NDP REALITY CHECK: Liberal environmental policy – lots of hot air but still no targets

Today, Justin Trudeau delivered a speech full of promises on the environment but with few details and plenty of policies borrowed from Tom Mulcair’s NDP.

And despite all the hot air, the Trudeau Liberals still have not committed to any actual targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Liberal Leader now agrees with a moratorium on oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast – something New Democrats have pushed the Liberals on since 2010.

Trudeau also claims that he’ll protect species at risk and our waterways – despite the fact that he voted for Conservative legislation to weaken the Navigable Waters Act.

And the Liberals joined with the Conservatives to oppose an NDP motion to protect the St. Lawrence ecosystem and belugas from oil development.

If all this green-washing wasn’t enough, let’s not forget the Liberals real record on important environmental files when they were in government:

• The budgets for the departments responsible for handling oil spills were slashed dramatically – Fisheries and Oceans cut by 30%, and Transport cut by 50%.
• Pacific lighthouses were de-staffed and the Coast Guard was gutted.
• Environment Canada was cut more than nearlany other ministry or agency leading the Environment Commissioner to slam the Liberals’ “band-aid approach” to environmental protection.
• Meanwhile, Liberals handed out more than $8 billion in oil and gas subsidies between 1996 and 2002.
• And of course, after promising to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Liberals let them skyrocket by more than 30%.

With the urgent need to fix the mess left behind by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives – and the serious challenges facing our environment – Canadians can’t afford to wait for Justin Trudeau to get ready.

Canadians deserve better.