The provincial Green Party Leader is surprised there isn’t more support for climate change initiatives in the Gallant Government budget.
David Coon says despite broad consultation with New Brunswickers about possible action on climate change, there was little in the budget.
“And in the wake of the big ice storm there really was nothing in there to implement the Climate Strategy to move us towards a lower carbon economy that the government released just before Christmas,” says Coon.
He says despite a lot of talk from the Gallant Government, the budget for the Climate Change Secretariat barely changed.
This budget actually left funding for the #ClimateChange Secretariat almost stagnant #NB
— David Coon (@DavidCCoon) February 7, 2017
Coon believes the government may have accidentally gotten bogged down in setting a price on carbon, despite it only being one piece of the puzzle.
“And there was a big focus on helping New Brunswickers and small businesses to reduce their costs of heating, as well as helping people on low incomes do the same,” says Coon. “But there’s nothing in the budget there, even the budget there for low income hasn’t budged, despite a waiting list of, I don’t know, a year and a half or two years.”
Coon says it is a perplexing situation to say the least.
