In Now is the Time to Leap, I posted a condensed version of the Leap Manifesto released on September 15 by representatives from Canada’s Indigenous rights, social and food justice, environmental, faith-based and labour movements. To date, more than 27,000 signatories have added their name to the Leap.
Seth Klein, Director of the BC Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says that ” what the Leap calls for is reasonable, affordable, and doable.” In his Vancouver Sun OpEd he describes the Leap as “an aspirational document neither far-fetched nor far-left.”
The Leap Manifesto
Published on Sep 22, 2015
The Leap Manifesto’s 15 Demands
Fifteen Leap Manifesto Demands
- The leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the original caretakers of this land, starting by fully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- The latest research shows we could get 100% of our electricity from renewable resources within two decades; by 2050 we could have a 100% clean economy. We demand that this shift begin now.
- No new infrastructure projects that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard.
- The time for energy democracy has come: wherever possible, communities should collectively control new clean energy systems. Indigenous Peoples and others on the frontlines of polluting industrial activity should be first to receive public support for their own clean energy projects.
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Credit: Angela Sterritt is an artist, writer, filmmaker and journalist from the Gitxsan Nation. We want a universal program to build and retrofit energy efficient housing, ensuring that the lowest income communities will benefit first.
- We want high-speed rail powered by just renewables and affordable public transit to unite every community in this country – in place of more cars, pipelines and exploding trains that endanger and divide us.
- We want training and resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to participate in the clean energy economy.
- We need to invest in our decaying public infrastructure so that it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
- We must develop a more localized and ecologically-based agricultural system to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, absorb shocks in the global supply – and produce healthier and more affordable food for everyone.
- We call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging extractive projects.
- We demand immigration status and full protection for all workers. Canadians can begin to rebalance the scales of climate justice by welcoming refugees and migrants seeking safety and a better life.
- We must expand those sectors that are already low-carbon: caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media. A national childcare program is long past due.
- Since so much of the labour of caretaking – whether of people or the planet – is currently unpaid and often performed by women, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income.
- We declare that “austerity” is a fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on earth. The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available — we just need the right policies to release it. An end to fossil fuel subsidies. Financial transaction taxes. Increased resource royalties. Higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people. A progressive carbon tax. Cuts to military spending.
- We must work swiftly towards a system in which every vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.
This transformation is our sacred duty to those this country harmed in the past, to those suffering needlessly in the present, and to all who have a right to a bright and safe future.
Now is the time for boldness.
Sign the Manifesto Here
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Rolly Montpellier is the Founder and Managing Editor of BoomerWarrior.Org. He’s a Climate Reality leader, a Blogger and a Climate Activist. He’s a member of Climate Reality Canada, Citizens’ Climate Lobby (Ottawa) and 350.Org (Ottawa), the Ethical Team (as an influencer) and Global Population Speakout.
Rolly has been published widely in both print and online publications. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
number 14: “The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available — we just need the right policies to release it. ”
Yes we need more money and policy, but what we need much more urgently than that is a willing public ready to change their lives to live much more simply and with much less product. That will curb emissions more than anything. If it’s not made, it won’t pollute and deplete so if you don’t buy it then it won’t be made, If we don’t get that mentality well established in the collective public’s mind then all the Leap Manifesto’s in the world won’t accomplish much at all. .
I like the Manifesto and its 15 demands. Although idealistic, it takes idealism to jump forward. Returning to the simpler lifestyle you speak of Danny is also somewhat of a dream. In my view, it will not happen unless it’s imposed on society by governments. And then will politicians go down that route. I doubt it.
Thank you for the comments as usual.
These are admirable points. There must also be a plan for funding their implementation. Simply ‘taxing the rich’ is not a good enough solution. It has never worked in the past except as an immediate, but short-lived patch. The rich just move to a country with a more favourable tax system and let’s face it, these days, a business can be run from anywhere in the world using electronic media for the sale of ‘stuff’ to anywhere else.
Canada (and other countries) must find a way to bring about access for all to economical transport, systainable homes, green energy and nutritious food. An effective plan needs abundant, cheap and environmentally clean resources and new manufacturing processes. It requires a team effort from all of us. Danny is right…our mentality must change. We must not be wasteful.
Austerity hasn’t worked in the political programs because it has targeted the most numerous taxpayers…those that don’t have a lot to begin with. A look at Greece might show that it has not stopped a black economy (an economy that runs without paying taxes), and it actually worsens the unemployment rates (and even more people join the black economy). So…what do we do to find the initial money to put the Leap manifesto into full action?
This might require a referendum for the people to vote on, but if it is explained properly as a viable solution, it might just work. I would suggest a one-time tax to everyone (scaled to income) of 10% of gross annual salary in addition to income tax. Painful? Yes! But necessary for a cash injection to create a true starting point for the new jobs created by a new green-economy. The rest should follow with a self funding system based on fairer access for all. The rich corporations would move to the green technologies and the government would ensure that all Canadians have access to the benefits.
Colette – you are very solution-oriented as is Danny. There’s no doubt that implementation will have its challenges but then in the final analysis, do we really have a choice. First the low-lying fruits will be tackled but little by little our civilization will move – screaming and scratching during the process – to a zero carbon world. There will be winners and there will be losers – not all will survive. But it will happen.
Thank you for the thoughtful comments.
P’s – There would need to be a very good implementation plan for a new green economy. Without it, the money raised in a one-time taxation revenue would be frittered away on duplication, committee meetings, useless literature and the usual bumph of politicians, as they fumble their way through ineptitude, and misguided use of the funds.