and well-being are promoted, where seniors have financial security, and where housing and transportation needs are met. In accordance with a Canadian Senate report in April 2009, the Green Party recognizes the need for improved support for mental health, and palliative care, and the need to combat ageism, abuse and neglect.

Long-term care should not be the only housing and care choice. In a Balance of Care model, more care can be provided in a cost-effective manner by home and community support services.

We believe that the government must take the lead in educating the public about end of life issues, including the limits to artificial life support systems, surgical operations and chemical therapies to extend life and postpone the inevitable transition from life.

Green Party MPs will:

• Review workplace policies to end mandatory retirement and provide for flexible retirement benefits for those seniors who want to continue working.

• Review federal and provincial laws regulating the administration of pension plans, laws which now allow failure of pension trusts, and the loss of pension benefits which workers have earned, with the view to enacting legislation to protect the pension benefits and recommend that the provincial governments prohibit any business from taking possession of a pension trust fund which it administers, or the earnings thereof.

• Develop, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, a set of national home care objectives in a National Home Care Policy, that incorporates and improves upon existing policies affecting eldercare, including but not restricted to ensuring couples needing support and care can continue to live together, economic allowances (such as tax rebates), living choices, transportation, and respite care.

• Require that all corporate pension plans be audited to ensure that they are adequately funded and properly managed and set a policy directive to take corrective action when they are not.

• Work to enhance CPP by phasing in the doubling of the target income replacement rate from 25% to 50% of income received during working years.

• Ensure all seniors who qualify are made aware of available federal income supplements and instructed on how to apply for them.

• Review, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, the current social and legal policies to ensure that citizens and law enforcement officials recognize elder abuse, prevent it where possible, and proceed with appropriate charges and consequences when elder abuse has occurred.

• Help develop national guidelines for care of the frail elderly who have special needs and require care by geriatric specialists.

• Establish and fund a special program to provide grants to non-profit societies setting up palliative care hospices.

• Guarantee the right to draw up a “living will” that gives the power to limit or refuse medical intervention and treatment so the person has the choice of dying with dignity.

 

Comments and discussion are welcomed.  I am examining this as I go to gain a better grasp of their platform and invite all who are interested to do the same with comments and discussion.

 

An Article From David Suzuki: Bean leaves, bedbugs and biomimicry

I received this enlightening article by email from the David Suzuki Foundation to share:

