WHITEHORSE - Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes candidate John Streicker represented the Yukon Liberal Party's strong environmental policy last night at the forum hosted by CPAWS and the Yukon Conservation Society.

Streicker emphasized the importance of long term planning in a truly collaborative fashion, involving all levels of government, where the goal is true sustainability.

"I will be most proud if our government can think long term in our decision-making. The only way we have forward is to see the environment and economy working together so we can build a prosperous and sustainable Yukon," said Streicker. "It is not good enough to say our carbon emissions are going down when the reason is really because our economy is in the tank.  We have so much potential in the Yukon, we can do better than that."

Carbon pricing was a topic of interest and Streicker reiterated the Liberal plan to rebate every dollar of it back into the pockets of Yukoners and Yukon businesses. "Federal carbon pricing is coming, and we will make sure that it benefits Yukoners, while we stand with Canada and the world in transitioning off fossil fuels."  Streicker also pointed out that much more fossil fuel use in the Yukon is for heating (than electricity generation) and that the Liberal party has an ambitious plan for partnering with home and business owners for energy efficiency retrofits - creating jobs in the process.

Streicker also emphasized that the Yukon Liberal Party is against fracking.  In response to a question about oil and gas development, Streicker stated that “a Liberal government will not subsidize oil and gas,” noting that the Liberals had just announced removing LNG subsidies from the Independent Power Producer policy. Streicker noted that both the North Yukon plan and the original Peel plan as proposed by the Peel Land Planning Commission allow for the potential of oil and gas development. Yukon Liberals support these plans, and want to get land use planning out of the courts and reinvigorated. "From our perspective, collaborative, community-based land use planning is critical, and a Liberal government will work in partnership with First Nations to get land use planning back on track."

"I continue to talk about these issues with voters in beautiful Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes as I go door to door throughout the election," said Streicker.

-30-

For more information please contact: 

Yukon Liberals HQ

668-4748