Climate-Related Questions for BC Election Candidates

Climate-Related Questions for BC Election Candidates

PostedOct 9, 2024 | climate change, community, opinion, policy, sustainability

Climate-Related Questions for BC Election Candidates

September/October 2024

West Coast Climate Action Network (WE-CAN) has compiled a list of questions for BC election candidates. These questions have been assembled from questions provided by the BC Climate Emergency Campaign, the Wilderness Committee, Better Island Transit, and the West Coast Climate Action Network. There are categorized as follows:

  1. A Question for Every Conservative Candidate
  2. A Question for Every NDP Candidate
  3. A Question for Every Green Party Candidate
  4. The Climate Crisis
  5. Climate, Fracking and LNG
  6. An Affordable Economy at a Time of Climate Crisis
  7. Forests, Nature
  8. Food and Farming
  9. Transportation
  10. Buildings

A Question for Every Conservative Party of BC Candidate

I am really concerned about the climate crisis. We have seen devastating floods and forest fires, and an extraordinary heat wave that killed 600 people. Yet your leader, John Rustad, has said that the “climate narrative” is part of a conspiracy “to reduce the world population,” has promised to undo many of the province’s climate policies, and has said that his first priority would be to speed up approvals for mining, pipeline and LNG projects. Do you support his views? Source Source

A Question for Every NDP Candidate

I am really concerned about the climate crisis. The NDP government has set a goal to reduce BC climate pollution by 40% by 2030, but the NDP has also supported proposals for six LNG projects that will increase our climate pollution by 50%. If you become our region’s MLA, will you be a champion for the proposed LNG plants, or will you argue instead for thousands of jobs building affordable housing and generating wind and solar energy?

A Question for Every Green Party Candidate

This is a question about the climate crisis. If you are elected, and your party is able to participate in a Confidence and Supply Agreement with another party, what specific new laws and initiatives will you demand to tackle the climate crisis as a condition of supporting the new government?

Questions on the Climate Crisis

  1. What are your plans to prevent further deaths, destruction of property, health dangers, and economic losses caused by the climate crisis?
  2. If you are elected or re-elected, how would you prioritize climate action? What actions will demonstrate your commitment to reduce BC’s greenhouse gas emissions?
  3. Do you actively support aligning BCʼs climate plan with the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? If not, why not?
  4. If you are elected, how will you communicate a sense of emergency and tell the truth about the severity of the climate crisis to the public? Will you support binding pollution targets that reflect this urgency? (BC-CEC)
  5. BCʼs current climate target is to reduce our climate pollution by 40% by 2030. Do you think this is sufficient? If you are elected, what will your party do to help BC reach the target?
  6. Do you support seeking compensation for a fair share of the harm caused by the fossil fuel industry by suing Big Oil, as California is doing? If not, how will you protect taxpayers from bearing all the costs of the climate crisis?
  7. The International Energy Agency has called for a 50% reduction in oil production by 2040 and an immediate end to all new fossil fuel projects. What will your party do to prevent new fuel extraction projects?
  8. It is really frustrating to see that companies are still advertising fossil fuels, promoting their use. Would you support doing what the government of France did two years ago, and ban all fossil fuel advertising in BC?
  9. It is a government’s duty to prepare people for an emergency, and tell them what they can do. If you are elected, what will you do to increase the public’s understanding of the climate crisis, the dangers that it brings, and the causes?
  10. In France, the government is providing climate literacy education for all of its 5.6 million government employees. Would you support an initiative to do something similar here in BC? Source
  11. Many young people complain that their schools do not give them sufficient understanding of the dangers we face as a world, because of the climate crisis. If you are elected, what will you do to ensure our schools educate our youth about the causes of the climate crisis, and the many solutions?
  12. Many young people are extremely worried and anxious about the climate crisis, and how it will affect their lives. But they do not have a vote. Do you support lowering the BC voting age to 16?
  13. In 2023 BC paid $1.1 billion to fight climate change driven forest fires. A single extreme weather event in 2022, the storm damaging the Seawall, is costing $800,000. Do you support legally seeking compensation for a fair share of the harm caused by the fossil fuel industry by suing Big Oil, as California, New Jersey and other U.S. States are doing? If not, what is your solution to prevent taxpayers from bearing all of the costs of climate change?

Questions on Climate, Fracking and LNG

  1. I am very distressed by the looming climate crisis. Do you agree that the climate crisis is caused primarily by burning fossil fuels? And if so, why is BC approving more fracking and LNG?
  2. As well as pouring yet more fuel on the climate crisis, fracking is known to increase the risk of asthma requiring hospital visits, dementia, Alzheimers, and cancer, affecting many people who live in BC’s north-east. If your party is elected to govern, will you persist with the current plans to double the amount of fracking needed to provide fossil gas to the multiple LNG proposals, or will you change course, away from climate-dangerous fracking and LNG?
  3. Fracking is known to increase the risk of asthma requiring hospital visits, dementia, Alzheimers, and cancer, affecting many people who live in BC’s north-east. Do you support fracking to create LNG for export?
  4. How would you prioritize the use of BC’s limited supply of renewable electricity — to power electric vehicles and heat pumps, or to enable LNG exports?
  5. If all of BCʼs planned six LNG projects come online, it will be impossible for BC to meet its 2030 climate goals. Does this bother you? If not, why not? And if it does, how would your party deal with the contradiction?
  6. What will your party do to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy future, and wind down the production and use of fossil fuels?
  7. If you are elected, will you oppose the approval of new LNG facilities and the associated pipelines? Do you think approvals should be rescinded for any of the LNG terminals that have not yet been built? (Tilbury LNG Phase 2, Woodfibre LNG, Cedar LNG, Prince George)

