Bill No. 57 - Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act - 3rd Reading
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : My remarks will be very brief tonight, and I won't attempt to echo the eloquence of my colleague from Dartmouth North, who I think did an amazing job. For historical purposes, I suppose, I do want to enumerate the amendments that we proposed to the bill last night. Those are:
to work across sectors and communities to create a green jobs plan that will ensure a just transition for workers and their communities;
to increase our GHG emissions reduction target for 2030 to 58 per cent below 2005 levels and to remove language about GHG removals and offsets;
to create a really detailed plan for energy efficiency programming; to adopt the National Building Code within 18 months of it being published;
to require that all new buildings be net-zero-ready and zero-carbon-ready by 2030 at the latest;
to increase our zero-emission vehicle mandate to 50 per cent of sales by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035;
to increase our target to 90 per cent renewable energy by 2030;
to create a provincial carbon budget and provincial greenhouse gas inventory;
to release annual progress reports with updated carbon budgets;
to set an interim goal for land protection of at least 17 per cent by 2025;
to implement the Lahey review by the end of 2022 and to implement an immediate moratorium on all clear-cutting on Crown land in the meantime;
to introduce legislation to prevent pending protected areas from being secretly delisted without public consultation;
to protect the remaining 150 areas on the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan by 2022;
to make well water testing free;
to increase shellfish and seaweed aquaculture by at least 5 per cent by 2026;
to put an immediate moratorium on new open net-pen fish farms and implement the Doelle-Lahey report fully, with an emphasis on social licence;
to develop a universal school food plan that sources food from local farms;
to introduce extended producer responsibility, as recommended by the municipalities;
to broaden the scope of environmental education and ensure that it is introduced into curricula immediately;
to create a panel to address environmental racism by the end of 2022, with recommendations for redress coming to the province by the end of 2023 - that one made it under the line;
to end all fossil fuel subsidies, including for research and promotion by the end of 2022;
to end all new calls for bids for oil and gas exploration on Nova Scotia's offshore; and
to create an environmental commissioner in the Office of the Auditor General.
Madam Speaker, what I hear from those who work in this field is that if government doesn't strengthen some of the targets in this bill, which it chose not to do last night, it will not actually succeed with its GHG emissions reduction target. By not having interim targets for many of these goals, this government has chosen to let the next government reckon with that reality.
We are especially anxious to see the forthcoming Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth, but it is unclear why this government needs so much more time for a plan that was due at the end of 2020, according to the 2019 SDGA, but that is a theme in this legislation ‑ packing targets with extra time. We don't have extra time, Madam Speaker. This is the meaning of a code red.
I was listening to the radio this morning and they said that the difference between a 1.5 degree target and a 2 degree target - which is being discussed at COP26 - is a million economic migrants; a million climate migrants in the next 15 years. That is unfathomable to contemplate, in the same way as some of the things that my colleague was speaking to.
We have a lot to be proud of. This is a good bill, but we can't rest on our laurels in a crisis. Other jurisdictions are pushing ahead to meet their fair-share targets and we need to do the same. There are others that are leading the way. In breaking news, Quebec just announced that they have joined the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance, along with Costa Rica and Denmark. We could also do that. Instead, today the latest round of bids for exploration on the offshore closed. That is sort of the opposite of a moratorium.
I thought I would close by reading a few of the many - all negative - comments that were collected as part of the CNSOPB's process for collecting those bids ‑ it's open for comments. In their executive summary of those comments, they say:
"The majority of the comments submitted expressed a policy position that offshore oil and gas activity is putting our communities, our marine ecosystems and our climate at unacceptable risk; and indicated that no further oil exploration should take place offshore Nova Scotia. A number of the comments noted a report by the International Energy Agency 'Net Zero by 2050', indicating that no new oil and gas fields should be brought on production due to concerns over climate change . . .
Specific comments indicated that the CNSOPB should no longer exist and suggested the Board is only concerned with the interests of the petroleum industry. Some comments suggested the CNSOPB's mandate should be changed to focus on renewable energy."
The last part of the summary that I will quote is where they say:
"It's important to understand that the existence and mandate of the CNSOPB and whether or not oil and gas activity should be permitted in the Canada-Nova Scotia offshore area is a matter of government policy and as such is beyond the authority of the CNSOPB."
Madam Speaker, we have the tools we need. We sit in a place of privilege where we, the people in this Chamber, can have an impact on the course of the planet. That is not hyperbole, that is real, that is true, that is about the laws that we're making.
This is a good bill, but it could be much better. It could be much better while actually retaining the spirit and content of this bill. So we are dismayed that there was not in this House a collaborative process although I know we will hear about how this received all-party support and it's a major victory. It is - it's a good bill.
To the many dismayed climate activists who I've spoken to in the last week - a lot of people said, we came and spoke at the Law Amendments Committee for the STGA and it's Groundhog Day, we're back here two years later, what's changed? I said to them, well, one thing that has changed is that you all spoke and said you wanted targets in the bill and now we're here, two years later, and there are targets in the bill. That's a change but it's a change that's too slow and it's too slow in the face of the challenges that confront us now.
This bill will pass tonight, we will vote for it, but we will continue to press for the urgent action that is required. We will continue to look to government and to press government towards leadership in this area.