portuguese

Luso-Canadian MEP highlights importance of the environment in Canada

Luso-Canadian federal deputy Alexandra Mendes today considered that environmental issues will be the main focus of this year’s federal election campaign in Canada.

“I‘m sure Canadians will not forget the urgency of the environmental issue. I’m sure it’s going to be the big theme of the (general election) election campaign,” said the 55-year-old Portuguese-Canadian.

Alexandra Mendes, a native of Lisbon, was elected in 2015 in the district of Brossard-Saint-Lambert (Montreal) for her second term, after representing Brossard-La Prairie district from 2008 to 2011.

The policy stresses that anything related to “climate change and global warming on the planet” will be highlighted in the campaign, considering that parties will have to present to Canadians “clear choices among different policy options.

Canada will choose a new government in the general election on October 21, 2019.

In the general elections in 2015, the Liberal Party (centre) won with 39.5%, followed by the Conservative Party (right) with (31.9%) and the New Democrats Party (left) with (19.7% ).

The Liberals led by Justin Trudeau have a parliamentary majority, currently with 181 seats, before the opposition of 96 deputies of the conservatives and 40 of the New Democrats.

Ottawa imposed on Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick a federal tax of 20 Canadian dollars (13.21 euros) per tonne of CO2 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The rate imposed on the four provinces has been in force since January 1, 2019, with the particularity of citizens “being reimbursed directly with this tax“.

One of the main problems that the government of Justin Trudeau has to solve is the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline purchased in 2018 for 3.5 billion dollars (23.12 billion euros).

The project is expected to carry 890,000 barrels of oil daily from Alberta to the Pacific coast of British Columbia in western Canada for export.

However, the investment “important to the Canadian economy” is halted by the appointing of activists from the First Nations Peoples and the authorities of the province of British Columbia.

In early January, Mounted Police detained 14 protesters who barred access to a company’s pipeline facilities.

The pipeline construction process was halted in September 2018 by court order for “renegotiation with the First Nations peoples and for a reassessment of the environmental impact study.

One thing is for sure, the government has decided to acquire this pipeline because we are well aware that neither Canada nor any other country in the world is ready for the energy transformation we would all like. We still need oil and as a country, we need the oil exports to other markets can bring us, “she said.

In February 2018 Ottawa forecast a deficit of $ 18.1 billion ($ 12 billion) for the current fiscal year (2018/19) ending in March a “Canadian concern”, something that the Portuguese-Canadian stresses that it is “necessary“.

Canada needs very significant investments to combat the years of lack of government intervention at our infrastructure level, but also the level of economic mechanisms that will benefit an economy that is operating 100 per cent, including a higher unemployment rate. low of two generations ago (5.6%), “he explained.

The Free Trade Agreements with the European Union – CETA (in force since September 2017) and the Comprehensive Transpacific Partner Progress Treaty (signed in March 2018) “are opening up Canada’s ability to diversify its economy” and “not being so dependent on the United States.

The new trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico that replaced NAFTA, signed Nov. 30, now called USMCA, was renegotiated “after many difficulties,” he acknowledged.

Our Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was absolutely brilliant. I am sure she will continue to work for Canada not to be so dependent on the United States,” concluded Alexandra Mendes.

There are about 60 thousand Portuguese and Lusodeans in Montreal, the electoral district of Brossard-Saint-Lambert has about 103 thousand inhabitants, the majority of ethnic Chinese, a thousand are Portuguese.

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