![]() It is clear that we have a problem of systemic racism that our government is doing almost nothing to address. Canada is not adequately taking into account indigenous science and indigenous knowledge in relation to the environment and its protection. Canada is not adequately supporting the efforts of indigenous peoples to adapt to the climate crisis and is failing to do its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is warming at more than twice the global rate, and northern Canada is about three times the global rate, depleting traditional food sources, driving up the cost of imported alternatives and contributing to a growing problem of food insecurity and related negative health impacts. ![]() We know that the climate crisis is disproportionately impacting indigenous peoples. In fact, our public ground transportation system is worse than in any developing country I have ever visited. Also, for seniors and for a lot of us, being forced to drive on unsafe roads, particularly during hazardous winter blizzards, to get to doctors' appointments does not suggest we are a wealthy industrialized society. ![]() If people want to get from Kamloops to Prince George, if they want to get from Kamloops to Vancouver or any of these routes, or if they want to get from Moncton to Campbellton, they have almost no way to travel if they do not own a car. The most marginalized people in our society are forced into hitchhiking because we act like there is not a problem. One of the key recommendations of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was that people need to be able to get access to safe and affordable public transit so they are not hitchhiking. ![]() Again, this is more than transportation and this is more than climate policy. It should be factored into our record because we are the ones who decided to extract it. That means that if it is consumed abroad because we exported it, it is not counted as part of our record, which is completely unrealistic, anti‑scientific and hypocritical. That oil produces 85% of its pollution when it is burned, when it is consumed. Yes, we are aware that extracting oil in this way is less polluting than the oil sands, but production in the oil sands has not decreased either. A decision like the one on the Bay du Nord development project is not going to take us in the right direction because we are once again going to increase oil production in Canada through a totally irresponsible project. We are not going to get there with decisions like the one on the Bay du Nord project, which, fortunately, is not in the budget. That is not how we are going to meet our international obligations and provide a brighter and more reassuring future for our children and grandchildren. There were no trucks or cars in the street, no transportation, no manufacturing. They celebrated that decline even though they had nothing to do with it and the economy was basically a standstill. In 2020, the economy was on pause because of the global pandemic. Recently I was amazed to learn that Canada's greenhouse gas emissions had gone down for the first time since the Liberals have been in power, but that was for 2020.
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