For the record: Justin Trudeau’s pitch on the environment

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau delivered the following speech in Vancouver, B.C. on June 29. Read Paul Wells’ take on this announcement here.

Thank you, Wade.

What a great introduction. Wade, as you well know, has been a staunch environmentalist for his entire life. He’s spent decades protecting the natural environment here in BC, across Canada, and around the world. And we’re thrilled to have his support.

It’s great to be here.

Actually, it’s great to be back here.

I used to come here, 30 years ago, as a young teenager. My gramma used to bring me here to this very spot, for sailing lessons. Chatting with some kids here today brought back some great memories. I was about the same age as some of the kids here today.

And when we’d get home, I’d tell my grandfather, Jimmy Sinclair, about my day. He used to say: “Justin, you’re a natural” but I later realized … he never said a natural “what,” exactly.

I was thinking on the way over here about my family, about our relationship with the outdoors … with Canada’s natural beauty.

My dad taught us Trudeau boys how to paddle a canoe pretty much as soon as we could walk.

And like many Canadians, I’ve spent loads of summer nights out under the stars, beside a campfire … getting eaten alive. (My dad never believed in bug spray.)

But I’ve always believed that when it comes to our environment, we Canadians get it.

We appreciate its beauty, understand its dangers and know its value.

Canadians get that our wealth comes from our land and water, so we treat them with respect.

That’s why we’re so disappointed in the Harper Conservatives.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, de nombreux pays ont entamé le virage vert et sont allés de l’avant pour bâtir une économie plus forte et plus durable. Au Canada, c’est une toute autre histoire. M. Harper nous a fait reculer.

En niant les changements climatiques, il a privé les Canadiennes et les Canadiens d’un important rendez-vous. Un rendez-vous qui devait nous permettre de renforcer notre économie, d’exploiter l’ingéniosité et le talent des Canadiens, et d’être un leader dans la création de nouveaux emplois verts.

Aucun autre pays n’était mieux placé que le Canada pour saisir ces opportunités dans l’économie mondiale.

Aucun autre pays dans le monde n’avait d’atouts aussi solides… et un leadership aussi faible.

Aucun autre gouvernement n’a échoué aussi lamentablement que celui de M. Harper.

Un gouvernement libéral fera ce qu’il faut pour corriger la situation et retrouver le droit chemin.

Today, I’m here to announce our plan for real change for our environment … our economy … and our future.

We need to take real action on climate change.

Il est temps de mettre un prix sur les émissions de carbone au Canada. Dans les 90 jours suivant notre élection, nous travaillerons avec les provinces pour établir un cadre visant à réduire l’empreinte de carbone du Canada.

It’s time Canada put a price on carbon pollution. We’ll work with the provinces in the first 90 days of taking office to establish a framework for reducing Canada’s collective carbon footprint. Make no mistake, the Liberal Party will be putting a price on carbon.

We’ll invest in clean technologies. We’ll look to the future and develop a Canadian energy strategy that delivers security and energy conservation while investing millions in clean tech.

To create more clean jobs and investment overall, we’ll enhance tax measures that help all companies innovate, grow and create jobs.

We’ll attend the Paris UN climate change conference with the Premiers.

And to clean up the mess in our own backyard, we’ll put some teeth back into the environmental review process, the one gutted by Stephen Harper.

Pour qu’un plus grand nombre de familles canadiennes puissent profiter de la beauté naturelle du pays, nous offrirons l’entrée gratuite aux parcs nationaux en 2017, l’année du 150e anniversaire de la Confédération.

Pour financer cette initiative, nous réduirons le budget de publicité de Canada 150, car la beauté de notre pays parle d’elle-même.

To make sure even more Canadian families get to enjoy our country’s natural beauty, we’ll make admission to national parks free in 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

And we’ll pay for it by cutting the lavish Canada150 advertising budget… because we know our country’s beauty speaks for itself.

Enfin, nous protégerons notre faune et nos cours d’eau en augmentant le nombre de zones marines protégées et côtières à five pour cent d’ici 2017 et à 10 pour cent d’ici 2020.

Finally, we’ll protect our wildlife and our water by increasing the amount of protected marine and coastal areas to five per cent by 2017 and 10 per cent by 2020.

These are just the highlights.

You can find the rest of our plan for real environmental and economic change on realchange.ca.

But speaking of those two things, the environment and the economy…

They go together … they go together like paddles and canoes. If you don’t take care of both, you won’t get to where you are going.

Because you can’t have a strong economy without a healthy environment.

If we want to leave both to our children and grandchildren…

If we want them to inherit clean air to breathe … clean water to drink and paddle, and a strong, vibrant, high-tech economy with good jobs …

Well, We’ve got to do them both together.

The world has changed in the past 10 years.

Stephen Harper doesn’t get it.

Now and in the future, the path to economic growth and good middle class jobs is through strong environmental policy.

We’ve got to act now.

We can create clean jobs, grow our economy, and protect our environment by working together.

Not just different leadership, better leadership.

Not just a new team, but a stronger team.

Because Real Change means a Real Plan for Canada.

Merci beaucoup.