David Suzuki delivers results of unprecedented national dialogue to Parliament Hill
Posted by Peter Endisch on April 26th, 2007 at 08:14 PDT (News)
Right at the heels of his hugely successful tour “If you were prime minister…”, David Suzuki kept his promise and delivered more then 30,000 ballots voting for the environment at Ottawa’s doorsteps. Afterwards, he was to meet the minister of environment and the opposition parties.
Five themes emerged from the public comments collected during the tour:
1. Build a sustainable, affordable public transportation system.
2. Introduce a carbon tax system to help Canada meet our Kyoto commitments.
3. Entrench the right to clean water, breathable air and a safe food supply in the Constitution.
4. Identify and protect the habitat that species-at-risk need to recover.
5. Institute a national program to penalize polluters and reward green initiatives.
These five themes translate into policy recommendations for federal leaders:
1. Develop a national sustainability plan.
2. End subsidies to polluting industries.
3. Set significant pollution reduction targets for large industries starting in 2008.
4. Meet or exceed California’s vehicle emission targets by 2009.
5. Meet our Kyoto targets.
6. Protect Canada’s species-at-risk.
I am very happy at the outcome, having suggested as well point #3 and #5 specifically. It’s a great feeling knowing you actually participate at fleshing these ideas out and have someone like David deliver them to our politicians. Now we need to make sure we keep the pressure on our politicians to make sure they don’t pass inefficient policies – we want real action. If Europe, Australia and other countries can do it, why not Canadians?
Read the full press release here.
