Cap-and-trade system on NDP’s election agenda

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This article was published 27/09/2015 (3691 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — All three main federal parties concentrated on homegrown, hot-button issues and largely kept their foreign policy powder dry ahead of the next leader’s debate.

New Democrats put themselves squarely in the spotlight with Tom Mulcair outlining, in broad strokes, the party’s plan to address climate change. Mulcair was the only main party leader to hold an event Sunday, where he reiterated his pledge to put a price on carbon and establish a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases.

He said his plan would allow provinces to opt out if their efforts to minimize carbon emissions are as good or better than those of the federal government.

“We’re not going to replace something that’s working,” Mulcair said. “The important thing is to set the (national) objective.”

The money raised by the federal government through putting a price on carbon would go to the provinces for reinvestment in additional measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

But Mulcair said the federal government doesn’t have a major role to play when it comes to helping a province like Manitoba get more renewable energy to market.

The Manitoba government has long lobbied for an east-west hydroelectricity power grid to see more hydro power generated from northern Manitoba dams used to power homes in more populated areas in Ontario, for example. Right now, most of the lines travel south into the United States.

Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger pitched the idea to a Senate committee studying Canada’s future energy needs in 2011, and the province has lobbied other premiers and the federal government on the issue for more than a decade.

Mulcair said his government would believe in these things but said it’s not really up to him.

“The electricity is being produced by the provinces and the federal government can’t force anything on anybody,” he said. “Can we play a facilitating role? Sure.”

He said the provinces have to take their role seriously and negotiate with each other to make this kind of system a reality.

Mulcair made these remarks when questioned by the Free Press at the end of a half-hour long question-and-answer session with party members and journalists.

Most of the questions from the audience — which were pre-selected from those sent to the party ahead of the event — had nothing to do with the environment and allowed Mulcair to forcefully reiterate his case to repeal two signature pieces of the Harper government’s security and anti-terror agenda.

Mulcair gave a taste of how acrimonious the exchange could get at Monday’s foreign policy debate by accusing the Conservatives of holding back until the middle of the election campaign on the plan to strip the citizenship of the convicted Toronto 18 terror ringleader.

Zakaria Amara, a Jordanian-Canadian, had his Canadian citizenship formally revoked under Bill C-24, controversial legislation passed in the spring.

“This is Mr. Harper strutting his stuff for his right-wing base,” Mulcair said. “This is a game being played on the backs of all Canadians who have different origins than ‘old stock Canadians’ and I’m going to stand up against it.

“I find it lamentable that in a free and democratic society, someone takes joy in saying that we’re going to have two levels of citizenship. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”

He repeated earlier pledges to repeal and rewrite parts of C-24 — known as the Strengthening Citizenship Act — in particular the revocation and intent-to-reside clauses that have become the subject a constitutional challenge. Mulcair also said an NDP government would repeal Bill C-51, the government’s lightning rod surveillance bill, during the first session of a new Parliament.

“We know the safest societies are those that protect and defend the rights and freedoms of their citizens,” he said.

All of that is potentially grist for Monday’s debate.

Earlier in the day, associate defence minister Julian Fantino took questions on the Amara case and kept his sights firmly locked on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who is also in favour of scrapping portions of C-24.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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Fantino also attacked Trudeau over comments he made on the weekend, saying he would repeal some of the mandatory minimum sentences introduced by the Conservatives.

“Let’s get real,” Fantino said while suggesting the Liberal leader was making excuses for both terrorists and hardened criminals. At times, his tough comments on mandatory minimum sentences turned into a tirade, where he said criminals don’t take advantage of the “great services” in prison for rehabilitation and career offenders who are kept “isolated and insulated” don’t reoffend when they are released.