Alberta Liberal plan is right for environment and economy

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft isn’t going to let the politics of fear affect his commitment to taking action on climate change.

“When you protect the environment, you protect the economy,” said Taft from the campaign trail in Edmonton today. “The Alberta Liberals are the only party that has a real climate change policy in this campaign, and it’s a policy that will create green jobs and protect a strong economy, along with the health of the entire world.”

Late Friday, PC Leader Ed Stelmach’s spin machine rolled out an attack on the Alberta Liberal climate change policy, designed to instill fear into voters.

“The Tories spend unbudgeted billions of dollars at the wave of a hand on any ad-hoc idea that strikes them as a vote-getter,” Taft said. “But $1 billion is more than our environment and economy are worth to them.”

Last Thursday in Edmonton, Taft announced a real and affordable climate change policy. It includes a hard cap on greenhouse gases in five years, in contrast to the Tories promise of no reduction in emissions for over 40 years.

“It’s time for Ed Stelmach to come out from behind his spin machine and answer Albertans’ questions about how he would address one of the most pressing environmental and economic problems of our time,” Taft said.  “His handlers can attack our plan all they want, but it doesn’t change the fact that Stelmach has no idea how important it is to Alberta’s economy to deal with climate change.

“Or the fact that, yet again, the Tories are running a campaign of fear when the times call for leadership.”