Liberal Leader John Hogan says his party plans to reduce the province’s reliance on fossil fuels — despite climate change taking up less than half a page in the party’s election platform.
During a campaign stop on Friday in Lewisporte, CBC News asked Hogan if he agreed with PC Leader Tony Wakeham’s assertion that this year’s devastating wildfire season was not related to the province’s offshore oil industry.
“No, I don’t,” Hogan said.
When asked to elaborate, Hogan said climate change is “based on the use of fossil fuels over the last number of decades.”
“The Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is very clear that we need to decrease reliance and use of fossil fuels,” he said.
On Thursday, Wakeham said believes climate change is happening and the province needs to prepare, but also said he doesn’t believe the oil industry is connected.
“I don’t think the two are related. I don’t believe the two are related,” he said.
CBC News has spoken to multiple experts and scientists who say climate change caused the hot, dry weather that exacerbated last summer’s forest fires, which burned hundreds of homes and cost millions in insured damages.
Both Wakeham and Hogan have cited renewable energy projects as key to the province’s climate change mitigation strategy.
The Liberal platform references the province’s climate change mitigation and adaptation plans, which includes a goal to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent in five years, 60 per cent by 2040 and achieving net-zero by 2040.
Newfoundland and Labrador saw hundreds of homes destroyed by wildfires this summer. Canadian Armed Forces personnel assisted firefighting efforts. (Canadian Armed Forces)
The PC platform argues that Liberal government “inaction” has hindered progress on climate goals.
“Without immediate and decisive measures, it is increasingly unlikely that the province will meet its 2030 emission reduction targets,” the platform reads.
The PC platform promises to create a “more attainable” climate plan “with clear and achievable emission reduction targets, by sector, and report on them regularly.”
Nearing the end
As the 2025 election campaign winds down, Hogan also promoted his party’s education promises.
The Liberals are promising to hire 100 additional education staff — including teachers and student assistants — over the next two years at a cost of about $5 million.
Hogan said the distribution of those resources hasn’t been determined yet.
“We need to work with NLSchools, we need to work with parent-teacher groups as well, to make sure that we are responding to their needs,” he said.
The Liberals also plan to reduce the class size for Grades 1 to 9 by two students.
Hogan said a re-elected Liberal government would introduce a module focused on Indigenous history, language and culture for elementary and junior high students and a course focused on reconciliation and Indigenous history for high school.
The Liberal Party is also promising a moving allowance for post-secondary students from Newfoundland and Labrador attending either Memorial University or the College of the North Atlantic.
Hogan said the allowance will be income tested, and students will get up to $500. He said the allowance is expected to cost $1 million.
That promise is one of just a few that got marks from the Newfoundland and Labrador chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students. The CFSNL gave the Liberals an “F” on its election report card, compared to a C+ for the PCs and an A for the NDP.
The NDP has committed reducing tuition fees and freezing them at 2022 levels, while the PCs have committed to a temporary tuition freeze and a tuition refund for graduates who stay in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Liberals have not committed to any reduction to tuition fees.
Dinn pitches NDP as party for change
Meanwhile, the NDP held a rally with candidates in downtown St. John’s on Friday.
Party Leader Jim Dinn said that decades of the Liberal and Progressive Conservatives have put Newfoundland and Labrador in a tough position for health care, housing and more.
He believes, with the reins in hand, his party can focus on people and making positive change.
“More than one candidate has told me that they’ve already had people that said for the first time they will be voting NDP. And that’s the key word here, it’s about change, about doing things differently. And the NDP will be your voice,” Dinn said.
Jim Dinn and the NDP held a rally in downtown St. John’s Friday, pitching the party as the party for change in Newfoundland and Labrador. (Mark Quinn/CBC)
Dinn specifically referenced a Liberal campaign promise to remove HST from home heating fuel — a plan the NDP brought to the House of Assembly seven months before it was announced by Hogan.
“There’s a suggestion here that they might as well come over and join us and become orange. But we know that’s not going to happen, so we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got more NDP MHAs in the House of Assembly to make [sure] those concerns are heard,” Dinn said.
“When they start imitating our solutions, you know we’ve got the answer.”
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