Looking Forward – Green Opportunity
TORONTO -- The Green Party will help Canada to participate in the greatest business opportunity of the century – green technology and the low-carbon economy.
While others sow fear and despair about essential measures to tackle climate change and clean up the environment, the Green Party understands that these policies are the key to good jobs and prosperity, and a healthy future for our children and grandchildren.
“The climate crisis represents the single biggest economic opportunity in the history of human enterprise,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said today during a campaign stop at the Centre for Social Innovation, a pioneering, environmentally friendly business centre in downtown Toronto.
“Those who desperately cling to outmoded dying industries will later run to catch up with the smart, low-carbon solution of a bright and green future. Green means
business!”
The Centre is in the Robertson Building -- a former Garment District warehouse retrofitted into an energy-efficient home for innovation and ideas. Occupied by breakthrough entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations, it’s a small example of the possibilities that emerge from work to cut greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollution.
The Green Party will help leading-edge companies to develop, and existing businesses to grow more efficient, green and profitable, through effective tax and policy measures along with training at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
The Green Party will:
*Gradually shift consumption taxes on to products and services such as fossil fuels and toxic chemicals that harm people and the environment, and reduce taxes on income as well as on products and economic activities that do no harm.
Under this “green tax shift,” as certain taxes increase, others – particularly on incomes and payrolls -- will decrease. We will ensure the tax shift does not unfairly burden less fortunate members of our society.
*Cut the corporate tax by $50 for each tonne of carbon emission reductions, to create a $100 per tonne saving when combined with avoided carbon tax.
*Work to keep small communities viable by ensuring opportunities for innovation and green business development are available throughout Canada, not just in major cities. We will create an accessible and integrated system for business development and growth that lets people with good ideas stay, and create jobs, in their home communities.
*Create a Small Cities Green Venture Capital Fund to support viable local green-business start-ups.
*Establish a Green Venture Capital Funding Program that will match locally raised venture capital up to a set limit per community.
To further encourage job growth and innovation, we will:
*Reduce the paperwork burden on small businesses by eliminating duplicate tax filings and red tape.
*Offer incentives for all industrial buildings to be made more energy efficient.
*Encourage big-box retail outlets to adopt parking charges, combined with better transit access and home delivery. This can be achieved through agreements with municipalities seeking federal funds.
*Require that all manufactured goods, including vehicles, be designed for easy re-use and/or recycling and, as in Germany, that they contain 90 per cent recycled materials by 2025.
*Require all appliance and equipment retailers to take back goods they have sold for recycling or repair, and help industry to establish a national deposit and recycling system.
