BC Greens leader: Carbon tax 'punishes people,' slams 'massive wealth transfer' to billionaires.

I'm Jim Chuck you're watching Colona now today I have with me Sonia first to know of the BC green party the leader of the BC green party thank you for coming on delighted to be here Jim yeah so uh it's kind of an interesting election for sure the green party is now leading the opposition party in many polls what what do you have to say to that yeah you know I I pay not that much attention to the polling I really focus on uh ensuring that we have really good candidates uh we approach the elections and uh candidates as representatives for their community so finding people that have already been doing really good work in their communities finding people that are standing up for people and then uh our platform of course will come out once the election uh H starts happening after September 21st and um we are going to present a vision for the province that I'm I'm very excited to share and and I think we we add a very important aspect to the conversation we've we work really hard to hold the government accountable even with two mlas and to bring issues and ideas and policies that other parties aren't talking about so we're going to continue playing that role of all the writings in BC what is there 81 I'm I get that number wrong 90 93 now there are 87 but uh okay we've had the changes to the Electoral boundary so 93 93 so how many candidates do you have do you have a candidate in every writing or are you focusing on certain writings we're certainly aiming to have a full sight of candidates and uh we have a whole bunch of announcements coming up and uh our goal is to get as close to 93 as we can and then recognizing that of course there are a a handful of writings that we're very strong in and we're going to work very hard to get mlaas elected in those writings so what do you make of um former leader of the green party Andrew Weaver's comments about John rustad and and the rise of the BC conservative party and kind of and then the the fall I guess in the polls in the polls with the BC United party you know I I spend a lot of time talking to people right now I'm I'm doing a lot of door knocking a lot of canvasing a lot of time just listening to what people have to say people are really angry and frustrated with a government that is spending a lot of money the NDP has the largest budget in BC's history $89 billion and yet we're seeing services and outcomes really not match that level of investment I totally share that level of frustration and anger what I uh am proposing what I think is very different from John rusted and the conservatives are costed uh informed and serious solutions to the problems that we're facing um for example with Healthcare we've spent years delving into Health policy um and we've landed uh with a pretty clear understanding that if we're going to make significant changes to the Health Care System it has to start with primary care we need everybody in this province to have attachment to Primary Care and the way we do that is through team-based Care community health centers um and so we could turn around the health care crisis really quickly if we invest the money in the right places and not in more bureaucracy not in more red tape um but the the the frustration and the anger I think is really fueling where where people are looking and then I'm really hopeful that as we present what are serious solutions to the very serious problems we're facing they'll recognize that somebody who is saying that climate change isn't a serious risk somebody who's uh wanting to take us backwards on reconcil ation efforts when in fact the courts the Supreme Court of Canada has made it very clear that governments have a responsibility to negotiate uh agreements with First Nations um somebody who is really turning to you know not very uh not very good kind of politics where you point at people and and you try to be divisive and hateful we don't have the the time to be doing that when we have the challenges that we're facing right now so the the NDP seems to want to paint John rustad and his party as extremist uh they've even said trumpan and and and stuff like that but the lately the actions of and the comments on some of the from John rustad I mean Elanor sturko um joining the party uh and just recently Gavin de which you would probably uh label as a progressive conservative um and then you know the the comments from Andrew Weaver that seems to Sy that John rustad is willing to listen it doesn't really line up with what the NDP is trying to paint him as and so where do you you think he fits in the Spectrum now because I I hear your comments on that he doesn't believe in climate change but then it seems like people like Gavin do obviously we just interviewed him and he and he seems to recognize climate change so he is bringing people into the party that have you know recognized that there's some you know important things to consider yeah and and I think that politics you know really should be uh an ongoing conversation about the world we're in and how we're going to solve these problems and the vision that we have for the future uh that conversation obviously gets uh more highlighted in times of Elections uh and I think that it I would like us to focus more on not personalities and not uh you know trying to convince people to be afraid but focus more on what are the Concrete Solutions that these parties are offering and and how can we make them happen yeah to say to people that voting a certain way is a threat to democracy is kind of um the real threat to democracy by telling people they don't can't exercise their vote right so I mean that is the basis of democracy is it not it it absolutely is Jim and I think what what political parties should focus on is giving people something to vote for get people excited about a vision get people excited about the idea that we can we absolutely can and have to solve these crisis we have to be able to depend on government to deliver the services that they are tasked with