The Hupacasath have taken Prime Minister Stephen Harper to court over his failure to consult with them on the Canada-China Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), contrary to their constitutionally protected legal right.

“Stephen Harper planned to quietly table the treaty, hoping no one would notice, and then ratify it through Cabinet when Canadians weren’t looking,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.  “Fortunately, the Hupacasath have challenged his right to act unilaterally on an agreement which will have a huge and destructive impact on Canada for at least 31 years.”

The Green Party called on its members and all concerned Canadians to join the Hupacasath, Idle No More, and others for a rally in support of the FIPA court challenge.

Where: Vancouver Federal Courthouse, 701 West Georgia,  Pacific Centre
When:  12:30 pm, June 5 (6&7)

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Well, of course, that isn’t true in real life. In real life, we have both a fiscal deficit and an infrastructure deficit (not to mention the more pressing ecological deficit), and none of them are subject to a plausible plan leading to elimination.

In Montreal, some of the water pipes that run under the city are so old that they are made of wood. Across Canada, water works are antiquated and designed for a climate we no longer haveas increased and more intense deluges lead to raw sewage bypassing treatment to enter rivers and seas, untreated. We have bridges that are shut down for repairs, in Saskatchewan and Quebec.

In six Western Canadian cities alone, (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg), the Canada West Foundation puts the infrastructure deficit in 2003 at $543-million. That critical weakness in infrastructure is in roads and bridges, water-works, lack of efficient public transit, lighting, waste disposal and on and on.

The most recent figures I could find come from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) in its January 2013 report. According to the CCPA, the extent of gap between safe and modern infrastructure and our current situation is $145-billion worth of missing investment. To address the threat posed by crumbling infrastructure, CCPA says we need an additional $20-billion to $30-billion a year.

We know that kind of money is not going to come from the coffers of municipal governments. Of every dollar paid in taxes, only eight cents goes to municipal governments. Yet it is in municipalities that we experience our closest relationship with any level of government.

The current Conservative administration has done some good things in this area. The gas tax fund is now specifically tied to municipal infrastructure funding, but that is only approximately $3-billion per year. The overblown announcement, particularly in the leaks in advance of the 2013 budget, claimed that the Harper administration had committed a new high in commitment to infrastructure of $53-billion. Why not call it a $530-billion announcement? The big number comes from taking virtually status quo spending and multiplying it out by 10 years? Why not 100 years? It is no more helpful to municipalities. Worse, the spending, ($32.2-billion existing from gas tax fund and the implementation of the GST tax rebate, $14-billion in support of major infrastructure, including $4-billion for federal infrastructure spending, and $1.25-billion to renew the P3 Canada Fund) will not kick in with any funding increases until after the next election and the 2015 due date for getting to balanced budgets.

While the infrastructure deficit that exists today presents a $20-billion to 30-billion annual shortfall, the climate crisis will raise the stakes considerably. The Insurance Bureau of Canada has recommended that the federal government increase support for municipal infrastructure in response to the increased risk to assets due to the manmade destabilization of climate. Global warming is leading to increased severity and increased frequency of extreme weather events.

The U.S. General Accounting Office has determined that the threat to U.S. federal assets qualifies climate change as “high risk” to the health of U.S. government finances. Yet, here in Canada, we have no carbon reduction plan and no adaptation plan. Without both we are headed for new and unprecedented threats to our future, our economy and our infrastructure.

If anyone doubts that profound impacts of the changes brought on by global warming, review the costs of the brief burst of heavy rainfall that caused the collapse of Finch Avenue in Toronto in July 2009. This one event cost Toronto millions of dollars to repair. Warmer atmosphere contains more moisture than colder air and, as a result of global warming, Canada’s rainfall patterns have already changed. The impact is severe on infrastructure built for a different climate. This applies to roads, waterworks, and developments in floodplains.

Meanwhile, northern infrastructure is severely impacted by melting permafrost and buildings along tornado alleys requires significant adaptation investment. None of this is currently budgeted within announced funds.

Let’s agree it is time to take The High Road, make like a group of Angus McLintocks, and start funding our shared, common and public servicesroads, bridges, water-works, public transit, common spaces. It is time dedicate the resolve and funds necessary to eliminate the infrastructure deficit.

Originally published in the Hill Times.

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Committee members asked questions to departmental staff on the estimates and changes to fisheries protections under bills C-38 and C-45. Of particular interest to committee members were changes to habitat protections included in these omnibus bills, changes in the management of the coast guard, and the departmental role in regulating commercial aquaculture.

On Thursday March 7th, vice-chair Robert Chisholm introduced a motion that the committee undertake an assessment of the closure of the Kitsilano coast guard station in Vancouver in light of lack of public consultation. In response, MP Randy Kamp introduced a motion to move deliberation on Chisholm’s motion in camera. Once Kamp’s motion was carried, the committee resumed in camera where the Kitsilano motion was defeated.

