No substance in Liberal Throne Speech; MP Albas

On Tuesday, the Federal Liberal Government laid out their priorities for the upcoming legislative session with a speech from the throne.

After listening back to the speech, Central-Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola MP Dan Albas believes it lacks substance and a clear path forward.

“This was supposed to be the most important election since 1945, and quite frankly this is two months after the election and it’s a continuing government. So, we’ve been waiting two months to get to work on Canadian’s priorities. And today the throne speech didn’t really speak to some of the core issues,” said Albas.

The local MP was pleased to hear the current flooding situation in BC mentioned in the speech from Governor General Mary Simon.

“However, there wasn’t a lot a discussion about other important issues. The cost of food, affordability was a major issue during the election, and I didn’t sound like to me that the government really understands this issue,” said Albas.

“I’m going to find every which way that I can to make sure the government understands the enormity of the problem and to be part of the solution,” added Albas.

Albas serves in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet on the Environment and Climate Change file and spoke to the governments plan to put a cap on oil and gas production.

“British Columbia has aspirations towards liquefied natural gas. We have challenges with climate change that aren’t about simply dealing with emissions. This is the challenge for this government, they raise climate change, but we’ve seen emissions go up. And we aren’t talking about how BC LNG, made with clean hydro electricity, can actually displace a lot of coal in the world and support Canadian jobs.”

“It also doesn’t talk about the infrastructure needed to deal with droughts, forest fires, and floods. I know Mayor Brown and Council have struggled to get the provincial government on a number of times to take seriously some of the diking issues. My message to all levels of senior government, that they need to be there for Merrittonains and not only talk about climate change but help make valuable investments in our critical infrastructure, like water, like dikes, like nature based climate solutions so we can make our communities more resilient.”