Carrot and Stick / Green Tax Shift

Once we have measurements in place and we know where the problems are, we need to begin correcting them as quickly as possible. This will be done through a carrot and stick approach. The Green Party often calls this a Green Tax Shift. It is not true taxation. Taxation is something that never goes away. This is a system of rewards and penalties. The penalties will take the form of polluter pay policies where polluting businesses will be charged for the damages they are doing and the clean up required. The carrot or rewards will take many forms like low interest loans, tax credits and even some capital investment.

Both the rewards and penalties will be structured so that they will be phased out. There will be no money collected on a polluter pay system when there are no more polluters. There will be no additional incentive to transition to a sustainable technology if all of the technology is sustainable.

This is a necessary step but it is also part of the just transition. We need to start to make changes immediately but that change needs to be managed. There need to be ways for people to move from where they are now to where they need to be.

Measurement
Measurement is about having a road map for success. It is not enough to want to change to a sustainable society. We have to know where we are going. We have to know the things that are good and the things we want changed. A lot of work has been done on measuring our society. Currently the government uses and indicator called the GDP or Gross Domestic Product. The way this indicator works is that it totals up all the money spent in society and if the amount goes up we say that it is good and if the amount goes down we say that is bad.

So if we spend a lot of money on pollution clean up then the GDP goes up and the conservative government says they are doing a good job. In Alberta we have a lot of money passing through the province but it is not going into the hands of the people. GDP is up but our quality of life is not. The GDP represents profit over people.

There are other indicators like the GPI or Genuine Progress Indicator. The GPI measures the economic, social and environmental factors in society. Good things like money in your pocket and untouched wilderness are considered positive and poverty or pollution clean-up are considered negative. The Pembina institute has done a GPI indicator that can be found at Sustainability Trends. If we look at this indicator we can see that Alberta has been getting progressively worse since about 1980.

The Conservative government has managed to pay off the economic debt at the expense of increased social and environmental costs. We have eliminated one debt and created 2 more. This is not real progress.

We need to turn this around. The Green party would put into place a GPI indicator. This would allow us to determine if things are actually getting better. The GPI represents people over profit.

Just Transition

I am constantly getting asked, "How are you going to change to a sustainable economy?"

The plan is very simple. We have a 5 point plan to change Alberta to a sustainable society. The 5 points are as follows:

1) Measurement
2) Carrot and Stick / Green Tax Shift
3) Education / Innovation
4) Community based economic development
5) Cradle to cradle

Over the next few days I am going to write about each of these in detail but at this point I would just like to say that the plan is a "just transition". We will be moving to a sustainable economy over a period of years and we will be doing this with as little disruption as possible. It has to be done. We know that oil production in the Western Basin has peaked. We know that conventional oil is on the way out. We need to begin building a new Alberta right now.

The Green party has a plan to begin this move. We have a vision for a sustainable Alberta. I hope that you will work with me to build it.