delivering healthare education infrastructure uh Social Services housing affordable housing these are the jobs that government has to be doing and when they fail to do it people start looking elsewhere instead of telling everybody to be afraid I would like all the parties to focus on how are you going to solve this what are your Solutions I think that's a good message for everybody to hear and and really let that resonate in their mind I'm going to bring it around to the Oak and augen um wildfires big part of what we Face here hurts tourism and hurts like people lose homes and that we've been seeing more and more wildfires climbing is a big part of of you know the be of green party how do you want to tackle wildfires I mean i' I've done so many interviews with forestry companies saying that they're not allowed to cut to manage the forest which would mitigate some of the the the wildfires how how do we deal with wildfire in a way that it's it's good for the citizens of of British Columbia and also good for the climate yeah it's such it's it's one of the most important questions we have right now in this province because I you I was in Colona last August uh the day that that fire uh took off and uh it was it was terrifying and I you know my um people in the interior in the Southeast and now in the north and Northeast are uh really having to suffer the consequences of Summer after summer of wildfires the smoke we put out an air quality piece of legislation that would at least give some people some protection from the the air pollution and ensure that there's indoor airspaces that people can go to when when the air quality is so poor but when it comes to how are we going to deal with uh with wildfires we have to step back and look at we had the Abbott Chapman report in 2018 uh uh George Abbott Mar Chapman and in that report they really laid out this is a bottomup approach we need to empower communities we need to Ure that the Investments and the resources are going to communities on the ground to be able to create uh far better and safer conditions both when it comes to Wildfire and to flooding we have the latest report out I've just got it in front of me um from the Wildfire resilience project on the state of wildfire in BC and while we uh might want to look for simple answers uh continuing to clearcut and plant uh monocultures and plantations is not the answer um we need to uh look at the landscape and ask how do we make it more resilient more biodiversity uh more cultural and preventative Burning uh is a big part of this but also ensuring that communities are getting those resources to be able to m miate and reduce the risk of wildfires on a year round basis we can't just wait for these fires to happen and then say what do we do we have to take this on and treat it like the emergency it is these Wildfire seasons are not going to just end we know that the temperatures we had just had a report come out this week that the increased temperatures as a result of climate change are making wildfires and droughts worse uh and uh we we have to start with the reality that we're in and then say how do we step by step get to a place where uh this is not the reality anymore and it's it's a it's a significant project um but it it takes it has to start with understanding the landscape working with first nation's indigenous cultural understanding of the landscape 10,000 years uh indigenous peoples have have worked in uh in harmony with nature to to mitigate these risks uh and then invest and Empower local communities to be able to do the work on the ground 94% of the the forests are on crownland and that's the responsibility of the BC government and um CO2 carbon emissions are the leading um contributor is is is forest fires so and then like I said I talked to many forestry companies I've talked to so many people and they and they say that it's mismanagement that the forestry Industries and shambles and all that stuff do you agree with that that they've done a really bad job in managing our forests and do you think that people in the Lower Mainland in that they're in a in a wetter climate they don't really see the problems that we face in the rest of British Columbia contributes to that Jim I agree wholeheartedly we have mismanaged the forest and it doesn't matter which government has been in power in this province that mismanagement has been the nature of how the land has been used it's not just mismanaged in terms of the ecosystems and the forest resiliency and the Watershed protection and all of that it's mismanaged in terms of jobs and so allowing for uh heavy industrial Machinery to be clear-cutting for us means that there are fewer and fewer jobs coming off of the the resource extraction on the land uh removing a pertinency meaning that um the the T that's harvested does not have to go to local Mills uh we've seen Mills shut down in this province uh decade over decade uh and allowing for raw raw Lumber raw resources raw trees to be exported uh from BC without those value added jobs and uh manufacturing pieces is mismanagement it's mismanagement from the beginning to the end and we have to take seriously that the role of the of the government is not just to protect the The Profit making of big industry it's to protect the communities the workers the longterm long-term sustainability of these forests so that they are uh a resource that benefits British Columbia now and into the future and we have taken this you know all at once approach to Forest in this province and we are now paying the price of that mismanagement yeah talk about jobs and Forestry and and saw mills especially when the NDP took power there were six operating Mills in Meritt there's zero operating there today uh can for pulled back big investment in Houston closed Fair Lake and then also cut shifts in in Prince George and it seems like there's a big difference between what's happening in British Columbia what's happening in Alberta their their industry is expanding ours is is falling behind um and like all those jobs lost and and and then they're