Scientists often come up with new discoveries, technologies or theories.    But sometimes they rediscover what our ancestors already knew.    A couple of recent findings show we have a lot to learn from our forebears – and nature – about bugs.   Modern methods of controlling pests have consisted mainly of poisoning them with chemicals.    But that’s led to problems.    Pesticides kill far more than the bugs they target, and pollute air, water and soil.    As we learned with the widespread use of DDT to control agricultural pests and mosquitoes, chemicals can bioaccumulate, meaning molecules may concentrate hundreds of thousands of times up the  food   web – eventually reaching people.   As Rachel Carson wrote in her 1962 book Silent Spring, using DDT widely without knowing the full consequences was folly.    She showed it was polluting water and killing wildlife, especially birds, and that it could cause cancer in humans.    Her book launched the environmental movement but did little to change our overall strategy for dealing with bugs.    Although DDT was banned worldwide for agricultural purposes in 2001, the chemical is still used to control insects that spread disease.   Recent research shows that widespread use of pesticides like DDT may have caused us to ignore or forget benign methods of pest control.    Because the chemicals were so effective, infestations were reduced and there was little interest in non-toxic methods.    But bugs evolve quickly and can become immune to pesticides.    That’s true of bedbugs, the now ubiquitous critters that are showing up around the world in homes, hotels, schools, movie theatres – even libraries.   But a method used long ago provides an effective and non-toxic weapon against the pests, according to a U.S.    study in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.    The authors looked into the once-common Eastern European practice of spreading bean leaves around a bed to control bedbugs.    What they found was fascinating.   “During the night, bed bugs walking on the floor would accumulate on these bean leaves, which were collected and burned the following morning to exterminate the bed bugs.    The entrapment of bed bugs by the bean leaves was attributed to the action of microscopic plant hairs (trichomes) on the leaf surfaces that would entangle the legs of the bed bugs,” the scientists, from the University of California, Irvine, and University of Kentucky, wrote.   They discovered that after bugs get caught up in the hooked plant hairs, they struggle to escape, and in the process vulnerable parts of their feet are pierced by the hooks, permanently trapping them.    The research focuses on a way to replicate this.     “This physical entrapment is a source of inspiration in the development of new and sustainable methods to control the burgeoning numbers of bed bugs,” the researchers wrote, adding that the method “would avoid the problem of pesticide resistance that has been documented     extensively for this insect.”   Other research has literally dug up pest control methods that go back millennia.    An international team of archeologists recently found evidence that people living in South Africa almost 80,000 years ago made bedding out of insect-repelling plants.   According to the journal Science, the research team found 15 different layers containing bedding made from  compacted stems and leaves of sedges and rushes, dating between 77,000 and 38,000 years ago.    One layer of leaves was identified as River Wild-quince, which contains “chemicals that are insecticidal, and would be suitable for repelling mosquitoes.” The archeologists also found evidence that people often burned the bedding after use, possibly to remove pests.   These are just two examples of what we can learn from our ancestors and from nature.    Because natural systems tend toward balance, the fascinating field of biomimicry has developed to explore what nature can teach us.    It’s aimed at finding “sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies,” according to the Biomimicry Guild website.     “The goal is to create products, processes, and policies – new ways of living – that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.”   Maybe the truest sign of human intelligence is not to learn how we can shoehorn nature into our own agenda, but  to    see how we can better find our own place in nature.

Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Manager Ian Hanington.

Green Party of Canada Platform: 4.2 Relief for the middle class, 4.3 Child care

A continuing review of  the Green Party of Canada’s Platform:

4.2 Relief for the middle class

A healthy democracy requires a large, strong, healthy middle class. The well-being of Canada’s middle class is threatened as the gap between the rich and the poor widens and middle class families find it harder to meet all their needs, in terms of both money and time.

We believe one way to provide relief for Canada’s middle class is through revamping our tax system to enable income splitting within families, and thus a joint calculation of income that will reduce taxes. Approximately 18.7 million Canadians live in families with two or more income earners. Households where one partner is in a higher tax bracket than the other will end up paying less tax when they are allowed to split income on their tax returns. So far the government has only allowed the splitting of pension income, not total income, between senior couples and those caring for a child with a disability. The public groundswell of support for allowing income splitting of all incomes by all couples is growing.

While income splitting does not benefit low-income families or families where income earners earn about the same amount, failure to solve all problems through one measure is not a good reason to fail to solve many problems. Those not helped by the income-splitting move will be helped through targeted programs to assist low-income families.

A major misconception about this measure is that it will increase pressure on women to stay at home to raise their children. Greens believe women’s place in the workforce is now well-entrenched. Women’s rights to make choices about “time-out” in their careers or to stay in the workplace with children must be respected. Income splitting creates more choice. It will allow one spouse the option to take care of an ill or infirm parent or family member, or to take a lower paying job in charitable or NGO work. It will allow one spouse to work from home in growing a garden, in developing artistic talents, in writing for what is often perilously low income. The argument that income splitting will be a socially regressive measure is an important consideration and can be met with programs to ensure women who wish to maintain an unbroken career path after having children, or who wish to return to the workforce after the early years at home, are supported in doing so. Because parents should be able to choose to stay at home with young children, or equally, be supported through high-quality child care if they wish to remain in the workforce, we advocate a range of programs. There is no cookie-cutter, one size fits all, solution for Canadian families. What matters is that programs support choice and the well-being of that which is most precious – our families and children.

Income splitting, with an economic “hit” estimated to be from $3 to 5 billion, will be made possible through revenues from taxing pollution.

Green Party MPs will:

• Modify the Income Tax Act to enable income splitting, which offers tax benefits particularly to middle income couples where there is a significant differential in the level of income between partners.
• Reduce income taxes through revenue neutral tax shifting made possible through the carbon tax.

