With Canadians heading to the polls on Sept. 20, 2021, the NOW has sent Q&As to each candidate listed in Burnaby South and Burnaby North-Seymour.
The same Q&A has been sent to each candidate and answers have not been changed or altered.
BURNABY SOUTH - MAUREEN CURRAN - GREEN PARTY OF CANADA
Question: What are your thoughts on the TMX pipeline project? Should it go ahead? Why or why not?
Answer: Absolutely not! This project makes no sense, economically or environmentally. Expanding fossil fuel production during a Climate Emergency is like closing hospitals and laying off nurses in a pandemic. It is pushing us into an impossible position where we cannot lower our emissions enough to give us any chance of staying below 1.5 degrees; by building this pipeline Canada is sentencing millions to even more fires, floods, drought and disaster.
Just yesterday it was announced that CHUBB (one of the largest insurance companies in the world) has dropped its support of the TMX pipeline. That is 16 financial institutions who looked at it and said – no thanks, too risky. It is also already running a year behind schedule and massively over budget – and its only 30% finished. Why are we wasting billions we need for our communities? That money needs to go to workers for retraining and to building infrastructure that will not be obsolete in 5-10 years.
Question: What are your views on a snap election being called two years since 2019 and during the start of a 4th COVID-19 wave in Canada?
Answer: It's opportunistic and sadly shows that, once again, parties are putting their own desires for more power ahead of our rights. This is why we need voting reform. No one should be allowed to take 37% of the vote and grab a majority government that silences other voices. Our diversity is our strength and we need governments that actually want to collaborate and take the best ideas and make them work for Canadians. Voting reform is over due. If we had the kind of collaboration we see in New Zealand and Denmark, the data shows we would have had better, faster pandemic responses and would be well on our way to getting off fossil fuels.
Question: What are your views on climate change? What will you/your party do to address the worsening situation?
Answer: There is no other party that is addressing this crises with science. Most of the parties are playing with numbers, like we can negotiate with the laws of physics. The IPCC report stated clearly we cannot have any more infrastructure or exploration, but we see that new projects are still getting stamped with approval. It also said large contributors have to make cuts in the order of 60% ; Canada is in the top 3 per capita and one of the largest exporters too, so that means us. And we CAN do it, but it will take real leadership to stand up to the corporations that are stopping us from doing it.
Oil and gas have been cutting jobs and recording record profits, but we keep pouring more money into subsidizing them. It’s time to get Canada back into its old role of being a climate leader, not the one slowing down global responses.
Question: What do you currently think of the federal government’s COVID-19 response?
Answer: It had some great moments. I liked how the parties started off working together. We need to see more of that. What I don’t understand is why so many supports are being withdrawn when the pandemic is clearly NOT over yet! Many businesses will need some long term support because tourism is going to take a while to come back, and those employees need our help. Most of all we need to stop acting after the fact and start planning ahead. The fact that a pandemic was likely and we needed publicly run vaccine production was pointed out by scientists over and over, just like climate issues. Now we are scrambling to go back and fill that gap, but in the meantime, many people suffered. This has to be changed. Politicians have to listen to facts.
Question: What will you and your party do to address the housing situation, especially in the Metro Vancouver area?
Answer: Housing is a human right. The Green party already put forward a motion to have a national housing crisis declared, but it was turned down. For 40 years we had the same two parties letting this problem get completely out of hand and they want us to believe more of the same will cure it. It’s time for change
We have a comprehensive plan that includes support for renters (for ex: national rent control and a moratorium on evictions during a pandemic) as well as plans to support municipalities in building the coop and subsidized housing needed, including a solid percentage that will be designated for seniors and people with disabilities. We also want to partner with Indigenous communities to allow them better access to funding for housing on their own land as well as designing appropriate urban supportive housing.
Question: Why should voters vote for you? What would you say to those undecided and debating not voting at all?
Answer: This may be the most important election ever. We have a short window left to make a difference and keep our world habitable. The folks who have been in charge have shown they cannot or will not be climate leaders. With them at the helm we are likely to end up with over 2 degrees and that means tens of millions of deaths and hundreds of millions without homes. What we saw this summer was just a tiny taste of how bad it will get – like the pandemic this is an exponential curve and we need to act now to bend it. Our kids depend on it.
