Five Questions on Sustainability: Kitchener—Conestoga

We are at the beginning of a crucial decade for climate action. If elected, what meaningful actions will you take to combat the climate crisis?

The Liberal Government will continue to protect our environment and address the devastating effects of the climate crisis. I am personally committed to keep pushing for more aggressive climate action, and meaningful progress on existing commitments, including ensuring that nature-based and agricultural solutions are central to Canada’s collective effort to reach net-zero emissions before 2050, banning single-use plastics and planting two billion trees over the next decade.

We will continue to set ambitious targets while growing our economy. The government is taking action to achieve this goal, including the introduction of Just Transition Legislation, launching a Clean Jobs Training Centre to help workers upgrade or gain new skills to succeed in the net-zero future, requiring all plastic packaging to be 50% recycled plastic by 2030, and creating thousands of new jobs in the clean economy.

I will continue to meet with and advocate for local companies to promote and fund clean technology projects. I will ensure their voices and feedback about these programs are heard in Ottawa so we can work together for a greener future in Kitchener Conestoga.

Achieving our community’s interim GHG reduction target of a 50% reduction by 2030 (based on 2010 levels), will require bold and immediate actions from the federal government. What specific federal policies/actions would you work to implement, to enable greenhouse gas emission reductions and help municipalities reach that target?

We have made sure that polluting is no longer free anywhere in Canada and increased our climate targets. We will meet these targets by creating a net-zero electricity grid by 2035, developing additional investment tax credits for clean energy, and creating a Pan-Canadian Grid Council, in partnership with the provinces and territories, to make Canada the most reliable, cost-effective and carbon-free electricity producer in the world.

Building on the serious actions already taken to address plastics pollution, a re-elected Liberal Government will take the burden of recycling off municipalities by making producers of plastic waste responsible for collecting and recycling it, in collaboration with provinces and territories.

This builds on the investment of $2.75 billion starting this year to enhance public transit systems and switch them to cleaner electrical power, including supporting the purchase of zero-emission public transit and school buses.

This funding is part of an eight year, $14.9 billion public transit investment recently outlined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and will also support municipalities, transit authorities and school boards with transition planning, increase ambition on the electrification of transit systems, and deliver on the government’s commitment to help purchase 5,000 zero-emission buses over the next five years.

I have worked personally with our municipal governments and local environmental leaders over the past 2 years and I will continue to do so to make sure that they have all of the support they need to achieve these ambitious but necessary goals.

We know that home energy usage, especially heating, is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. If elected, how will you help people make their homes more sustainable?

I’ve heard from homeowners around Kitchener-Conestoga who voice interest in affordable programs to help them make their homes sustainable. The Liberal government will create jobs in our communities, make the air in our community cleaner, and help Canadians save on their energy bills.

We will do this by helping Canadians upgrade their homes and save on energy costs, with retrofit grants of up to $5,000, interest-free loans of up to $40,000 for deeper retrofits, and additional supports for Canadians to transition off home heating oil.

We will also launch a national strategy to chart a path to net-zero emissions from buildings by 2050, with ambitious milestones along the way.

Further, we will work with the oil and gas sector to make sure that emissions are reduced from current levels at a pace and scale needed to achieve net-zero by 2050, with ambitious 5-year targets starting in 2025. Further, we will require oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions by at least 75% below 2012 levels by 2030.

These actions, taken alongside other commitments to make it easier and more affordable to own a zero-emission vehicle and by continuing to invest in charging stations across the Region, including our townships of Wilmot, Wellesley, and Woolwich. This builds on the recent $230,000 investment for Waterloo Region municipalities to install 46 electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the region.

Tackling climate change is going to require both preventing further change and adapting to the effects we are already feeling. If elected, how will you help provinces and municipalities prepare for the increased storms and heat waves of climate change?

Preparing for more regular extreme weather events like wildfires, droughts and flooding requires united partnerships with the provinces and municipalities to ensure Canadians are supported.

We will invest to train at least 1,000 firefighters in targeted wildfire risk manageable strategies in communities across Canada. We will also invest $450 million to allow provinces and territories to invest in the required equipment to keep firefighters safe.
Locally, our townships are impacted by flooding and are concerned about protecting and restoring wetlands. We will provide a $1.4 billion top up to the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund and support provincial and territorial disaster response and recovery efforts with $1.9 billion over five years.

Part of our disaster mitigation and response will include working with provinces and territories to complete flood maps for higher-risk areas, improve standards in areas like flood mapping, and support increased mapping of areas in Northern Canada at risk of wildfires;

Finally, we will increase total AgriRecovery funding to up to $500 million to address extraordinary costs faced by producers due to drought and wildfires.

How will you help low-income Canadians move towards a low-impact, carbon neutral future?

At the doors, one of the top issues that comes up is climate change. I understand that taking serious action to fight the climate crisis at the household level can be expensive, and can be out of reach for low-income Canadians.

In addition to the above-noted retrofit grants for homeowners, we will accelerate the transition from fossil fuel-based heating systems to electrification through incentives and standards, including investing $250 million to help low-income Canadians get off home-heating oil and by pushing to keep the energy costs as low as possible.

By creating new jobs and programs to help Canadians retrain and upskill in order to succeed in the future net-zero economy, this will also create new opportunities to get quality, high-paying jobs and help them join the middle-class.

Canadians need a stronger environmental protection law that confronts 21st-century dangers with 21st-century science. All Canadians should be able to live their lives free from the effects of harmful chemicals and pollutants.

We know that some communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental burdens, such as exposure to toxins. No community should have to experience these effects more than any other. These long overdue updates to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act will enshrine this important principle into law, will ensure that vulnerable populations, including low-income Canadians, no longer face this kind of injustice, and will continue to protect human health and the environment.