4.3 Child care

Canadian families need access to affordable, high-quality child care as an aspect of early childhood education. There are also clear benefits to maximizing time together for parents with young children. Canadians want a program with flexibility. A cheque for $100/month does not begin to address these needs.

The Greens are committed to a high-quality federally-funded child care program in Canada, accessible to any family that wants to place children into early childhood education. Workplace child care has been shown to improve productivity, decrease employee absenteeism, ensure quality care for children (because parents can “drop in” at any time to see their young children), and permits longer breast-feeding of infants. Work-place child care spaces create other benefits, recognizing the emerging literature that children benefit enormously from time with their mothers, especially when very young.

The beneficent spiral of providing workplace child care also includes making it easier for many working Canadians to use mass transit. When parents and children travel to the same destination, the trip can often be made in less time on public transit, enabling parents to spend more time with children.

Green Party MPs will:

• Restore and revamp the 2005 agreement reached between the federal government, provinces and territories to achieve a universal access child care program in Canada.

• Create a national Children’s Commissioner, as recommended by UNICEF, to ensure children’s best interests are considered in policy development and that services across the country are better coordinated.

• Specifically ensure that Canada’s universal child care program provides workplace child care spaces wherever possible.

• Tax shift to make advertising directed at children ineligible for corporate tax write-offs.

• Accelerate the creation of workplace child care spaces through a direct tax credit to employers (or groups of employers in small businesses) of $1500 tax credit/child per year.

• Value the decisions of parents who choose to stay home with children.

• Promote and facilitate access to the Roots of Empathy Program, an effective, award-winning program developed by a non-profit educational organization, to all Canadian children at some point in their elementary school years.

Comments and discussion are welcomed.  I am examining this as I go to gain a better grasp of their platform and invite all who are interested to do the same with comments and discussion.

Let’s Stand Up for BC’s Provincial Parks!

A great opportunity from the Wilderness Committee to read a new report and write a letter on behalf of our Provincial Parks:

Hi Eldy,

Are you  heading out into the great outdoors this May long weekend? I’m excited to  be visiting the South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area to enjoy the beautiful  scenery, and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to see some rare birds like the sage  thrasher or grasshopper sparrow.

If you do  get out to explore this weekend, chances are you will be visiting one of Canada’s  magnificent provincial or national parks or protected areas.

Canadians  love nature, and here in BC, we are very lucky that our parks protect some of  the best of the province. Whether you want to hike old-growth trails, visit an  awe-inspiring waterfall or simply sit on the beach and reconnect with the wild  – you can do it all in a provincial park.

Unfortunately, right now our incredible  BC parks are in trouble. A decade of neglect has seen parks close, trails fall into disrepair,  visits decline and park rangers become an endangered species. In fact, the BC  Auditor General found that the provincial government was “not  meeting its goal” to conserve the ecological integrity of our protected  area system.

We can  change this.

The  Wilderness Committee has just produced a new educational report on BC’s provincial  parks, which you can read here. With this report you can learn about  the challenges our parks face and the simple solutions that can help repair our  park system.

As many  of you know, Tuesday night BC re-elected a Liberal government. As they head into their next  four-year mandate, let’s make sure they make our parks a priority.

The good  news is that surveys show 95% of British Columbians believe provincial parks  are “important” or “very important.” So when you stand up for BC’s parks, you’re in good company. Over the past decade, people speaking up for parks have  kept private for-profit resorts out of our protected areas, and were  responsible for removing the wildly unpopular – and money-losing – parking  meters. We can do the same for increasing BC Parks’ impoverished operational  budget.

We know  our parks are worth protecting. Please join me in taking five minutes to let BC’s  returning Premier Christy Clark know how much you value our parks and want them  properly funded and protected.

Click here to visit our website  and write a letter now!

Gwen Barlee | Policy Director Wilderness Committee

Thank you for supporting wilderness.

The Wilderness Committee is Canada’s largest membership-based,  citizen-funded wilderness preservation organization.