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I would ask that he listen closely, because what I am going to say is important. My question in June and my question today relate to respect for the will of British Columbians. Let me speak to the will of British Columbians.

It is the will of British Columbians not to have supertankers on our coastline. That is why since 1972 there has been a moratorium. Although the port of Vancouver was grandfathered at the time, the coastline of British Columbia, and Hecate Strait in particular, which according to Environment Canada is the fourth most hazardous body of water on Earth, is not traversed by supertankers carrying oil because we have had a moratorium since 1972.

That moratorium is the will of British Columbians, and we will, as a province and as a people, continue to insist that the Prime Minister of this country respect the British Columbia firewall.

Pierre Poilievre: Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed the member wants to build a firewall around British Columbia, particularly on the issue of international shipping.

There is not an expert in the world on regulatory matters that would believe it in the interest of Canada to go to province by province regulations for shipping. We would have five or six different regimes just entering the St. Lawrence into the Great Lakes, and that would not be practical.

The reality is that we have had tankers going in and out of the British Columbia west coast since the 1930s, a total of 82 tankers last year, 1,302 tankers in the last 5 years, and 200 oil and chemical tankers safely visited the ports of Prince Rupert and Kitimat.

We have strong regulations, aerial surveillance, onboard inspections. For 20 years, as a result of these strong regulatory actions and the co-operation of industry, we have not had a single, solitary major oil spill in Canadian waters. That is a success story we should celebrate, not something we should tear down.

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Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, Jane Sterk, Leader of the Green Party of British Columbia, and Adriane Carr, Vancouver City Councillor with the Green Party of Vancouver and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada all joined forces today to say “No” to Texas-based Kinder Morgan’s project of twinning the Trans Mountain Pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby, taking its capacity from 300,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day to 850,000 barrels per day.

“Kinder Morgan wants to nearly triple the capacity of the pipeline. This is an environmental threat not only because consuming all this oil will aggravate climate change, but also because the risks of oil spills are unacceptably high. More than 100,000 litres of light crude oil was spilled at Kinder Morgan’s terminal in Abbotsford, BC, last January.

“The first round of Kinder Morgan expansion allowed off-shore buyers with tankers to out-bid the last remaining lower mainland refinery at Burnaby. We are so eager to ship out unrefined bitumen, at great environmental risk, that we are ignoring the fact that the local economy is also short-changed,” added May.

“This is an ‘old economy’ project,” said Jane Sterk, Leader of the Green Party of British Columbia. “We don’t need more supertanker traffic in the Vancouver Harbour. What we need is to build a new renewable-energy-based economy that will create good jobs, protect our environment and establish greater long-term energy security. ”

“As a Vancouver Councillor, I have been proactive in ensuring that the City of Vancouver has taken a leadership role in opposing Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion”, added Adriane Carr. “Our city needs parties at the provincial and federal levels, where the decision on Kinder Morgan’s plans will be made, to step up to the plate. Only the Green Party has done so, declaring its opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plans at all three political levels. I hope this moves the NDP and the Liberals, both of which are waffling, to join us in saying ‘No’ to all the pipeline and tanker projects that threaten our economy andenvironment.”

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The Wellesley Institute reports that as of 2010, in Canada there are between 150,000-300,000 visible homeless, between 450,000-900,000 hidden homeless, 1.3 million households residing in substandard housing in need of major repairs, and 3.1 million households residing in unaffordable housing (requiring greater than a 30% share of income).

The petition to be presented by May calls on the Government of Canada to create a National Affordable Housing Program and to reform the tax system to provide tax benefits to rental investors for the construction, maintenance and upgrading of affordable rental housing.

“The federal government must consider all measures that would maximize the affordability of market rental housing,” said May.

“Rental and real estate prices have skyrocketed to a point where the lack of affordable housing options jeopardize Vancouver’s liveability.  With Vancouver having one of the lowest vacancy rates in Canada, the highest average rents in Canada ($1,181 per month), and a dependence on rentals of condos which, according to CMHC, rent for 45% to 60% higher than purpose built apartments, it is clear that we need federal tax incentives now to support the construction and maintenance of affordable rental housing,” said Adriane Carr.

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“Vancouver’s other political parties have failed to significantly address this problem,” said Adriane Carr. “The NPA’s eco-density program, and Vision Vancouver’s STIR (Short-Term Incentives for Rental housing) program have both failed to achieve meaningful results. In fact, the STIR program has created huge controversy by allowing spot rezoning for high rise developments that don’t respect neighbourhood character, zoning, or citizen wishes,” Carr continued.

Vancouver has one of the lowest vacancy rates in Canada (between 0.6% and 2.2%, depending upon neighbourhood) and with real estate prices rising much faster than inflation, affordable housing options are shrinking. More and more Vancouverites are struggling to find reasonable rental options.

“Reinstating federal tax incentives to support the creation of affordable rental housing in Vancouver is a smart, achievable strategy,“ said Carr, “We can grow Vancouver in a way that enhances everyone’s quality of life.”

Petition attached here.

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