VICTORIA, B.C. – The BC Green Caucus is concerned with how the Province intends to meet its climate commitments now that it has disbanded and restructured the team responsible for facilitating the government’s legislated targets.
The intention of the Climate Action Secretariat has always been to lead B.C.’s climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, holding the government and industry accountable to targets set out in CleanBC and the Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy. The Secretariat was introduced by Premier Gordon Campbell in 2007, at a time when British Columbia led the world in climate action and accountability. Now, the province is failing to meet its 2030 climate targets, according to its own Climate Change Accountability Report. This move, as Sven Biggs from Stand.earth told the Tyee, ushers in the “slow motion death” of the province’s climate goals.
“British Columbians are already living the consequences of climate inaction,” said Jeremy Valeriote, MLA for West-Vancouver-Sea to Sky. “Wildfires choke our communities each summer, intense rainfall-driven landslides cut off critical infrastructure, and snowless winters threaten local economies. Instead of strengthening our response and redoubling our efforts, this government is stepping back from climate leadership.”
In 2017, as part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA), the BC Greens fought to secure increased resources for the Climate Action Secretariat. As part of the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord (CARGA), the BC Greens ensured the BC NDP continued to prioritize climate action through the CleanBC Review. The BC Greens were not aware of the plan to limit the secretariat’s role, and now, we are unsure how the BC NDP intends to implement any of the CleanBC Review’s recommendations.
“This decision is a step backward—it weakens professional capacity and undermines public service expertise in climate science and action and signals to the public and public service that this government is willing to deprioritize climate action. Clearly our parties are growing increasingly far apart in what real climate action looks like,” said Valeriote.
This past week, staff were informed the Secretariat would undergo a “workplace reconfiguration,” with many employees reassigned to other divisions within the ministry, including oil and gas.
“Moving workers who dedicated themselves to climate action into fossil fuel projects is unthinkably callous,” said BC Greens leader Emily Lowan. “This is yet another example of the BC NDP prioritizing the profit of foreign fossil fuel corporations over our public service workers.
Valeriote added that, “Reassigning climate experts to support LNG expansion and pipeline development sends a troubling message: that this government is willing to sideline both climate science and the people who have dedicated their careers to it.”
“We know strong public institutions are essential to meeting B.C.’s climate goals. So, this raises a fundamental question: how does this government expect to maintain an effective, motivated public service while forcing workers in the opposite direction from the very work they were hired to do?”
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Media Contact
Ryan Hook
Press Secretary
BC Green Caucus
+1-250-882-6187 | Ryan.hook@leg.bc.ca