B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan pledged Thursday to fight global warming with new legislated targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions if his party wins the provincial election in May.
Horgan said an NDP government would commit to reducing emissions to 40 per cent below 2007 levels by 2030.
He promised to issue rebate cheques to most B.C. households to soften the impact of a federal move to increase the price on carbon to $50 per tonne by 2022.
Horgan proposes to reach the federal target by slowly increasing B.C.’s $30-per-tonne carbon tax, beginning with a $6 hike in 2020 followed by $7 increases in 2021 and 2022.
The tax currently adds about seven cents a litre at the gas pump and that would rise to 12 cents under the proposed plan.
“Rather than hitting people with a one-time shot, we want to make sure that starting in 2020 — three years from now —there are predictable increases that can be managed over time,” he said.
Horgan said a portion of the carbon tax revenue will be invested in transit, energy efficiency and clean technology to reduce the province’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Environment Minister Mary Polak said that’s a key difference from the government’s position. She said the B.C. Liberals believe that the carbon tax should remain revenue neutral, with all the money returned to taxpayers in the form of rebates and tax breaks.
“[The NDP] think you that you should use some of it to fund programs,” she said. “So, from our perspective, as soon as you do that it’s really just another tax then.”
She also questioned the NDP’s ability to reach its 2030 target, given the lack of detail in the plan released Thursday.
“I don’t know what kind of modelling they’ve been doing or what they can achieve with their initiatives. I don’t see that in what they’ve released,” she said.
Environmental groups, which voiced concern last year about the lack of short-term targets in the B.C. Liberal strategy, were heartened by Horgan’s announcement.
Josha MacNab of the Pembina Institute said carbon pollution is projected to keep rising in B.C. despite the current government’s plan.
“So the commitment to the 2030 targets that the B.C. NDP made today gives me a lot more confidence and comfort that we’re going to be on track,” she said.
Ian Bruce of the David Suzuki Foundation welcomed the NDP’s promise to ramp up investments in transit and clean energy.
“There are certainly specific elements that are improvements and would help B.C. start to reduce emissions,” he said.
B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, however, said neither the NDP nor the Liberals show real commitment to tackling climate change.
“I’m fed up with politicians saying they’ll do something three years from now,” he said.
“B.C. Greens would show leadership. We’re not going to kick the can down the road and say: ‘We’ll raise the carbon price some time in 2020, maybe, if you elect us.’ ”
He said a Green government would act immediately to raise the price of carbon through incremental amounts “that send a signal to the market that in B.C. we’re serious about de-carbonizing our energy systems.”
