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B.C. opposition parties heat up climate debate with attacks on NDP's plans

BC Conservative leader says his party would consider nuclear power if elected
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B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad. Climate change has become a hot button political issue in British Columbia with opposition parties launching election-style attacks on the New Democrat government's clean climate policies. | Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

Climate change has become a hot button political issue in British Columbia with opposition parties launching election-style attacks on the New Democrat government's clean climate policies. 

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad told a news conference at the legislature that the NDP's climate policies are taxing people into poverty and they don't do anything "to change the weather."

He says the Conservatives, if elected next year, will eliminate the province's carbon tax, roll back climate-friendly building codes and consider nuclear power as an energy option.

Rustad's comments come a day after Opposition BC United Leader Kevin Falcon called the NDP's CleanBC climate plan destructive and promised to replace it with common sense measures that fight climate change without hurting taxpayers.

Falcon says BC United will ramp up liquefied natural gas export plant production in B.C. in an effort to replace reliance on coal abroad and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

CleanBC is the NDP government’s plan to lower harmful emissions by 40 per cent by 2030. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2023.

The Canadian Press