Jordan Wilkie

A Green Party of Alberta government will ensure that all government policy is guided by the Party’s 6 guiding principles. Where choices must be made between material standard of living and quality of life for future generations, a Green Party of Alberta government will prioritize the latter. The Green Party of Alberta government will recognize that climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity and supports the creation of a climate change strategy at the provincial level that would determine mitigation and adaptation strategies for Alberta, and implement those strategies.

A Green Party of Alberta government will recognize climate change as a serious threat to humanity globally. A Green Party of Alberta government will support much more rigorous regulation of the oil and gas industry. The Party also recognizes Alberta’s ethical obligation to contribute to the solution of climate change and supports an orderly transition from dependence on fossil fuel exploitation to reliance on the full range of renewable energy sources available in the province, including wind, solar power and geo-thermal. The Party endorses the fastest possible retirement of Alberta’s coal- burning electricity plants and is against any expansion in the rate of production from the oil sands. A Green Party of Alberta government will place a moratorium on development of additional tar sands projects until the impacts of existing and approved projects on the environment, infrastructure and society are assessed and an overall development policy is created. A Green Party of Alberta government will impose an immediate and permanent rescission* and ban on coal leasing, and on the licensing of coal exploration, coal development, and coal mining in the entire province of Alberta on both Crown and freehold lands.

A Green Party of Alberta government will implement a Guaranteed Annual Income in this province. Implementing this program would eliminate many of the current bureaucratic, highly administrative interventions that now exist; their ineffectiveness only exceeded by the humiliation they perpetuate. The current income tax system can administer this program without any additional bureaucracy. A Green Party of Alberta government will supplement the guaranteed annual income where needed.

A Green Party of Alberta government will legislate reasonable access to flexible work practices, including telecommuting and flexible work hours in order to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by unnecessary commuting, heating empty offices and homes, and rush hour idling. The regulatory framework would require employers to justify refusing a request for flexible work arrangements. The framework would also stipulate occupational health and safety standards for staff who work off-site.

A Green Party Government will ban multi-stage, high pressure hydraulic fracturing in Alberta. Whereas wells which have been fracked have given rise to serious problems, the effects on the environment must be assessed and mitigated to the highest degree possible. Be it resolved that a Green Party of Alberta Government will require that the concentrations and compositions of all additives to frack fluids be made available on a public data base and easily accessed by legal land description. A Green Party of Alberta Government will require groundwater testing of all public and private water wells within an eight kilometer radius of each multi-stage, high pressure, hydraulic fracked well, including testing for all additives in the frack fluid used in that well. Results of such testing must be made publicly available and easily accessed by legal land description.

A Green Party of Alberta government will support changes that would see the cost of prescription drugs covered by our provincial healthcare program. A Green Party of Alberta government will recognize that the costs to government of providing pharmacare will be less if implementation of this program is put in place and coordinated across the country. For example, the provinces will be able to get a better price on many drugs if they purchase them jointly rather than province by province. Accordingly, the Green Party strongly supports a pan-Canadian approach to implementation of pharmacare but wants to see the province of Alberta show leadership on this issue.

With ecological wisdom and sustainability two key Green principles, environmental protection lies at the heart of Green Party thinking. A Green Party of Alberta government will beef up every aspect of environmental protection and weave environmental criteria into other policy areas whenever appropriate. For example, when provincial electoral boundaries are next redrawn, the Green Party of Alberta government will urge that ecosystem boundaries be included as a mandatory consideration. A Green Party of Alberta government will keep and maintain all existing parks and protected areas in the Alberta Parks System. A Green Party of Alberta government will continue to expand the Alberta Parks system to fulfill the goal of protecting areas of significant ecological value.

A Green Party of Alberta government will acknowledge the genocide of Indigenous peoples of Canada, inclusive of First Nations, Metis and Inuit. The Green Party of Alberta government will recognize the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples of Canada, which requires the duty to consult and obtain consent in regard to the consequences of genocide and the healing required. The commitment to the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples will permeate all policy development, lawmaking and day-to-day operations. A Green Party of Alberta government will abide by both the letter and the spirit of the constitutional duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous peoples when the Crown’s conduct impacts Indigenous or Treaty rights. A Green Party of Alberta government will negotiate revenue sharing with Indigenous communities affected by resource developments. A Green Party of Alberta government will negotiate co-management regimes with Indigenous communities affected by resource developments. A Green Party of Alberta government will enforce compliance with conditions attached to licenses and permits, issued by government, that allow projects to proceed. A Green Party of Alberta government will make loans and advances against shared revenue available to Indigenous communities.

A Green Party of Alberta government will provide assistance to all producers to certify under the existing Alberta Environmental Farm Plan process and to continue applying the prescribed environmental protection measures. A Green Party of Alberta government will engage in a dialogue with farmers and ranchers to assist them in shifting to an agroecological system, meaning farming in harmony with nature, in order to create a resilient food system that strengthens food security and sovereignty, enables sustainable farmer livelihood, supports rural economies, and helps to resolve the climate and biodiversity crises. It will do so by providing subsidies, tax breaks and other financial incentives for agroecological practices, including but not limited to maintaining and planting shelterbelts, protecting wetlands, conserving native-grass prairie, regenerative soil practices, non-industrial no-till methods, use of natural fertilizers that benefit both crops and soil, complex crop rotation and inter-cropping, and by assisting farmers and ranchers who wish to obtain organic or regenerative organic certification.