An Evergreen New Year's Message from Brent

The evergreen tree has for centuries been a symbol of survival and hope in the cold of winter.

"Evergreen" values are what the Green Party of Canada stands for in our drive toward achieving the long term survival and sustainability of human culture.

The human species has been incredibly successful. Our population is larger than ever. People live longer than ever and have a higher average level of education. Our arts and science have advanced beyond anything our predecessors could have imagined. Canadian society today is more equitable, progessive and multicultural than it has ever been.

Yet this prosperity has brought new challenges that our old ways of thinking and doing business can no longer meet.

Last month in Montreal the international community turned a corner in recognizing climate change as the greatest threat ever faced by humanity. 189 countries agreed that the time to take action is NOW.

Canada pledged years ago to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% below 1990 levels. Yet the federal government has done next to nothing to move toward this target. Our emissions are now 24% ABOVE 1990 levels. The oil and gas industry receives $2 billion annually in federal subsidies largely hidden from the public eye, while we have utterly neglected alternative energy sources that are practical and ready to be implemented: wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels.

And if climate change weren’t enough to threaten our fragile northern ecosystems, we continue to encourage unsustainable forestry, agricultural and industrial practices aimed at short-term economic growth.

This double whammy of climate change and distressed ecosystems is putting Canada’s future prosperity in extreme jeopardy.

The fastest and most efficient way to transform our economic behaviour is to implement real-cost accounting through differential taxation. Sustainably produced goods and services should receive tax breaks, while unsustainable ones should be taxed higher so that their real costs to public health and wealth are accounted for.

We have already learned to do this with alcohol and tobacco. We must expand this practice to encompass refined sugar, metals, agricultural chemicals, factory farms, fossil fuels, and clear-cut forestry. In tandem with tax incentives for extended-producer-responsibility programs and renewable energy development, we can transform the way we do business.

Consumers and industry will continue to have choice, but we will no longer publically subsidize unsustainable behaviour. Our health will improve, our resource consumption will drop, and we will save some of Canada for our children and our children’s children.

WE CAN make Canada a better place to live today and leave something for the future. Your support of the Green Party in this election will send a message that needs to be heard in Ottawa. The time for change is NOW.

Brent Wood