Green Party of Canada Platform: Part 4: People, 4.1 Family-focused program

A continuing review of  the Green Party of Canada’s Platform:

Part 4: People

Once we envision the society we want, we clearly see its outlines.

Vibrant communities are places where, as Jane Jacobs described, people know their neighbours, streets are safe and friendly, and volunteering for the public good is common, leading to feelings of affiliation, belonging, and empowerment.

Without intending to do so, government policy, by treating such goals as peripheral to economic growth, has allowed feelings of alienation, hostility, and selfishness to crowd out shared values of decades ago.

As Martin Luther King Jr. noted, you cannot legislate morality. Nevertheless, when the human scale of government policy is ignored, when the tax system, employment strategies, and labour policies all mitigate towards less leisure and family time, more time in long commutes, and an increasingly “time-stressed” population, as measured by Statistics Canada, government policy should adjust its goals to re-balance and protect these fundamental pillars of our civilization – family and community.

In the last few years, quality of life, as measured in our ability to get ahead and enjoy more leisure time, has declined for 90 % of Canadians. Homelessness, and mental health and drug addiction problems, have increased. The cost of post-secondary education and training has sky-rocketed. The gap between rich and poor in Canada has widened. Women, on average, still earn far less than men. The middle class is struggling. Given the wealth and resources of our country, this is tragic.

4.1 Family-focused program

Increasingly, national and international studies document significant stress on Canadian children and their parents. While it is true that an unacceptably large number of Canadian families live in poverty, many more are suffering from “time poverty.” Statistics Canada tracks time stress of Canadians and reports a steady increase in Canadians who report not having enough time in their lives to accomplish all required tasks. Longer commutes rob Canadians of time at home. Longer working hours rob community members of time for volunteer activities. Poorly planned transit and the lack of convenient workplace child care spaces rob parents of time with their kids.

There is a real cost to society as citizens have less and less time to contribute to community and school activities. Not surprisingly, Statistics Canada also reports a steady decline in volunteer hours donated by Canadians. Lack of time to contribute to community also leads to feelings of loss and alienation. On the other hand, time spent in effort to better our society leads to positive feelings of affiliation (belonging) and of empowerment (knowing one’s actions make a difference.) Greens will address this multi-layered problem in many policies: fiscal, labour and social programs.

The tax policy of a Green Government will increase the opportunity for Canadians to spend more time with family. More and more adults with full-time employment outside the home are stressed and stretched to care for elderly parents, children, partners or spouses with debilitating illness, and any family members with disabilities. Families deserve the option of having one partner work from home, maintaining a family garden, pursuing a career in the arts where steady paid work is hard to secure, or for any number of reasons.

The Greens are committed to nurturing families and communities through integrated policies that focus on the welfare of the child, starting with prenatal nutrition all the way to affordable housing and accessible post-secondary education. We believe we must stop designing our communities around the car and start designing them around families and children. There are no easy solutions. We have to address the multi-layered problems facing families through new, innovative fiscal, labour, and social policies.

Green Party MPs will:

• Urge reforms to our tax and labour policies in ways that will increase the opportunity for Canadians to spend more time with family.

• Promote an integrated program of supports, tax cuts, and awareness-raising emphasizing that time spent with children and/or in the community is essential for the continuation of our society.

Comments and discussion are welcomed.  I am examining this as I go to gain a better grasp of their platform and invite all who are interested to do the same with comments and discussion.

100 Day Challenge from Forest Ethics

This news in from Forest Ethics to share:

Eldy,

Today British Columbians woke up to a re-elected Liberal provincial government. Will they make completing the Great Bear Rainforest conservation and human well-being agreements a priority? Let’s make it so.  Every government identifies a few priorities for its first 100 days of their term. Today we’re launching the 100 Day Challenge to the newly elected government to tell them they need to complete the final conservation step in the Great Bear Rainforest this fall.

