"Sustainable B.C." is an 11-page outline of how an New Democrat government would operate.
govern with integrity, based on clearly articulated principles
B.C. would be governed as a place where a diversified economy operates "within the environmental carrying capacity."
equity "in sharing the wealth of the province fairly among all British Columbians."
social-equity stands in favour of equal opportunity for all,
"full cost accounting"
full support for the precautionary principle: When in doubt -- don't.
sustainability law
Commissioner for Sustainability
"genuine" progress indicators
an environmental bill of rights under which anyone anywhere would have the right to object to any perceived degradation of the environment.
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[The following article is another great example of corporate media attempting to trash good ideas and to keep supporting what?.]
NDP master plan fails the sniff test
| Les Leyne |
| Times Colonist |
Saturday, November 24, 2007
New Democrats are putting a lot of faith in the political impact of a new sustainability doctrine they adopted on the weekend.
It's misplaced.
"Sustainable B.C." is an 11-page outline of how an New Democrat government would operate. The vision is fine and the principles are motherhood. But the "action agenda" is overconfidently based on the idea it's going to win them the next election. The party seems wildly optimistic they'll rocket to the top of the polls now that "Sustainable B.C." is the official lens through which they will view anything and everything.
"It is an inspiring 'brand' by which the NDP can win politically and govern with integrity, based on clearly articulated principles," says the conclusion. "Sustainable B.C. can become a powerful and persuasive central theme of the 2009 campaign."
If they were running against a party that was ignoring climate change, maybe. But the B.C. Liberals have enough on the go that there's just not a big enough difference between the two parties on that front. The Liberals introduced legislation backing up the greenhouse-gas emission reduction targets two days after the NDP adopted Sustainable B.C. And the government has a whole suite of measures in the works leading up to a green budget next February. The sustainability vision may keep the NDP in the race, but it doesn't put them out in front enough to win.
That hasn't stopped them from investing a lot of hope in the document, which was adopted as a new creed at their weekend convention.
The idea is that B.C. would be governed as a place where a diversified economy operates "within the environmental carrying capacity."
Where there's equity "in sharing the wealth of the province fairly among all British Columbians."
The principles behind that vision go well beyond environmental concerns. They encompass social-equity stands in favour of equal opportunity for all, "full cost accounting" to measure the real cost of everything and full support for the precautionary principle: When in doubt -- don't.
There are few specifics in the document, and the few there are need fleshing out. One is the promise of a sustainability law in which the province would make a formal and enduring commitment to sustainability. Another is the appointment of a Commissioner for Sustainability. They also promise "genuine" progress indicators, as opposed to the presumably bogus ones the Liberals use.
There's also an environmental bill of rights under which anyone anywhere would have the right to object to any perceived degradation of the environment.
Those are outstanding political-science theories of the sort that blow up in your face when you apply them to day-to-day decisions in government. They point in the direction of paralysis on some major issues. They hint at a bureaucratic buildup of the kind the Opposition is starting to sniff about in the Liberal government. And they ignore the fact the Liberals have a reasonably independent Progress Board that has been holding them to consistently rigorous standards on various social fronts.
New Democrats are quick to acknowledge many of them need further study and a greater level of detail. That's exactly the stand Liberals have been taking for months on the implications of their climate change package, and it's the one the New Democrats have been criticizing.
If both sides are still groping to understand the staggering implications of the kind of change they are both committed to, they can't very well criticize each other for not having a finished product on the policy shelf.
Liberals and New Democrats are slowly building two big policy frameworks behind their virtually identical stands in favour of decisive action on climate change.
Liberals have been building a big new secretariat to tackle climate change. They are the first Canadian government with legislated emission targets. They've enrolled B.C. in some ambitious international initiatives. They have a distinguished new team of experts to come up with all the badly needed bright ideas.
The Opposition, on the other hand, is promising a new law that would hold any government to running every single decision of government through a sustainability checklist.
They also promise a commissioner to check on progress toward that goal, and a new bill of rights that "empowers citizens" to go to court over any decision with a perceived impact on the environment.
Here's the difference: Liberals are setting out to fight climate change by concentrating on greenhouse-gas emissions. They'll mount a massive but specific campaign on that one problem, while they govern as usual on other fronts. The Opposition is taking a more holistic approach that would be much more far-reaching and have many more implications.
The big problem for the NDP is that, until they form government, they feel they have to go along with much of the Liberal plan.
Which is why after hours of debate where they pointed out all the shortcomings in the Liberal approach, they voted in favour of it this week.
That doesn't sound very sustainable in the one area they haven't included in their checklist -- the politics of it all.
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