Climate leaders don’t rubber stamp coal mine expansions: NDP

VICTORIA - The NDP is calling out the federal Liberal government for their hypocrisy on claiming to be a ‘climate leader’ while failing to subject the expansion of the coal mine to an environmental impact assessment. In fact, they allowed the first phase of the project to proceed without any federal oversight.

"This Liberal government claims to be a 'climate leader,' but approving a coal mine project without an environmental assessment flies in the face of any kind of environmental responsibility. I'm not sure how they can square that circle," said NDP Environment Critic Laurel Collins (Victoria). "The Minister must stop avoiding his responsibility and submit the expansion project to a federal assessment."

The proposed expansion would more than double the mine’s coal production each year, resulting in a production of up to 15 megatons of coal per year, which would severely increase Canadian greenhouse gas emissions, and set Canada back considerably from the targets the government has signed on to in the Paris Agreement.

"After almost 6 years in office, this government's environmental policy has been shameful. This is the government that bought a pipeline and that has failed to uphold even Stephen Harper's weak climate change targets," added NDP Deputy Leader Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie). “The government should be focusing our efforts on a green recovery instead of approving more polluting projects."