Leadership contender wants to change 'culture and approach' to environmental issues

Randy Delorey says the tenets of his environment platform started taking shape shortly after he was first elected in 2013, and handed the environment file in Stephen McNeil's cabinet.

"My first interviews the day of the swearing in as Minister for Environment back in October 2013 ...I remember saying, 'I really do believe that in [this] role ... you can manage the environment and the economics, you can find the common ground between those.'"

"And yet we continue to see, publicly reported through traditional media or on social media that these two perspectives continue to clash more than align and collaborate," Delorey said in an interview.

Now, as the Antigonish MLA campaigns to be the next leader of the Liberal Party and premier of Nova Scotia, Delorey said he wants to change the "culture and approach" to environmental issues.

To do that, Delorey said he would establish an environmental protection advisory team with representation from the public, including Black and Indigenous Nova Scotians.

"This is really about saying, 'We need to connect and engage and figure a path forward here so that we're working together more collaboratively rather than always butting heads and pulling each other away.'"

The idea is one among a list of promises Delorey announced Friday with the release of his environment plan. 

Delorey committed to meeting the emissions targets legislated by the government in 2019, implementing the recommendations from the Lahey forestry report, reintroducing the Biodiversity Act. He also said he would designate new parks and protected areas to achieve the current government's target of 13 per cent protected lands.

Promise to support renewable energy sector

Delorey said if he wins the leadership race that ends on Feb. 6 he would develop policies to grow Nova Scotia's renewable energy sector and tap more deeply into wind, solar, hydro and tidal resources.

He said the delays to the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, which is supposed to bring energy into Nova Scotia from Labrador, exemplify why Nova Scotia should be focusing on energy independence.

"What's important is that we're able to provide our own energy to meet our needs. It can be supplemented, we can receive energy from other sources, but we need to continue to build and maintain capacity here as well."

Delorey said his top priority as leader would be seeing the province through the pandemic — rolling out the vaccine and managing the economic recovery — but he said that doesn't mean work on environmental issues has to stop.

COVID-19 delayed the progress of Nova Scotia's Sustainable Development Goals Act, which includes the province's net-zero carbon goal for 2050. A detailed plan for achieving that and other goals was supposed to be laid out in regulations last year.

Public consultation for those regulations is now on hold. Delorey said he's learned a lot about interacting with the public virtually over the course of his campaign, and he sees that as a possible solution for finishing the work needed on that bill.

"I believe the ability to connect and engage through technology, although not perfect, is something that can be leveraged, if necessary to complete the consultation process," Delorey said.

Ecology Action Centre weighs in on candidate plans

On the same day Delorey released his environment plan, the Ecology Action Centre released its review of all the candidate platforms, panning two of the three.

In a news release, EAC executive director Maggy Burns said Delorey and Labi Kousoulis each had a "lack of robust commitments to the environment."

"The public expects and deserves specifics on critical issues affecting our province," said Burns.

The EAC sent each of the candidates a survey of environmental topics, some of which the three men have covered in their platforms, like the Biodiversity Act. Other topics, like open-net pen aquaculture, didn't appear in any of their platforms. 

"This was an open-book exam. These are not new issues. Many of the answers are simply to follow through on existing environmental commitments made by the current Liberal government," Burns said.

The news release said the EAC applauded the candidates unanimous commitment to implementing the Lahey report. The group said Iain Rankin was the only one who thoroughly completed their survey and "impressed" them with his answers.