Environment
Alberta Liberal Action Plan on the Environment
Under our leadership, Alberta will become a world leader on environmental issues including climate change, sustainable development and water protection.
Listen to Laurie Blakeman talk about our environment policy on CBC’s Provincial Affairs program.
Protecting Our Water
• We will protect Alberta’s drinking water by giving priority to basic human needs and by not supporting a water market.
• We will require greater efficiency in all fresh water use in the province, with specific focus on the agricultural and industrial sectors.
• We will clean up Alberta’s toxic tailings ponds through research partnerships, strict guidelines and enforcement, and shared best practices.
• Wetlands will be protected with a no net loss policy.
• We will protect Alberta’s water supply by fast-tracking a provincial groundwater inventory and establishing an effective province-wide water quality monitoring program.
• We will protect watersheds by requiring full public consultation and the approval by the Alberta Water Council before introducing any legislation which would allow for interbasin water transfers.
• We will minimize the use of fresh water for deep well flooding by not issuing any new water licenses and by setting strict timelines for the cancellation of existing licenses for deep well flooding in settled areas in Alberta.
Creating a Carbon-Responsible Economy
Climate change is a reality and poses a significant challenge. We will act in good faith to reduce Alberta’s carbon footprint.
• We will make real reductions in Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions by rejecting the use of intensity-based targets and instituting a hard cap by 2017.
• We will expand the number of companies required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from those emitting over 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to include those emitting over 50,000 tonnes.
• To achieve swift and significant action toward carbon efficiency, we will provide the option to partially offset emissions from energy use and development by paying into a technology fund.
Powering Long-Term Growth
• We will diversify Alberta’s investment in carbon solutions by supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency technology and conservation measures in addition to the development of carbon capture and storage.
• We will grow Alberta’s dependence on solar, wind and geothermal energy sources by improving transmission capabilities, instituting feed-in-tariffs and investing in green technology.
• One use for the technology fund will be to grow clean energy jobs.
• We will fully exploit all alternative energy options and energy efficiency improvements before considering nuclear power.
Growing Healthy Communities
• We will invest heavily in public transportation and work with municipalities to create walking and cycling infrastructure to make our cities more sustainable.
• We will improve Alberta’s air quality monitoring system by signing onto the new health-based national air monitoring system which will enable Albertans to know when the air quality may be harmful to their health.
• We will conserve Alberta’s diminishing water resources through innovative strategies in municipalities such as supporting the use of grey water.
• We will require residential and commercial building codes to have strict energy efficiency and water efficiency guidelines.
• We will set ambitious province-wide targets for recycling and composting.
Flourishing Natural Areas
• We will establish conservation offsets to balance lands impacted by development.
• Approvals for new coalbed methane projects will become more transparent and we will require independent scientific analyses of surrounding groundwater quantity and quality.
• We will increase the amount of protected park space, starting with establishing the Andy Russell–I’tai sah kòp Park.
• We will limit clear-cutting and encourage wildlife protection in the forestry industry.