saying even in in they're saying that even the pine beetle kill and the burnt trees they can't get permits to take those trees out which is basically just Dy Tinder for for for future fires and and they're very frustrated as well yeah and again I think that the the answer to this is uh empowering communities on the ground to be able to ensure that the decisions that are being made make sense for the regions and the communities that are affected by those decisions but we have to take into account more than just uh the the way that the resource can contribute to economic activity we have to look at a whole bunch of values when we're looking at long-term forestry sustainability long-term economic sustainability and uh We've really you know we've really gotten ourselves to a place where um there's there's not uh the capacity of these forests to provide the the the benefits that they should be to communities and we have to look at different models uh Community forests are are a model that that exists some places in the province where those economic benefits really stay in the community um having a pro a provincial government that really recognizes the the way in which we can transform our economic activity so that local communities are ensured of benefit and wealth back from that activity has to be front of M but recognizing as well um it's not the mid 20th century anymore we are in a very different world from when these forestry practices were put into place and we have to adapt to the world that we're in today are we better off to incentify people to make changes to Greener Solutions like solar and EVs and that instead of punishing them with a carbon tax we see in in China for instance their adoption rate of EVS is over 50% now and and they don't have a carbon tax the United States doesn't have a carbon tax so and there's people that say the carbon tax hurts the people that can least afford it the most right so are these carbon taxes necessary or should we spend more of that energy on incentify and educating the public you know the the carbon tax as it was originally thought about by economists by really conservative economists um was to put the tax at the source of pollution at the Wellhead at the M sight um and take those those uh revenues from the and return those to people uh and put them into uh the transformation of the of the economy um as a way of incentivizing what we want to see invest in solar invest in an EV um and disincentivizing what we don't want to see more pollution more carbon the it's it's unbelievable we've actually in we have the inverse of that inbc industry gets a break on carbon tax um and the most polluting Industries pay the lowest carbon tax and people are having to to take the brunt of it and not uh you know not get the benefits that they should we need a complete overhaul of this so that the price on carbon pollution is at the right place at the source of that pollution and that the people are actually benefiting from that carbon pricing not paying it and I I'm am so disappointed with how uh upside down and in particular in the last few years under the NDP this has become and uh people have lost trust people don't have uh you know confidence that this is working and and I don't blame them because um we've really had a government that has dropped the ball on how to effectively put a price on on carbon pollution so that it incentivizes what we want and disincentivizes what we don't want I I think they've politicized it so much that there's the people on one side that just resist solar NE EVS even though it might be cheaper better faster because they see it as a political wedge that they're being told to do something when the energy would be better spent in education and showing people the better way um what would you do if if the greens um assumed uh government would you would you scrap the carbon tax at the pump because there's there's people right now choosing between what they get for dinner and and how much money they can put in their car and and and put that tax back at the at the at the source and then incentify the public to do better things yeah we we actually have a a whole platform plank on on reforming taxes generally uh including reforming how the carbon tax is working because it's not it's not working the way it's supposed to be working and it is punishing the wrong people it's well it's punishing people so we have to put people at the center of this we have to put people and their well-being particularly in the situation we have right now where cost of living is so hard for most people in this province um and we also we have a we have a lot of unfairness in our tax system that the we have a very low tax rates for the wealthiest we have no wealth tax in it to speak of uh essentially in BC um there's ways that we can reform the tax system so that um people who are at the bottom and in the middle are not bearing the heaviest weight and heaviest burden of taxes in this province and uh so we've got a whole plan for that and yes yes the carbon tax needs to be reformed I've been a a strong advocate for that um and we need to we for example revenues um should be not only coming back to people to help uh address the affordability crisis but to communities to build that resilience to droughts to wildfires to floods so that we are actually building stronger more resilient communities uh and getting out in front of this battering that we are experiencing in this province uh in every season of the year I have two questions left for you one of them is the inflation report came out today 2.6 but if you take energy out and the interest rate effect it would actually probably be negative like it seems odd that they continue to say that the carbon tax is necessary that it does contribute to inflation but it clearly energy goes into everything we eat and do and everything we do all day so it it is contributing to inflation and um how would you if if we could remove that do you think that would put more money back in the pockets of people yeah I mean I I think it's really important