Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says the Liberal government’s budget is “pathetic” in its approach to addressing climate change.
“There’s about $1.4 billion over five years, compared to spending $4.5 billion on a leaky pipeline,” she said, referring to the Kinder Morgan project that the government nationalized last year.
May told CTV News Channel just after the budget was tabled on Tuesday afternoon that the Liberals have failed to show “climate leadership.”
“We have the same climate target that we had under Stephen Harper,” she said.
The budget does include some new spending aimed at reducing climate changing emissions.
There’s $130 million over five years to expand the network of zero-emission vehicle charging and refueling stations, starting in 2019-20.
The Liberals have also set aside $300 million over three years to provide incentives of up to $5,000 for people buying electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that retail for less than $45,000. That would also start in 2019-20.
On top of that, the Liberals plan to spend $1.01 billion to increase energy efficiency in residential, commercial and multi-unit buildings, starting in 2018-19.
The budget states that “pricing carbon pollution” is central to the government’s climate change plan. It mentions that a new federal fuel charge will apply in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan starting in April 2019 and in Yukon and Nunavut starting in July 2019. The Liberals say that the proceeds from that fuel tax will be returned through the government’s Climate Action Incentive Payments.
