The natural environment is intrinsic to Parry Sound-Muskoka and the tourism sector that powers the local economy.

With that in mind, the Huntsville Forester recently sat down with the local federal election candidates to discuss environmental policy.

A significant portion of the Liberals’ election platform hinges on the success of their Green Shift plan.

The plan aims to curb energy prices by penalizing wasteful habits and discouraging pollution by imposing a carbon tax on oil, diesel and other carbon-emitting fuels.

“The Green Shift charges a tax on big pollution emitters for their pollution,” said Liberal candidate Jamie McGarvey. “It’s a revenue neutral plan. All of that money comes back to the people in the form of reducing what they pay for income tax and through research and development of new green technology.”

Individual homeowners will also be encouraged to “green up,” said McGarvey, adding they could reap significant financial rewards if they do.

“I did the calculations for my own family and we’d get back around $1,300. With our carbon footprint, what we would pay is $250,” he said. “That’s $1,050 in my pocket.”

McGarvey said the Conservatives’ pollution cap plan would see money funneled into government and not the people.

“Most people don’t even realize that Stephen Harper has a carbon tax; he doesn’t want to talk about it,” said McGarvey. “That money goes right into the coffers of the government. With that program there’s no incentive for business to reduce their emissions. Under the Liberal plan there is a program to help offset your costs to help buy the new equipment to reduce your emissions.”

Fears that the plan will drive big business out of the country are unfounded, said McGarvey.

“That’s Conservative bull,” he said. “It’s done in Sweden and in Norway, and in other places in Europe, and you don’t see them crying.”

McGarvey also took a shot at Conservative candidate Tony Clement for his recent visit to the American National Democratic Convention, in the midst of the listeriosis crisis.

“He’s down there . . . spending our tax money holding soirées to promote the tar sands,” he said. “If there’s a problem, I’m going to be right here, not running away to spend your money promoting more pollution.”

Speaking last week, Clement said the big polluters will pay the price, but there must be a balance between economic growth and environmental protection policies that go too far.

“We’re being tough on the big polluters like coal-fired plants and the oil sands projects. They have to reduce their emissions 20 per cent by 2020, and if they fail to do so they have to pay into a tech fund that will power our green industry to come up with new solutions,” said Clement.

“The oil companies aren’t happy, but it’s a fair and balanced plan and they’ll have to abide by it.”

In speaking with local constituents, Clement said people are scared by the Liberals’ Green Shift proposal.

“I’m sensing a real fear of the carbon tax and how it will affect us in Muskoka,” he said. “We have cold winters and a lot of driving to do. For a lot of people on fixed incomes, it’s going to be a huge burden.”

Clement dismissed the Green Party’s environmental plan as virtually identical to the Liberals, and said the NDP take things even further.

“The problem with the NDP is that their targets are over the top,” said Clement. “What that means is we’ll be exporting jobs out of Muskoka and Ontario and to places like India and China, where they haven’t signed comprehensive carbon emission plans. You need economic growth to pay for the environmentalism that we need and want.”

NDP candidate Jo-Anne Boulding said only companies who choose to flagrantly disregard the environment need to be worried.

“In Canada, we are unfortunately one of the world’s highest emitters of greenhouse gases, but only 15 per cent is residential. All the rest is from industry and business,” said Boulding. “Our position is that you make the big polluters pay. You take that money and put it into programs that save money for ordinary Canadians.”

Boulding said the NDP will set hard targets to reduce emissions. They also want to bring the EnerGuide program back and change the building code to make new homes more efficient.

The Conservatives have failed to achieve anything in the environmental sector, she added.

“I’ve been listening to the Conservatives for the last couple of years, and this is my third election against them. They don’t have an environmental plan,” she said. “They don’t want industry to have to change.”

Like Clement, Boulding said the Liberal Green Shift will achieve nothing except hurting average Canadians.

“We don’t have public transit here, we depend on our vehicles. Maybe that isn’t the best thing but it’s what we have at the moment,” said Boulding. “Raising diesel fuel costs so truckers can’t deliver their product isn’t a good thing. Individuals are just a small per cent, it’s industry that we need to go after.”

Boulding also criticized the Green Party for espousing the virtues of cleaner environment, but having few firm plans in place to make it happen.

Green Party candidate Glen Hodgson said that simply isn’t the case. In fact, Hodgson said regard for the environment underpins every aspect of the Green platform, from health care to economics.

“It’s not a separate issue that you can pay attention to or ignore when you feel like it,” he said. “We understand that a healthy and sustainable environment is the bare minimum we need to take care of those other areas.”

The Green’s environmental policy is too comprehensive to break down easily, said Hodgson. However, it can be largely summarized in one simple idea.

“Use higher taxes on things that are bad for our environment and bad for our health, to offset the cost of things that are good for our environment and good for our health,” he said.

On the flip side, the Green Party will also offer financial incentives to businesses and individuals to help them make environmentally sound decisions. Fears over increased taxes are baseless, said Hodgson.

“We’ll raise them in some areas and lower them in others,” he said. “Anyone trying to make healthy choices and ones that are good for the environment will benefit significantly, both in terms of the environment and in terms of their pocketbook.”

Hodgson said he is quite familiar with the Liberal Green Shift, as it is essentially a Green Party platform that was co-opted by the Liberals. While Hodgson said he supports some of the basic tenets of the Liberal plan, he said the Liberals haven’t gone far enough and will never be able to sell their plan.

“Everyone sees it as a tax grab,” he said. “After the sponsorship scandal and those things, people simply don’t trust them anymore. The problem with the Liberal tax shift isn’t the tax shift, it’s the Liberals.”

While other parties talk tough on the environment when election time comes around, Hodgson said the Green Party practises what it preaches.

“We’ve been advocating for these things for a long time. Not because they were the popular thing to do, but because they were the right thing to do.”