Sarah Hoffman, one of the candidates to lead the Alberta NDP, boldly announced a climate change policy yesterday that tore a page right from the book of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
At any rate, Ms. Hoffman’s idea of establishing a Youth Climate Corps to connect young people “with good-paying jobs that take meaningful action in response to climate change” reminded me of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, which kind of did the same thing.
The CCC, established in 1933, was a key part of the American president’s New Deal response to the Great Depression.
The YCC, structured as a Crown corporation, would be “a one-stop shop for young Albertans who want to take control of their own climate destiny,” Ms. Hoffman told a news conference at an Edmonton solar energy equipment supply company.
It would offer “union jobs with embedded training, trades qualifications and post-secondary education,” she explained.
Ms. Hoffman’s YCC, if it ever got a chance to get off the ground, could offer a sort of new deal too as Alberta transitions from a carbon based economy to something new – which is going to happen, no matter how much the governing United Conservative party wants to pretend it won’t.
Alas, the timing is probably all wrong.
The United States was in the depths of the Depression by the time President Roosevelt created the most popular of all New Deal programs.
Alberta, by contrast, is still deep in denial about the impact of climate change and Albertans still dream we’re on the cusp of one more oil boom, even if it’s the last one. And that could happen, even if we face a harsher reckoning afterward.
Desperation, not false optimism, would be required to make something like the YCC catch fire – which is probably not the ideal metaphor, considering what’s likely to happen to Alberta’s forests in the summer of ’24, but you all know what I mean.
So while it was undoubtedly a disappointment to Ms. Hoffman’s campaign staff, maybe it’s just as well that Alberta media seems to have completely ignored her announcement. After all, we all know the kind of things Conservatives start to say when the concepts of a new deal and a green policy start to get too close to one another!
Still, as a serious candidate to lead the largest Opposition in Alberta history, the former health minister deserved better than that.
It’s a sign of the times that this province’s media is no longer capable of covering more than one major Alberta story in a single day – and yesterday’s was still the festering “Motelgate” continuing-care scandal.
As a result, another important policy proposal by Ms. Hoffman was also ignored – her plan to replace the politically unsaleable carbon-tax, now on life support thanks to the federal Liberals’ boutique exemptions and Conservative provincial governments’ anti-tax hysteria, with “a provincial cap and trade system guided by three principles.”
“The first is that the polluter pays,” the candidate said. “Corporations who are making record profits from pulling carbon out of the ground need to be in the business of pulling it out of the air.
“The second is that public dollars should be used to help members of the public reduce their emissions and their energy bills.”
“And the third is that we need to build the economy of the future now.”
With the idea of carbon taxes all but dead with Canadian electorates, the cap-and-trade emissions trading idea – another market mechanism thought to be more palatable to industry than hard caps – is likely to gain traction with other candidates and even other political parties.
In a news release, Ms. Hoffman set out other climate policy goals:
- Replace industry subsidies and funding for the so-called Energy War Room and use it to help Albertans reduce emissions and cut their energy bills
- Create a Solar-for-All program to help cut energy costs for everyone
- Establish a Crown corporation to provide low-emission public transportation between Alberta communities and build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- Cancel the UCP’s EV tax and replace it with an EV rebate
In addition, she said, on Day One she would reverse the UCP’s policy of sabotaging renewable energy projects. “Our American competitors are racing ahead on this while Alberta is standing still,” she said.
“When I see what Alberta is facing, like catastrophic drought, unprecedented wildfires and air that isn’t safe for kids to breathe on a summer day, I know we have to take dramatic action,” Ms. Hoffman said. “The time for creative accounting, fun with numbers, and aspirational goals is over. We must reduce the carbon emissions that drive climate change and threaten our way of life.”
Actually, David, the US has already started a youth climate corps:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/20/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-launches-american-climate-corps-to-train-young-people-in-clean-energy-conservation-and-climate-resilience-skills-create-good-paying-jobs-and-tackle-the-clima/
And actually again, Canada has the Canada Service Corps which is not so climate oriented but could possibly expand and pivot that way. I think they tend to have small projects.:
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/youth/canada-service-corps.html
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/youth/canada-service-corps/about.html
List of organizations running local programs; includes Katimavik which I remember from when it was new in the 1970s; and Volunteer Alberta.
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/youth/canada-service-corps/partners.html
https://volunteeralberta.ab.ca/
Katimivik has houses in Calgary and Wetaskiwin:
https://katimavik.org/en/we-offer/national-experience/
So there is stuff out there.
