Sarah Hoffman, one of the candidates to lead the Alberta NDP, boldly announced a climate change policy that tore a page right from the book of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
At any rate, Hoffman’s idea of establishing a Youth Climate Corps (YCC) to connect young people “with good-paying jobs that take meaningful action in response to climate change” reminded me of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which kind of did the same thing.
The CCC, established in 1933, was a key part of the American president’s New Deal response to the Great Depression.
The YCC, structured as a Crown corporation, would be “a one-stop shop for young Albertans who want to take control of their own climate destiny,” Hoffman told a news conference at an Edmonton solar energy equipment supply company.
It would offer “union jobs with embedded training, trades qualifications and post-secondary education,” she explained.
Hoffman’s YCC, if it ever got a chance to get off the ground, could offer a sort of new deal too as Alberta transitions from a carbon based economy to something new – which is going to happen, no matter how much the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) wants to pretend it won’t.
Alas, the timing is probably all wrong.
The US was in the depths of the Depression by the time President Roosevelt created the most popular of all New Deal programs.
Alberta, by contrast, is still deep in denial about the impact of climate change and Albertans still dream we’re on the cusp of one more oil boom, even if it’s the last one. And that could happen, even if we face a harsher reckoning afterward.
Desperation, not false optimism, would be required to make something like the YCC catch fire – which is probably not the ideal metaphor, considering what’s likely to happen to Alberta’s forests in the summer of ’24, but you all know what I mean.
So while it was undoubtedly a disappointment to Hoffman’s campaign staff, maybe it’s just as well that Alberta media seems to have completely ignored her announcement. After all, we all know the kind of things Conservatives start to say when the concepts of a new deal and a green policy start to get too close to one another!
Still, as a serious candidate to lead the largest Opposition in Alberta history, the former health minister deserved better than that.
It’s a sign of the times that this province’s media is no longer capable of covering more than one major Alberta story in a single day – and Wednesday’s was still the festering “Motelgate” continuing-care scandal.
As a result, another important policy proposal by Hoffman was also ignored – her plan to replace the politically unsalable carbon-tax, now on life support thanks to the federal Liberals’ boutique exemptions and Conservative provincial governments’ anti-tax hysteria, with “a provincial cap and trade system guided by three principles.”
“The first is that the polluter pays,” Hoffman said. “Corporations who are making record profits from pulling carbon out of the ground need to be in the business of pulling it out of the air.
“The second is that public dollars should be used to help members of the public reduce their emissions and their energy bills.”
“And the third is that we need to build the economy of the future now.”
With the idea of carbon taxes all but dead with Canadian electorates, the cap-and-trade emissions trading idea – another market mechanism thought to be more palatable to industry than hard caps – is likely to gain traction with other candidates and even other political parties.
In a news release, Hoffman set out other climate policy goals:
- Replace industry subsidies and funding for the so-called Energy War Room and use it to help Albertans reduce emissions and cut their energy bills
- Create a Solar-for-All program to help cut energy costs for everyone
- Establish a Crown corporation to provide low-emission public transportation between Alberta communities and build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- Cancel the UCP’s EV tax and replace it with an EV rebate
In addition, she said, on Day One she would reverse the UCP’s policy of sabotaging renewable energy projects. “Our American competitors are racing ahead on this while Alberta is standing still,” she said.
“When I see what Alberta is facing, like catastrophic drought, unprecedented wildfires and air that isn’t safe for kids to breathe on a summer day, I know we have to take dramatic action,” Hoffman said. “The time for creative accounting, fun with numbers, and aspirational goals is over. We must reduce the carbon emissions that drive climate change and threaten our way of life.”
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