Catherine McKenna is the incumbent in Ottawa-Centre, having been first elected as a member of parliament (MP) in 2015. She also served in Trudeau’s cabinet as the environment minister. She sat down for an interview with the Charlatan to discuss the environment, the cost of post-secondary education, and working on local promises.
Affording education
Under the Liberal platform, students would be given a two-year grace period, and would only start paying back their federal student loans when they have an annual income of $35,000.
Eliminating interest on student loans is something that has been proposed by other parties, but is not in the Liberal platform.
“We’re just trying to find the right balance between making sure life is affordable for students, but also, you know, figuring out what works for the economy,” said McKenna.
Rising tuition costs can also be partially attributed to decreases in public funding of universities, according to Erika Shaker, director of the Education Project at the Canada Centre for Policy Alternatives. According to Statistics Canada, private funding has eclipsed the amount of public funding sent to universities each year.
“I think you saw a trend under Stephen Harper, which we had to push back against, which was, just saying just, ‘Make these partnerships with business,’” said McKenna. She admitted these can be productive, but that you “can’t just rely on that.” The Liberal government’s priority has been investing in post-secondary education, including scientific research and green retrofitting of buildings on university campuses.
Climate change
The current environment minister mentioned climate change as one of the most important issues to students.
The Liberal government has received criticism from other parties for not meeting its climate change targets or having an ambitious enough plan.
But McKenna defended the Liberal’s record on climate change, citing the price on pollution, commonly referred to as the carbon tax, as a necessary part of any climate plan.
McKenna referenced a review of each parties’ climate plans, published in Maclean’s, which gave the Liberal climate plan a grade of ‘B’ for ambition, but an ‘A’ for feasibility. The NDP and the Green Party’s plans were more ambitious, but less achievable, according to the article.
“It’s great to be extremely ambitious, which I certainly support and I’m happy to work with any party who has good ideas,” she said. “But the reality is you have to be able to implement that.”
The Conservatives received a ‘D’ for ambition and an ‘F’ for feasibility, which was “no surprise,” said McKenna.
McKenna said she has had difficulty working with Conservative politicians on combating climate change. But she said “hope springs eternal,” for working with Conservative MPs on fighting climate change, and that she “would rather fight climate change than fighting conservative politicians.”
“I have no problem with Doug Ford if he wanted to work on climate change,” she added.
McKenna added she regretted not looking for consensus from the provinces on climate change policy–back in 2015 there was only one Conservative premier, whereas now there are five–instead of pushing ahead with policies on climate change when they would have received greater provincial support.
“That’s the problem we’ve got to deep politicize this. Now we’re fighting to the death,” she said.
McKenna added she was proud of her work pushing for the expansion of Stage2 of the LRT, which she said resulted in the second largest reduction in carbon emissions in Ottawa’s history. The Liberal platform pushes for more investment in public transit, and environmentally friendly affordable housing, as part of the newly released National Housing Strategy.
Feature image from file.