I should add the Canadian programs seems to be for volunteering I think, while the US climate corps is paid, unknown how much.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/climatecorps/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/20/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-launches-american-climate-corps-to-train-young-people-in-clean-energy-conservation-and-climate-resilience-skills-create-good-paying-jobs-and-tackle-the-clima/
We have great leadership material with the NDP. What the NDP were doing for Alberta was on the right track, and on par with how Peter Lougheed governed. The childish crap that gets spouted by people in newspaper comment sections against Sarah Hoffman is appalling. The columnists themselves, such as Lorne Gunter, and David Staples, never say anything against the UCP, and just prop them up, regardless of how many major mistakes they make.
https://edmontonsun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-a-little-self-serving-for-hoffman-to-come-out-against-carbon-tax-now
You could say that Motelgate, the vilest and most obscene of vile ideas from the vile MLAs of the UCP and their vile leader Marlaina Danielle Smith, is serving as a distraction from the NDP leadership. That’s what happens when there are only a handful of news reporters still gainfully employed in our province, and they don’t know if they’ll have a job tomorrow.
BTW, where is Marlaina while this latest scandal boils over? In Texas, of course, and this ain’t Texas.
Another great post! If nothing else, they reassure me that I have intelligent company in a province that seems to have been left behind by common sense, scientific curiosity and good education for our children and my new grandsons.
These ideas from Ms. Hoffman are almost all poorly timed in the context of our present situation. Edmonton can’t even afford to operate a public transit system as a going concern because the provincial government has downloaded so many costs to the city and is in the process of cutting off future federal funding. Look at the social disorder in Edmonton that consumes so many of it’s resources and energy – What are the sources: homelessness, mental illness, addiction, disability, and delayed justice in our court system. All of these issues are provincial jurisdiction but have been downloaded to the municipalities to deal with. Rural municipalities are short hundreds of millions in resource-company taxes. So until municipalities have the support needed to provide effective and environmentally friendly public transit for the masses, and care for the basic needs of citizens, why would we be worried about electric buses crisscrossing the province? Until all Albertans have reliable access to basic health, housing, and social services, how many scarce provincial dollars should we be spent putting a solar panel on every roof?
I don’t know if Hoffman’s idea will get much attention or traction, but I appreciate it as it actually is inspirational. It is often hard for an opposition to sound positive as an important part of the job is being critical of and scrutinizing the government.
I suspect the main remaining reporter the mainstream print media devotes to sometimes thoughtfully covering Alberta politics is a bit tired after the UCP leadership race last year and the election after that. After all he is not so young any more and probably does not have the energy he once did. But hopefully he, or someone else, will pick up on this idea soon.
After all this is part of what leadership races should be about, interesting new ideas
Sarah Hoffman was the best Health minister in decades. Thank you for providing a platform for her to define her policy positions.
Good for Ms. Hoffman. Progressive people always have the best ideas. Do you think Stephen Harper or Skippy Poilievre or Marlaina Podunk(sic) would have ever come up with the idea of socialized medicine? The right wingers get in and screw things up royally, then the progressives have to step in and fix it. This happens both in peacetime and times of war. The problem with Alberta is the rural population can’t decide whether or not they want to be Florida or Texas.
It’s nice that they are trying ideas to improve the situation and stay positive at the same time as actually admitting there is a problem. Unfortunately I could sacrifice my life for everyone in my family but one family member of the wealthiest ten percent of families in Canada will create as much of a carbon footprint just by waking up and breathing as I could in a thousand lifetimes. I don’t think any government on earth would ever admit out loud this reality. Something about that which isn’t decided in the halls of parliament will be decided in the streets. If all the kids who come of age in 2030 just decide that everyone older than them is a liability and must go. Can you blame ‘em.
I think these NDP candidates are making a huge mistake when our oil executives are wanting a carbon tax. Wouldn’t it be smart to get some oil executives involved to tell them what they think when all they are doing is following what these Reformers are feeding us. Don’t forget it was Pierre Poilievre who helped Stephen Harper refuse to implement a carbon tax and TransCanada Pipeline executives accused Harper of not showing Obama that Canadians did care about global warming and were trying to do something about it. Instead they told the world that Canadians didn’t care about global energy and Obama refused to approve their Keystone XL pipeline. So if these NDP candidates want to tell the world they don’t care either you can bet they won’t get elected either. The point is get the oil industry involved and show Pierre Poilievre why the oil executives wanted the Carbon Tax implemented and blame him for wanting it destroyed instead letting themselves be part of the global warming problem.
Interestingly, the Green Party of Alberta ran on a similar platform in the 2023 election. They were also the only minor party to significantly increase their vote share in the previous election. There is an appetite for progressive policies like these, and I wish the NDP would push them. It’s a better way to get young people involved in fixing up our province, while also giving them jobs, which are pretty difficult to find in this economy.
I would have liked to be part of a climate youth corps when I left school. It sounds appealing as a career and a cause! It reminds me of Katimavik, which was about the environment and youth, although not for much money.
Sarah Hoffman would be a great premier for Alberta.