Questions on An Affordable Economy at a Time of Climate Crisis

  1. If you are elected, what three specific initiatives will you promote to transition BC to a more sustainable, diverse, self-sufficient economy?
  2. Young people want sustainable jobs in a diversified economy. What plans does your party have to ensure that young people will have the jobs they want?
  3. This is a question about the cost of living and the carbon tax, which was introduced by the BC Liberal government in 2008 as a way to tackle the climate crisis. Under the tax, 65% of all British Columbians receive more money through the climate action tax credit that they pay through the carbon tax. This year a lower-income family of four will get $1,005; a single person will get $504. If your party forms the new government, will you keep the carbon tax, and the financial benefits that it brings to lower income families? Source
  4. This is a question about the housing crisis. Young people want action to tackle the climate crisis, and to create more affordable housing. Do you think these two goals conflict with each other? Or are they complementary?
  5. This is a question about youth, jobs, and the climate crisis. If you are elected, will you support the expansion of BC’s very small Youth Climate Corps, to provide climate-related training and employment for youth?
  6. Will your party support efforts to achieve a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal? How will you ensure that no one gets left behind during the transition?

Questions on Old Growth Forests and Biodiversity

  1. Less than half of the priority old growth areas recommended by the government-appointed Technical Advisory Panel in 2021, which the government accepted, have actually been deferred. If you are elected, what will you do to ensure their immediate deferral? Would you honour or walk away from the previous government’s promise to save BC’s old growth forests?
  2. BC has committed to protect 30% of lands by 2030, but it has a track record showing insufficient protection of high-risk ecosystems such as low elevation old-growth forests and grasslands, to avoid conflict over short term economic opportunities. If you are elected, will you work to change this, and how?
  3. If you are elected, how will you ensure that BC achieves its target to protect 30% of provincial lands and waters by 2030?
  4. Would you work hard to finalize and implement the BC Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, and ensure that it enshrines strong species-at-risk protection?
  5. If you are elected, how will you prioritize urgent habitat protection for critically endangered species like the spotted owl, over industrial interests?
  6. If you are elected, will you work to ensure that BC’s forestry laws and biodiversity protection laws and measures uphold the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, including prioritizing free, prior and informed consent?
  7. We are in a global biodiversity crisis. Between 1970 and 2018 we and our machines wiped out 69% of the populations of the world’s mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles. If you are elected, will you prioritize funding conservation strategies over the financial desire to gather private profits? Source

Questions on Food and Farming

  1. If you are elected, how will you work to create more healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems in your region, and in the province?
  2. The scientific data shows that agriculture, and especially beef, is responsible for a quarter of all global climate pollution. Would you support measures to incentivize and promote a more plant-based diet?

Questions on Transportation

  1. I have a question about public transit on Vancouver Island. Currently, BC Transit provides a terrible service between Victoria, Duncan and Nanaimo. There are only four buses each weekday, with no Sunday service, and it costs four times a local fare. It is not possible to visit Duncan or Nanaimo and return the same day. Do you support establishing frequent and affordable service on the #66 and #70 routes?
  2. Improved public transit is one of the best ways of making life more affordable and reducing climate pollution. If your party is elected to form the next government, how would you support green public transportation across the province that is accessible, safe, efficient, and affordable, including a BC-wide inter-regional bus service, as they do in Ontario and in Washington State?
  3. I have a question about the sheer number of cars on our roads. BCʼs climate plan calls for reducing the distances travelled in light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2030. If your party is elected to form the next government, what will you do to achieve this target?
  4. Highway expansion in and around urban areas makes traffic worse and increases climate pollution. It’s a well-documented phenomenon called “induced traffic.” Do you support reallocating funding from highway expansion to public transit, walking, and cycling infrastructure?

Questions on Buildings

  1. Do you support the requirement that all new buildings should be all-electric, instead of hooking up with fossil gas? There is no evidence that this makes new buildings more expensive. If you do support this, what will your party do to make it happen?
  2. Heat pumps are a super efficient way to heat a building, and they also provide essential and potentially life-saving cooling during a heat wave. Do you think the province should offer free heat pumps to all low and modest income households, and to people with disabilities?
  3. There’s a huge amount of work needed to help people retrofit their homes, to end the use of fossil gas. Do you support the creation of a Crown Corporation to retrofit all existing buildings, and eliminate fossil fuel heating by 2035?


Download your copy of these questions from WE-CAN here.

GTEC does not endorse and is not affiliated with any political party. We are reprinting these questions to help start conversations about the climate crisis and the future of BC.

Read articles on climate change, sustainability, education, and more from GTEC’s Communication & Media (formally GTEC Blog)!