Carol Clemenhagen is running in her second federal election as the Conservative Party candidate for Ottawa Centre.
She was the first female president and CEO of the Canadian Hospital Association and was the former executive director of the Medical Research Council of Canada.
She sat down with the Charlatan to discuss climate change, affordable housing and student financial assistance.
Climate change
Clemenhagen said climate change is an “existential threat” and added that coordinated action between the federal government, provinces and municipalities is essential.
“There’s a sense of urgency. That’s why I think from a political leadership perspective, it’s really important that voters hold politicians to account for coordinated action that brings us closer to milestone targets,” Clemenhagen said.
Clemenhagen said she appreciates the Conservative plan on climate change for its emphasis on green infrastructure, including retrofitting buildings to make them more energy-efficient and implementing more plug-ins for electric vehicles.
The Conservative Party has promised to provide a regulatory and financial network that will facilitate Energy Savings Performance Contracting by involving the private sector in financing and implementing retrofits. According to the promise, the energy cost savings will pay for the project over time.
The party has promised to invest a billion dollars in domestic electric vehicle manufacturing, including battery production and parts manufacturing. The party also says it will require every building where the federal government has employees or office services to have a charging station in its parking lots by 2025.
Locally, Clemenhagen said she wants to push for more investments in water and sewage improvements to prevent dumping in the Ottawa River during rainy seasons. She also wants to expand Ottawa’s urban forest.
“[The trees] are something that appeals to us as individuals and certainly adds to the quality of life of the neighbourhood,” Clemenhagen said.
Affordable housing
Clemenhagen said there’s been “a crunch” that has affected Canadians and their access to affordable homes.
“The combined effect of lack of supply and inflation in costs is putting a real bite on students, certainly, and also on young families who are trying to find space and start their family lives,” she said.
The Conservative Party has promised to implement a plan to build one million homes in the next three years. Within that promise is a commitment to building public transit infrastructure to connect homes and jobs and require municipalities that receive federal funding for public transit to increase density near the new transit.
The party has said it will review the real estate portfolio of the federal government, which it says has more than 37,000 buildings, and release at least 15 per cent for housing.
Clemenhagen returned to her focus on promoting collaboration between the federal government, provinces and municipalities and said she wants the federal government to assist in facilitating the construction process, adding that delays in construction can sometimes be attributed to provincial or municipal regulations.
“If there are blockages, the federal government can be helpful in working with provinces and municipalities to try to figure out how to facilitate the progress of constructing houses, which ties into economic recovery. Construction and infrastructure can have a positive impact on economic growth,” Clemenhagen said.
Student financial assistance
The Conservative Party platform does not contain any promises relating to student debt forgiveness or lowering the cost of post-secondary education, unlike the platforms of the Liberal Party, NDP and Green Party.
Clemenhagen said the topic of post-secondary education is a provincial matter but said federal transfers to the provinces for post-secondary education need to be maintained at a growth rate that is reasonable and negotiated with provinces.
She also said it is important to be aware that forgiving student debt doesn’t mean it disappears, but instead gets transferred to “the public purse.”
“One of the things the Conservative plan is concerned about is additional debt being front-loaded onto future generations … We need to be able to make sure we have the fiscal capacity to invest in priorities like education transfers to provinces,” Clemenhagen said.
In relation to post-secondary education, Clemenhagen said she is passionate about encouraging innovation and investment in young scientists, which can occur in universities or research institutes.
The Conservative Party has promised to invest $5 billion over the next five years to fund programs aimed at making advancements in hydrogen use, small modular reactors, private sector innovation in the space sector and pharmaceutical research and production.
“That gives an incentive for researchers to have the next generation of technology to be Canadian-made and Canadian-supported,” Clemenhagen said.
Featured image provided by Carol Clemenhagen.
