The Tri-City News interviewed a local expert on the environment and then posed questions to the candidates for party positions on the topics.
For many Tri-City voters, the environment is a crucial issue that needs to be raised in the federal election campaign.
Rod MacVicar, a retired teacher who co-founded Mossom Creek hatchery in Port Moody and is a director of the Pacific Wildlife Foundation, believes people want to know that creeks, streams and waterways will be protected even as Canada pursues its economic objectives, such as building pipelines, expanding bulk loading facilities and creating new, denser neighbourhoods.
"I think we're probably unnecessarily preoccupied with the economy as the source of questions. We take for granted other things that other countries in the world don't take for granted," says MacVicar, pointing to forests, clean air and water, which he argues are important Canadian assets that need to be protected.
He wants to know how the various parties will balance economic issues with environmental concerns.
• Jessie Adcock, Liberal
Adcock said the Liberal Party would steward the economy with an eye to preserving environmental values. "We see the environment and the economy as not separate but inherently linked."
The Liberals would restore environmental regulations that were changed by the Conservative government, invest in green technology and jobs, invest in ocean science, preserve the health of fish stocks, monitor contaminants, work on developing a climate change plan with the provinces and territories and "unmuzzle scientists," she says.
With Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, "you have somebody who's going to restore and champion evidence-based decision making," Adcock says.
• Fin Donnelly, NDP
As a longtime environmental activist and fisheries critic for the NDP, Donnelly says his party will do a better job making sure fish, wildlife and forests are protected, and he says the NDP has the toughest policy on climate change, according to West Coast Environmental Law.
The NDP's Climate Change Accountability Act would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 34% below 1990 levels by 2025 and reduce carbon pollution by 80% by 2050, according to Donnelly, and while his party's plan isn't specific on pipeline expansion, he says tougher regulations enacted by the NDP would govern them.
Donnelly said his party would restore environmental regulations, such as the Navigable Waters Act, the fisheries act and environmental assessment laws that were changed by the Conservative government. "I'm telling you things you can count on. Those issues, I know."
• Tim Laidler, Conservative
Laidler disagrees with critics who say the Conservative government watered down environmental regulations in favour of corporations, pointing to a decision to deny Taseko Mine's New Prosperity Project. "It was the right decision for environmental reasons," Laidler says.
Last week, the federally-approved Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline was being challenged in the courts while the Trans Mountain pipeline project — which would see the existing pipeline twinned, with part of the route through Coquitlam and drawing more tankers to Burrard Inlet — is awaiting a decision from the National Energy Board.
With those two projects pending, Laidler wouldn't commit to a position on the local pipeline, saying only that the NEB needs to complete its process.
But he says it was the Conservative government that recently announced that Admiralty Point in Belcarra Regional Park would be preserved as a public park, with $100,000 a year committed to its maintenance.
• Marcus Madsen, Green
Marcus Madsen, who moved to B.C. for the beautiful forests, water and other natural assets, believes Canadians need to switch from an oil-based economy to one that is more sustainable.
"Canada has been on the sidelines, it should be a global leader," says Madsen, who was born in Germany.
He says he believes the Green Party has the best policies for switching over the economy, with its emphasis on skills training, research and development, and applauds the party's opposition to Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Madsen said the Conservative government has abandoned efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while the Greens would move to the virtual elimination of fossil fuel use by mid-century.
