Green party releases platform with promises to cancel pipelines, boost carbon price

Photo: The Canadian Press

Green Party Leader Annamie Paul launches her election campaign at a press conference in the riding of Toronto Centre, on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

The Green party is promising to boost greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, cancel all new pipelines and oil exploration, accelerate an increase in carbon pricing and ban the sale of all internal-combustion engine passenger vehicles.

The environmental pledges in the party's platform, released today, are aimed at getting Canada not just to net zero emissions by 2050, as other parties have promised, but having the country get to "net negative" by then.

The Greens are also promising to establish a guaranteed livable income, abolish post-secondary tuition, introduce pharmacare and free dental care, decriminalize the possession of illicit drugs for personal use, restore the per-vote subsidy for political parties and reduce the number of people held in pretrial custody.

But true to their name, much of the platform deals with the environment and tackling climate change.

Leader Annamie Paul says in a statement that Canada has a chance to accelerate its transition to a net-zero economy and become a world leader in clean technology and renewable energy.

The Greens say that in addition to ending all fossil fuel subsidies and phasing out existing oil and gas operations, they would replace every high-paying fossil fuel sector job with a high-paying green sector job through wage insurance, retraining programs and early retirement plans.

They want 100 per cent of Canadian electricity to be produced from renewable sources by 2030.