Newsflash: PC environmental platform weak

I know this is going to come as a real shock to all of you, but a conservation group rated the environmental platforms of the 5 most prominent provincial parties and the PCs were in the basement (along with the Wildrose Alliance Party) with an inspring grade of "D."

The ratings were done by the Conservation Voters of Alberta, and the report can be found here. A summary of each party's overall grade:

Alberta Liberals: B (formerly B+, but downgraded after the party released their stance on nuclear energy in the province)
New Democrats: B
Greens: B
Progressive Conservatives: D
Wildrose Alliance: D

The report is fairly short and actually pretty readable. It identifies a few issues in the province that I thought warranted a little more attention:

1. There are no environmental thresholds or health limits for communities in the vicinity of the tarsands

2. There hasn't been, to date, any cumulative assessment of the combined environmental effects of existing and planned development.

This is pretty amazing, especially courtesy of a party that steadfastly maintains that it has a "plan." Under the Progressive Conservative government, unprecedented development of a toxic resource has been able to take place with virtually no heed paid to the possible effects on human or ecological health in the vicinity. This task has apparently been delegated to the "free market," that familiar PC problem-solver with its lack of virtually any mechanisms to account for any costs that aren't direct and strictly monetary.

3. Current land use practices allow mining, logging, and drilling in some protected areas

"Protected areas," for the record, include provincial parks, wildland parks, provincial recreation areas, ecological reserves, wilderness areas, natural areas, and "heritage rangelands." This leaves me wondering exactly what the Tories' definition of "protected" is.

4. Stelmach wildly exaggerates job loss claims when talking about emissions reductions

This last one isn't a surprise, especially after the debate in which Stelmach made no attempt whatsoever to adresss Kim Trynacity's calling of his bluff on this matter. I suppose it isn't really as shocking as the above three points, but I wanted to point it out as this is something of a personal beef of mine and I was pleasantly surprised to see it mentioned literally in the report.

Ultimately, this report just makes more obvious the PC green-washing that we've seen during (and before) this campaign. The PCs constantly talk about "greening our growth," and run candidates who, as an example, espouse platitudes about "green living," yet preside over one of the most poorly-planned, poorly-monitored ecological disasters in recent history and seem very eager to make it worse. The party laughably portrays itself as a leader on climate change because it was the first government in Canada to draft legislation in this area, but fails to realize that "leadership" doesn't simply mean "being the first to do something." It's bad enough to ignore environmental considerations, but for doing so while giving Albertans the impression that their party actually prioritizes environmental considerations the PCs should be ashamed. At least the Wildrose Alliance is somewhat upfront about their disregard for the natural world.

I'll end with what I thought to be a humuorous quote from the report that aptly sums up my feelings on the issue:

With an announcement titled “Progressive Conservatives Green Our Growth with a Plan to Balance Demands on Our Air, Land and Water,” one is led to believe that the Stelmach Conservatives would have a plan to address the increased pressures on our land, air and water.

One would think so...

Comments

[cathy]

This is nothing new. Anyone who is conservative (really) is never rated by the environmentalist above a C or D in this case.
When I ran for municipal election the environmentalists rated me as a C- and when I got elected I was known and am still known as the "environmentalist". Just because I did not promise the world in my answers, as a conservative does not do, then you are given a poor rating!!!
Lorne Taylor was also treated the same way by the environmentalists and ended up the
author of the WATER FOR LIFE strategy!!!
I say no more!