The Issues

Never has it been more obvious that we need a new approach for people, the economy, health and the environment. These are not separate issues, as traditional party policies would have you believe, but are interconnected in ways that we are, as a society, just beginning to realize.

Below are some of the issues most critical to me personally and to the Vancouver Centre voters who have shared their concerns.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have more to offer? Please let me know which issues are most important to you by sending me an email or calling the Adriane Carr Green Party Vancouver Centre offices at 604.689.9233

It’s our time to catch up to the Global Green Economy

Europe is currently the global leader in renewable energy technologies, employing some 200,000 people. Canada must move quickly to ramp up our renewable energy potential, with incentive programs, and by requiring provinces to adopt power ‘feed’ laws similar to Ontario’s Standard Offer Contracts. Vancouver can and should be a hub for innovation, export and employment in this area.

Furthermore, most successful applied research and commercialization is done by small and medium-sized businesses, and these business “clusters” attract more new businesses. An easily accessible system for business development must be made available in smaller cities and towns to entice home-grown entrepreneurs to stay. (This model has been very successfully applied in Sweden in the form of Technology Centres) The Green Party of Canada will also establish a federally funded Small Cities Green Venture Capital Fund to support viable local green business start-ups.

It’s our time to implement a comprehensive plan on Climate Change

Researchers were stunned in the summer of 2007 when summer Arctic sea ice extent plummeted to the lowest level ever measured.

We need effective consumer and business incentives to drive real changes in our carbon output. For instance, about 50% of Canada’s CO2 emissions are produced by Large Final Emitters, (LFEs),including companies in mining, manufacturing, oil, gas and thermal electricity. By setting a stringent cap on carbon emissions for these industries, and establishing an overall cap on fossil fuel extraction levels, we could stop at the source any increase of these carbon emissions in Canada.

Does that mean an end to industry? No. LFEs that reduce their emissions below their cap get carbon credits which they can sell. LFEs that emit more can purchase carbon credits to meet their caps. This is known as a ‘cap and trade’ system and is successfully practiced in other nations, including 25 of 27 member states of the European Union.

Affordable Housing

The situation in the Downtown Eastside is a local and Federal embarrassment. The links between mental health issues, drug addiction and the need for supportive social housing are well documented. An Olympic-fueled round-up of the homeless, or a US-style war on drugs are not the answer. Vancouver Centre needs a champion for compassion and results.

GLBT – moving beyond just rights

In 1996, the Green Party of Canada became the first federal party to officially support the inclusion of same-sex couples in civil marriage, and we are pleased that this issue is now settled. However, much prejudice and discrimination remains, and trans-gendered people are rarely even considered when laws and public policies are created. Our vision is of a world free from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, a world in which difference is accepted and even celebrated.

Green Party MPs will:

- Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to explicitly include gender identity and gender expression as protected grounds of discrimination.

- Amend the Criminal Code to include gender identity and gender expression in the hate sentencing and hate propaganda provisions.

- Repeal s.159 of the Criminal Code.

- Support public education to end prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

- End the targeting by Canada Customs of LGBT bookstores and other LGBT businesses.

- Ensure Canada advocates internationally for an end to state-sanctioned discrimination and violence against LGBT people.

Better Transit, not more congested Gateway roads

We’d cancel federal funding for Gateway and offer it instead to Metro Vancouver to buy more buses, develop walking and bike paths and build a world class transit and rail system.

Forward-looking Immigration Policy

Canada needs a proactive solution for the millions of potential environmental refugees who will be forced from their homes by the effects of global warming. At the same time, we need to do more to speed the certification of credentials for the qualified professionals our population requres.

Improving our Health: Food, Environment, Care

We will develop a National Agricultural and Food policy that actually pays farmers to apply agricultural practices that maintain and increase carbon sequestration into the soil, ultimately evolving to 100% organic farming over time.
We will also enable local food economies to develop area-specific food regulations that work.

Adriane Carr, Deputy Leader GPC visits organic farm near Senneville, Quebec.

The Green Party of Canada will also expand provincial health insurance to cover proven alternative therapies, such as chiropractic, massage and acupuncture.One alternative we will never consider, however, is a two-tiered, for-profit health care model. We will use all federal funding appropriately to defend and maintain our public system.

Protect Our Environment

The Green Party of Canada will require vehicle emissions to reduce CO2 by 30% by 2015 and 85% by 2040. All appliances will likewise have to meet Energy Star® rating by 2015, and we will phase out inefficient appliances and light bulbs, some by 2010.

The Green Party of Canada will also promote hemp and agricultural cellulose wood waste as sources of paper fibre to reduce the pressure on standing forests and create long-term employment in our resource sector.

International leadership

Canada’s role in Afghanistan must shift back to more diplomacy, appropriate development and creative peace-building strategies. The Green Party does not support further Canadian participation in the NATO-led combat mission to Southern Afghanistan, but neither do we believe that all of our troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan. We support a continued Canadian security presence in the Kabul area and the Central and Northern provinces as part of the UN sanctioned “Blue Helmet” reconstruction effort. This effort would focus on rebuilding critical infrastructure that was destroyed through decades of war as well as provide continued training to Afghanistan Army and Police Forces so that they can fully take over from international security forces as soon as possible.

Short-term security and stability in Southern Afghanistan will depend on expanding the presence of a multilateral UN mission that includes Muslim and other non-Christian UN member nations as well as expanding the involvement of the Afghan National Army and Police. This would counter the Islamic militants’ portrayal of the war as a “clash of civilizations.” If the Taliban continue to be able to frame the Afghanistan conflict as a “Jihad”—a successful recruiting tactic in the Kandahar region and beyond—they will surely outlast any international stabilization efforts.