The 100 Day Challenge for the Great Bear Rainforest is on. Add your voice to the challenge now!    Together, you and I need to let them know, loud and clear, that protecting the Great Bear Rainforest – its Spirit Bears, its Tailed frogs, its Northern Goshawks and Marbled Murrelets; its Grizzlies, black bears and wolves; its salmon and its magnificent trees – is their new job. This must be one of their top priorities.    We have waited long enough! Sign the petition letting the government know they need to show fast and strong leadership to safeguard the amazing Great Bear Rainforest. We will amplify your signature into a big resounding call to do right by the forests of the Great Bear. We will hand-deliver the petition to BC’s government and we’ll sit down with its members to get this agreement finished – for the good of our wild forests and for all of us.

Thanks,

Valerie Langer                                             Director of BC Forest Campaigns,                                             ForestEthics Solutions

P.S. Already signed the petition? Thanks! Now join us on Facebook to tell the world what you do and don’t love… the ForestEthics staff has started quite a creative meme to get our message to the new government and we need your help to spread the word!

Help Metro Vancouver Stand Up Against Big Coal!

here is another letter writing opportunity rom the Wilderness Committee that can make a difference:

Hi Eldy,

Back in November 2012, we told you about the risk that Greater Vancouver could become the biggest coal exporter in North America. In the United States, Big Coal has continued to push hard to get its   dirty products over the border to BC, because they know we don’t have the   same legal protections for the environment as our neighbours to the south  in Washington State.

New proposals for coal export expansions in the Metro Vancouver   region have raised serious concerns about climate change and local   health impacts. Right now we have the chance to speak up about   one coal shipping proposal that is not yet approved, and to show our   support for a Metro Vancouver committee that’s trying to stop it.

The proposed Fraser Surrey Docks Direct Coal Transfer Facility, if   approved, would handle up to 4 million tonnes (Mt) of coal per year,   with the potential to increase to 8 Mt per year. Combined with the   region’s existing port capacity, this expansion would boost Metro   Vancouver’s coal exports up to a potential 59 million tonnes per year.   That’s enough coal to fill 650,000 rail cars – enough to build a train   that would stretch all the way from Vancouver to St. John’s,   Newfoundland, and then back to Toronto!

The port authority recently approved a controversial proposal to expand coal shipping from North Vancouver’s Neptune Bulk Terminals, so it’s even more critical that we take action now to halt the application from Fraser Surrey Docks.

Thankfully, the Environment and Parks Committee of Metro Vancouver   has recently approved a recommendation that proves it has been listening   to the concerns of citizens in the Lower Mainland. The Committee has   recommended that the Board of Metro Vancouver write to the port   authority and declare its opposition to the Fraser Surrey Docks   proposal. However, the Committee needs as much support as it can possibly get in order for the Board to follow this recommendation.

That’s why we’re asking you to please WRITE NOW and send a   letter to the Board of Metro Vancouver, urging them to FOLLOW this   recommendation and formally oppose the expansion at the Fraser Surrey   Docks.

We are quickly running out of time to halt the onslaught of the full   effects of climate change; this week, scientists revealed that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million (ppm), the highest concentration of global warming greenhouse gas that has occurred in human history. Now it’s time  to send a clear message that it is   not in any of our interests to continue to extract, ship and burn coal –   the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.

Please help spread the word, and insist that the Board of Metro   Vancouver do the right thing – for the health of our local communities,   and for the global climate – by stopping the increase in coal exports   from BC’s coast!

The Board of Metro Vancouver is meeting to discuss this motion on THURSDAY, MAY 16 – so please click here and write your letter now!

Cheers,

Eoin Madden | Climate Change Campaigner Wilderness Committee

Thank you for supporting wilderness.

The Wilderness Committee is Canada’s largest membership-based,  citizen-funded wilderness preservation organization.

I’ve headed on over to sign a letter!

Green Party of Canada Platform: 3.11 Arctic strategy, 3.12 Measuring and protecting Canada’s natural accounts

A continuing review of  the Green Party of Canada’s Platform:

3.11 Arctic strategy

The Canadian Arctic is a stunningly beautiful environment. It has been the home of Inuit and northern First Nations peoples since time immemorial. And this highly sensitive region is now on the front line of climate change.