we've been calling for a windfall profits tax I was just looking at the profits of shell which is one of the owners of the co-owners of the LG Canada project 26 billion dollars in profits not revenues in profits and uh until governments have the backbone to say that multinational corporations and industries cannot extract that amount of profit without being expected to pay some appropriate level of taxes that can then be used to to buffer the burden of these uh out of a control expenses for people um we're going to keep seeing the same Trends we have seen Jim an absolutely massive transfer of wealth in the last four years uh where the billionaire class the billionaires that used to have a collective wealth in the tens of billions now have a collective wealth over 12 trillion dollars and until we have politicians that are willing to talk about the inequality that has been allowed to happen in the last four years in in not just in BC in Canada and around the world because governments have sat back and let companies and corporations take massive massive profits at the expense of regular people um we're going to see this continuing pain that people are feeling we need governments to step in and play that role that they're supposed to P play in protecting people and not allowing this kind of uh uh incredibly outrageous profit taking at the expense of people well we see a lot of corporate welfare being do out both at the provincial and federal level as well and then the the the consumer ends up paying more tax and and but it seems like we're were're able to Dole out billions of dollars to you know somebody that's going to put a plant in here and there and and a lot of the and then a lot of automation going on it's actually a loss of jobs in many cases um yeah the the last question I have for you today is that we I think we did a story yesterday um the standard of living in Canada has dropped in the past year and in BC was one of the worst places um yeah do you have any comments on that yeah yeah I I do and I think you know I'm I was born in 1970 I grew up in a country where we had a social safety net where we had governments that invested in excellent public education and health care and infrastructure and Transit and those are the ways that governments can ensure that there is a baseline of standard of living for everybody uh investing in in affordable housing we had uh the last 40 years we are now paying the price of that loss of investment in Co-op and non-market housing um the way that governments can play a role in ensuring that standard of living for people does not drop uh is to ensure that there is uh accessible reliable affordable public transit that there is child care that there is excellent public education that we can count on a Health Care system to be there when we need it and not have to contemplate spending tens of thousands of dollars to go elsewhere to get the health care that we have been paying taxes for um we have a significant problem with governments not delivering the services that they are paid for paid by us to deliver and those services are meant to be that that Baseline to ensure that there is a decent standard of living for all Canadians and uh we need to ensure that governments are are doing their job and that's what we're going to put forward in our platform is ways that we can affordably effectively uh responsibly solve these problems and actually end up saving money not just for people but for governments so when can we see your platform um and then when can we see your Full Slate of candidates what when do we expect that that timeline yeah the Full Slate of candidates I we have a a small and very hardworking field team that is is getting that full site of candidates hopefully by uh mid-september we'll be able to have uh almost all of our candidates announced and we will be releasing our platform early into the election rip period so that all British Colombians can see the vision that we have for BC if if you end up in an Andrew Weaver situation where you can actually form the government with the other party which party would you rather that be look I am I I call this Jim since I've been involved in politics it's been uh 10 years since I was elected as a local area director and S years since I've been an MLA and I say it's the everybody to the table method um we built a leadership team in cin had the MP the MLA the Mayors chief of cowch and tribes from the entire Spectrum across all jurisdictions and it's amazing how many problems you can solve when you sit down at a table and are willing to listen and put those Solutions forward and then move forward with them for me it is everyone to the table we have so many overlapping crises that we have to move Beyond this old style of politics that says I just absolutely refuse to work with this person or that person and we have to find ways to work together so that we are serving the people we're supposed to serve and that is every British Colombian that's some refreshing messages from you it's it's great to hear um that's all I have is there anything else that you'd want to add to speak to the people that Central Logan anything that you want to leave them with um well one I really appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation with you Jim and happy to happy to carry it on any time um the people of central Okanagan and you live in a a spectacularly beautiful but a place that has really been battered in the last several years by the impacts of climate change and what you need uh is uh a government that's willing to work with with your communities not tell you what is needed and what to do but to really work from the ground up to to put the solutions and get going on those Solutions as fast as we can we can do so much if we focus our our energy and attention and resources in the right places well I wish you well and I and I'm sure we'll talk again we'd like to have you on more often I think your voice needs to be heard thank you Jim I really appreciate it all right thank you and thank you for watching Colona now