Last night I participated in federal transport minister Mark Garneau’s “Climate Change Town Hall”.
Throughout the event, the minister repeatedly spoke in favour of individual actions rather than systemic change and substantial federal government intervention to fight climate change.
During my turn at the microphone, I refused to answer his question about how Canadians and First Nations can “adapt” to climate change and pointed out that the Trudeau government is completely unwilling to shut down the tar sands or take any kind of meaningful action on the environment.
The fact the the liberals are attempting to delegate responsibility for a carbon tax to the provincial governments shows a complete lack of leadership on their part. Nearly a year ago, Canadians voted for change. The continuation of the Harper emission reduction targets and Justin Trudeau’s continued refusal of a federal carbon tax is unacceptable.
Another issue that I addressed, since Mr Garneau is the federal transport minister, is the privatization of Montreal’s new electric train line. Running this service as a for profit business will inevitably lead to sky high ticket prices and decreased ridership. In my opinion public transit should be a free service that is owned and operated by the public. Abolishing fares would stimulate demand for the service and increase ridership.
Let’s continue holding them to account.
In solidarity,
Alex Tyrrell
Leader of the Green Party of Quebec