Reports from scientists and elders indicate that the Arctic will be free of summer sea ice within the next several years. This is a profound change that will impact not only the Arctic, but the entire planet. What happens in the Arctic, doesn’t stay in the Arctic.

The North is already experiencing high levels of development pressure from oil, gas and mining; these are expected to increase as the ice melts, with additional pressures arising from commercial shipping, fishing, and tourism. One can argue whether the development has more positive or negative effects, but there is no doubt that the impacts threaten to irreversibly change the northern environment and the unique way of life enjoyed by indigenous and northern peoples.

In recent years, we have also experienced pressure on our Arctic sovereignty. The offshore boundary between the Yukon and Alaska remains in dispute. Several nations claim that the Northwest Passage through our Arctic archipelago is an international waterway.

While the Arctic continues to melt, the United States Geological Survey has released a detailed study estimating that the Arctic holds approximately one-quarter of the world’s oil and gas reserves. These factors have effectively created a land rush by those nations wanting to lay claim to parts of the Arctic. The North has now become politically significant on a global scale.

40% of Canada’s land mass and much of its identity lies in the North. Rapid change is now inevitable. And it is a dark irony that the global use of oil and gas is melting out the Arctic, which in turn is providing access to the last great storehouse of oil and gas. We need to move quickly beyond the issue of sovereignty for its own sake, and chart a path forward that will sustain us through and beyond the challenges ahead.

The Green Party is committed to working with Northerners as the North realizes its true potential as a healthy and prosperous region within a strong and sovereign Canada. Decision making and action must build on the northern tradition of respect for the land and on the principles of responsible and sustainable development. And it is time we honour the intent of our Land Claims Agreements (see Section 4.9.5 on Aboriginal policy).

There is a clear rationale for Canada to claim as much of the sub-sea Arctic territory as possible. However, it is critical, at the same time, for the Canadian government (in close partnership with northern peoples) to establish a vision for how the Arctic will develop and how it will be protected. This vision should build upon the federal government’s Northern Strategy in close collaboration with the three northern territories. Through the Arctic Council, we should seek to extend this vision throughout the Circumpolar North.

Green Party MPs will:

• Recognize and respect that our Arctic sovereignty is already established through the presence of Canadians in the North, including the continuous use and occupation of Arctic lands and waters by indigenous peoples.
• Reinforce Canada’s Arctic sovereignty through community infrastructure development, regional sustainability projects, northern research, northern culture, and other regional socio-economic activities rather than through military presence.
• Honour the spirit and intent of Land Claims Agreements, and uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Expand funding for Arctic research, including support for and recognition of traditional knowledge, particularly critical in light of the increasing climate change threat.
• Improve and increase monitoring of indigenous food (e.g. caribou, salmon, etc.) to ensure Inuit and First Nations, particularly pregnant women and nursing mothers, are not being over-exposed to persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals that build up through the global food chain and pool at high levels in the Arctic. Work to develop collaborative community based education programs to promote the consumption of food with less toxicity.
• Invest in renewable local energy sources to avoid the dependency on very expensive and polluting imported diesel.
• Support training and equipping the Canadian Rangers, many of whom are Inuit and First Nations people who live in the North and are experienced survival experts on land and sea, to comprise the backbone of emergency support throughout the Arctic.
• Commission a major class of icebreaker, capable of rescue work with any likely depth of ice.
• Develop a comprehensive pan-Arctic waste management strategy that addresses issues like dumping of wastes into water and open dump burning on land, and that integrates community, mining, fishing, tourism, shipping and military waste management strategies.
• Establish, with the partnership of indigenous peoples, protected areas – terrestrial, marine, and ice – in an ecologically- representative network in the three northern Territories.
• Restore the post of Ambassador to the Circumpolar North.
• Extend Canada’s sovereignty of Arctic sub-sea resources through a submission to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Engage Canadians in an open discussion to create a development/protection plan for any new sub-sea territory and include in that discussion northern voices.
• Advocate for the Arctic Council to be the primary forum for the diplomatic resolution of Arctic territorial disputes and the negotiation of multilateral treaties, thus allowing for the formal participation of territorial and indigenous leaders.
• Seek a constructive multilateral Arctic maritime treaty, negotiated through the Arctic Council, to regulate all maritime activity in the Arctic, with the exception of traditional Aboriginal activity, such that the health and well-being of the Arctic ecosystem and its northern inhabitants are safeguarded.
• Promote the creation of an internationally- recognized Arctic Protected Zone where no mineral exploration will be permitted by any country, similar to the internationally- recognized Antarctic Protected Area.

