Alayne McGregor
An Ottawa Centre election debate on the environment came to life when the candidates talked about riding-specific issues.
The September 8 virtual debate featured four candidates: Alex McDonald (Communist), Angela Keller-Herzog (Green), Angella MacEwen (NDP), and Yasir Naqvi (Liberal). The Conservative candidate could not attend. Their discussion was substantially more civil than the federal leaders’ debate, but generally reflected their parties’ policy books.
The event was part of GreenPAC’s cross-country initiative, 100 Debates on the Environment, and was hosted by non-profit Evidence for Democracy.
The candidates agreed that the climate crisis was the number one issue they were hearing at the door from electors.
The organizers posed four questions to the candidates on issues like nature loss, reducing emissions, ending all government subsidies for fossil fuels, equity in recovering from the pandemic, and supporting the rights of indigenous peoples.
The final question was from the audience: “What is the most pressing environmental issue facing our riding, and what will you do about it?”
Yasir Naqvi highlighted his Climate Action Plan for the riding, which aims to reduce air pollution and improve traffic safety especially for children going to school. He wanted to work with the city to create dedicated pathways for those who ski, walk, cycle, and roll. As OC Transpo electrifies its bus fleet, he suggested, “there is a great opportunity to apply some of those buses first in our inner city on local routes.”
Alex McDonald said that the city has been concerned about reducing emissions from transportation for the last 30 years, but has not been able to buy non-fossil-fuel-powered cars or buses. He called for the nationalization of the Big Three automakers and having them retool to produce affordable zero-emission vehicles.
Angela Keller-Herzog said she had heard from voters that many were suffering from “eco-anxiety.” She said her daughter told her that she had a lot of eco-anxiety: “That’s why you’re so busy and active and running around like a crazy chicken trying to be a climate activist.”
She said the government should offer more direct help to citizens by redirecting half of current fossil fuel subsidies into subsidies for community renewable energy projects like household solar panels, affordable home energy retrofits, or improving the urban forest.
Angella MacEwen said a lot of climate solutions are at the municipal level, and called for low-cost federal loans for investments in transit and complete streets so that people (including the disabled) can use modes other than cars.
Too many of these projects, however, have been undertaken as private-public partnerships (P3s), she said, with federal encouragement. Six to eight percent return is built into those deals, she said, and in cases like Ottawa’s LRT, corners have been cut.
“It’s a disaster. There was much possibility there. If we had built it as a public good, which it is, instead of through a private company, it would have been cheaper and it would have been higher quality.”
You can watch the entire debate on Evidence for Democracy’s Facebook page.