Trudeau vows to go 'further, faster' on climate policy in his third term
BNN Bloomberg
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sketched out his government’s third-term agenda, emphasizing the need for strong action on climate change as Canada grapples with unprecedented flooding along its Pacific coast.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sketched out his government’s third-term agenda, emphasizing the need for strong action on climate change as Canada grapples with unprecedented flooding along its Pacific coast.
Building a resilient post-pandemic economy, underpinned by the country’s first national childcare plan, and continuing to address the historic harms done to Indigenous people are also top priorities, the government said Tuesday during a so-called throne speech in Ottawa.
The broad-strokes address, delivered by Governor General Mary Simon but written by the prime minister’s office, comes two months after the government was returned to power. Though the incumbent Liberals won a plurality of seats, they lost the popular vote and failed to secure the parliamentary majority Trudeau had coveted, leaving him reliant on opposition parties to pass legislation.
“The government is taking real action to fight climate change. Now, we must go further, faster,” Simon said, according to the prepared text of the speech. “That means moving to cap and cut oil and gas sector emissions, while accelerating our path to a 100 per cent net-zero electricity future.”
After a first term dominated by Donald Trump’s election in the U.S., and a second sent off course by COVID-19, Trudeau begins his third mandate facing a climate crisis in British Columbia.
Vancouver, Canada’s third largest city and a key shipping port, was essentially cut off from the country by road and rail last week after torrential rains put large swathes of farmland under water. The westernmost province, which also saw hundreds die amid wildfires and extreme heat this summer, is now rationing fuel as soldiers race to shore up infrastructure with another wave of precipitation rolling through.