3.12 Measuring and protecting Canada’s natural accounts

The Greens support extending Canada’s existing system of national accounts to include measures of annual changes in the depletion of and addition to Canada’s principal biological resources. Wild fish, natural forests and productive agricultural soils represent some of the real wealth of a nation. It is felt that as depletion or addition to fish, trees and soils takes place, these should be reflected in measures of Canada’s worth.

A serious analysis must be made of the economic costs/values/benefits of key ecological functions. This will allow better public policies and more comprehensive statements about the true economic value of biodiversity as a whole.

Purely economic measurements – such as GDP – ignore key factors underpinning well-being. The Green Party believes that the application of an evaluation method that seeks to account for key social, environmental, and long-term economic features in different parts of the country and local communities could provide new insights and rationales for the conservation of local and regional biodiversity. These tools stand to play a key role in making citizens aware of the attributes of strong biodiversity, and help achieve the intent of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The Greens will continue to support ‘quality of life’ evaluation methods such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) as a means to improve quality of life and protect biodiversity. The Green Party will also support research into the economics of protecting biodiversity and the development of fiscal tools to limit the negative impact of human activity on the Ecosphere. Eliminating capital gains on donations of ecologically significant land and more appropriate land-use taxes are key measures to limit demand-side pressures on biodiversity (see Part 1: The Green Economy).

Comments and discussion are welcomed.  I am examining this as I go to gain a better grasp of their platform and invite all who are interested to do the same with comments and discussion.

Green Party of Canada Platform: 3.10 Animal welfare

A continuing review of  the Green Party of Canada’s Platform:

3.10 Animal welfare

While everyone is against cruelty to animals, factory farming has been allowed to create systematic and routine cruelty to livestock production. Chickens are packed tightly in cages their whole lives, cattle crowd in feedlots, and pigs are kept indoors in cages on slatted metal floors all their lives. Most people believe that animals, including domesticated animals, have the right to be treated humanely. The current federal laws protect animals from cruelty under the Criminal Code, but animals fall into the property section. Thus, cruelty to animal offences are among the very few offences that can only be convicted as summary convictions (minor offences, with limited penalties). As well, the Criminal Code uses the term ‘willful intent’, making it very hard to prove a person has violated the code.

We believe that animals should be treated humanely and with respect at all times. Farming practices must allow animals to live without undue stress and in conditions where they are able to exercise normal behaviours. Many animals that live in intensive farming systems show signs of stress such as stereotypes (repetitive behaviours with no purpose) and aggression. Some animals, such as chicken breeder broilers and sows (mothers of pigs used for meat), are kept in a state of starvation in order to keep them at healthy weight, despite their bred-in genetic predisposition to gain weight. Mortalities, disease and injuries from long transport are a common occurrence, since abattoirs are often long distances from farms.

Green Party MPs will:

• Adopt animal welfare legislation to prevent inhumane treatment of farm animals including intensive factory farming methods. The Act will set minimum standards of treatment and have a timetable for the phase-out of intensive factory farming and other inhumane animal husbandry practices. It will set standards for distances live animals can be transported, conditions of animals in slaughterhouses, auctions, and entertainment, and it will prohibit trade in exotic animals.

• Update Canada’s criminal code as it pertains to animal protection, moving crimes against animals from the property section, and recognizing animals as sentient beings.

• Invest resources in the development and training of police officers to deal with cruelty cases.

