Angela Keller-Herzog is running in her second federal election as the Green Party candidate for Ottawa Centre.
Keller-Herzog is currently the executive director of Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability. She also sits on the board for the Ottawa Renewable Energy Group, CoEnergy and Glebe Community Association.
She sat down with the Charlatan to discuss climate change, affordable housing and student financial assistance.
Climate change
Of all the major federal parties, the Green Party has the most ambitious plan for greenhouse gas emission reductions, promising to slash emissions by 60 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Keller-Herzog said the price to be paid by slower climate action “will come,” which necessitates a significant transition and ambitious goals.
She pointed to Canada’s carbon pricing as an area for improvement. The Green Party plans to make the tax $50 per tonne and raise it to $275 per tonne by 2030.
In comparison, both the NDP and the Liberal Party are pledging to make the carbon tax $40 per tonne and raise it to $170 per tonne by 2030. The Conservative Party has promised an industry carbon tax of $170 per tonne by 2030, provided the U.S. and Europe match that price.
Keller-Herzog also emphasized the importance of bipartisanship and bringing various sectors together to tackle climate change.
“I think if you’re logical about things and you really open your eyes wide to climate, it is clear that we need to work together to face this huge challenge,” she said.
Locally, Keller-Herzog said she would like to see larger investments in community renewable energy projects and green retrofitting programs, which help homeowners upgrade their homes to be more energy-efficient. On the transportation side, she said she would like to see more electric busses in Ottawa.
Affordable housing
The Green Party is promising to reinvest in affordable, non-profit, co-operative and supportive housing, which will include investing in the construction and operation of 50,000 supportive housing units over 10 years.
The party is also promising to build a minimum of 300,000 deeply affordable, non-market, co-op and non-profit housing over a decade.
Keller-Herzog said these promises are important because “it’s very clear the market is not about to and will never supply that part of housing.”
“You need supportive housing, recognizing that before people get kicked off into homelessness, there’s a lot of interactions between mental health, family support and housing,” she added.
From a climate perspective, Keller-Herzog said making more affordable units creates more compact cities, which is more cost-effective and carbon-effective.
On student housing specifically, Keller-Herzog said she is against high costs pushing students from communities close to their studies. Instead, she would prefer students integrate into the communities close to their universities through secondary units, which she added brings commercial and cultural vibrancy.
“I think there’s been some pushback in Ottawa against some of the conversion of larger houses into student houses and so-called ‘bunkhouses’,” Keller-Herzog said. “I think these issues should be managed a lot better with more dialogue.”
Keller-Herzog said there’s available federal land in the Ottawa area which can be used to build more affordable housing.
“Housing is a human right. And these people all need housing, we can’t have them fall off a cliff,” Keller-Herzog said.
Student financial assistance
The Green Party platform includes abolishing post-secondary tuition and cancelling all federally held student loan debt. The party says universal education will be partially financed by redirecting existing spending on tuition tax credits and the hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan defaults written off every year.
The party is also promising to reintroduce the Canada Emergency Student Benefit, ensuring those eligible receive $2,000 a month until the pandemic is over.
Keller-Herzog said the party thinks it is vital to invest in future generations and their education.
“You still need to want to study and you need to have the grades to get in, for sure. But after all that, there should be public investment, such that universities do not have to charge all these tuitions,” Keller-Herzog said.
Keller-Herzog added how the party also believes people should have a clear way of building their future. She connected the high costs of housing and post-secondary education to emphasize the importance of debt forgiveness and universal education.
“We can’t expect the future to be exactly like the past, and we certainly don’t want these big balls and chains of student debts to slow people down,” she said.
Featured image provided by Angela Keller-Herzog.