• Establish a Parliamentary Committee on Animal Welfare tasked with examining legislation affecting animal concerns and dealing with the animal welfare community, creating a setting in parliament where animal welfare issues can be properly researched and debated and recommendations made as required.

• Work to improve conditions for animals during transport.

• Sponsor legislation that:

  • Makes the acts of cruelty to animals an offence under the criminal code instead of a property offence.

  • Clearly defines an animal as ‘a vertebrate other than a human being’.

  • Changes the term ‘willful neglect’ of animals used in the current legislation to simply ‘neglect’ with the term ‘neglect’ being defined as ‘departing markedly from the standard of care that a reasonable person would use’ so as to make convictions under the Act more achievable.

  • Makes it an offence to kill any animal without a lawful reason.

  • Makes it an offence to train an animal to fight and receive money for animal fighting and training, and prohibit all spectacles, animal shows and presentations that involve injuring, baiting, fighting, intimidation, harassment, causing fear and/or other negative actions that are potentially harmful to the animals involved; including bullfights, cock fights, and dog fights.

  • Bans the use of animals as experimental objects in military research and cosmetic testing.

  • Bans importing animals for zoos, except where importing will assist the overall conservation of that species.

  • Prohibits the use of wild animals in circuses, novelty acts, travelling shows and other temporary spectacles.

  • Requires all zoos to be licensed, to operate at a professional standard, be subject to strict animal welfare and public safety regulations, and subject to regular reviews and inspections.

  • Prohibits importing marine mammals for public display in zoos, marine parks and aquariums.

  • Prohibits the captive breeding of animals in zoos and marine parks, except for verifiable conservation purposes.

  • Establishes strict animal welfare and public safety regulations for the use of wild animals in film and television productions.

  • Establishes retirement/sanctuary facilities for wild animals seized by federal, provincial and municipal law enforcement agencies.

  • Strives for the reduction and ultimate replacement of animal use for research, testing, and educational purposes.

  • Makes the use of animals for research, testing and educational purposes unlawful where a non-animal method or approach is reasonably or practicably available (consistent with EU Directive 86/609).

  • Establishes a coordinated approach to identifying alternatives to replace or reduce the use of animals for testing and research, and commits resources to developing and validating non-animal test methods in coordination with parallel efforts elsewhere.

  • Ensures the automatic regulatory acceptance of every non-animal test method deemed scientifically valid by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) and the automatic prohibition of the animal-based test method it replaces.

  • Ensures that all new or revised animal and non-animal toxicity test methods are scientifically validated before their use is required, recommended or encouraged by regulatory authorities.

  • Enhances the current system of oversight consisting of voluntary guidelines and peer review administered by the Canadian Council on Animal Care, a federally regulated licensing program, whereby prospective animal users must apply to a federal Animal & Alternatives Research Review Board, which will be responsible for:Outlaws the mandatory surrender of dogs and cats from municipal pounds and animal shelters (known as “pound seizure”) for research use.

    • Evaluating the costs and benefits of the proposed research.
    • Rigorously assessing the availability of non-animal methods or approaches.
    • Granting or denying a project license.
    • Where a license is granted, monitoring compliance with animal care standards; and improving government and industry accountability and public access to information regarding the use of animals for research.

  • Bans all use of non-human primates for genetic manipulation and cloning, invasive psychological and behavioural research, substance abuse research, and warfare research.

  • Bans the use of animals to assess the safety of personal care and household cleaning products, as defined by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics; animal-based tests for skin corrosion, skin irritation, skin absorption, phototoxicity, pyrogenicity, genetic toxicity to be replaced by scientifically-validated non-animal methods.

  • Bans “lethal dose” toxicity studies on vertebrates.

  • Prohibits any industry involving single organ trade.

  • Increases monitoring and enforcement budgets.

  • Includes provisions to facilitate promotion of alternatives to use of wild animal ingredients by traditional medicine practitioners.

Comments and discussion are welcomed.  I am examining this as I go to gain a better grasp of their platform and invite all who are interested to do the same with comments and discussion.