Today’s Random Green Party Policy of the Day from Vision Green is page 120:

“The Green Party recognizes the rich history of the Persian people, their culture, and the desire of Iranian citizens for peace. The highly educated Iranian civil society should be supported through active, cooperative engagement accompanied by public overtures of dialogue with the Iranian government. There can be no long term stability in the mIddle EAst if Iran is continually isolated. REal change must come from the Iranian people who in turn must receive a clear signal that nations like Canada not only understand this but are prepared to act in a peaceful, cooperative direction. It is imperative that the mistakes in recent decades not be repeated…

The Green Party of Canada condemns the development of, and possession of nuclear weapons by any nation. We believe the dependence on oil and nuclear energy contributes far too much to global military conflict. Global security can only be achieved through peace, democracy and real diplomacy.

the Green Party believes that the Canadian government should begin to develop a truly independent foreign policy toward Iran.

Green Party MPs will:

- Actively re-engage Iran in a new diplomacy, fully cognizant of the history of the region and internal policies of Iran.

- Separate Canadian dialogue from, and condemn, a false rhetoric that only serves to inflame and aggravate misunderstandings of the Iranian people and their culture.

- Support the Iranian people in their quest to strengthen, through peaceful means, the democratic process within Iran.

- Condemn all human rights violations and judicial trials in which torture or police brutality is suspected in obtaining false confessions.

- Call for full Iranian government cooperation with all IAEA inspections and requests concerning Iran’s nuclear program.

Quick translation: We need to engage with Iran, supporting the citizens and demanding their human rights be respected. Also, we think nuclear weapons are bad. Really bad. And we want them gone. All of them.

Won’t it feel great to vote Green?

I have to thank Elizabeth May for pointing this out last Friday at the Green Party of Canada Economic Summit in Toronto.

Please turn to page 102 of your copy of Budget 2010. You do have one, right? If by some oversight your copy hasn’t arrived yet, you can download it here.

Read with me, if you will, the first paragraph of the creatively titled section: Green Jobs and Growth.

Canada has established itself as an energy superpower, being the third-largest global producer of gas, seventh in oil production, and the world’s largest supplier of uranium. Our international reputation as a safe and reliable energy supplier creates unprecedented opportunities for exporting our energy products within an integrated North American energy market and to the rest of the world. Our substantial reserves of oil, natural gas and other energy sources make Canada an increasingly attractive destination for global investment. These major new investments will allow us to tap our abundant energy potential while contributing to faster economic growth, creating a significant number of high value jobs and rejuvenating communities, especially in remote and rural areas.

Awesome! It really convinces me that our government is on the right track with Green development. Gas, oil and uranium – it just doesn’t get greener than that. Okay, I’m totally kidding. The second paragraph is no better but the third paragraph is very promising with a discussion of renewable energy sources leading up to these bullet points.

Bullet 1: A billion dollars for “clean energy technologies” through the Clean Energy Fund. Since they’ve already allotted $800 million to carbon capture and storage (CCS) there really isn’t any doubt that it is actually a CCS Fund.

Bullet 2: A billion dollars over 5-years for the Green Infrastructure Fund. No idea? Me neither. So I looked here and, ohmigosh, this is brilliant.

Eligible projects are those that promote cleaner air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and cleaner water and fall within any of the following categories: wastewater infrastructure; green energy generation infrastructure; green energy transmission infrastructure and solid waste infrastructure, and carbon transmission and storage infrastructure.

Looks great right up until the end… do you see it? CCS! “The fund will focus on a few, large scale, strategic infrastructure projects.” Definitely something to keep an eye on. To be fair, almost half of the Fund has already been allocated and none of it is for CCS so far. Here are the projects so far – mostly water treatment and energy transmission. I stand corrected.

“But it has to get better!” you say. All right, let’s move on. After some discussion on transforming the forestry sector the Budget moves on to Modernizing the Regulatory System where we find efforts to streamline major projects (insert oil sands and CCS joke here) and this nugget: “Responsibility for conducting environmental assessments for energy projects will be delegated from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to the National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for projects falling under their respective areas of expertise” (p104).

No. Seriously. The government is moving Environmental Assessments away from CEAA to the National Energy Board. Say good-bye to any attempts at oversight. Getting angry now? I am.

But it gets better. There is some good ideas on page 105 about Forestry and Accelerated Capital Cost Allowances for renewable energy projects. Good, good, things are looking up. Projects for Great Lakes and Arctic monitoring and the development of Environmental Sustainability Indicators. Not sure how those will provide jobs or grow the Green Economy but they are nice. I’m starting to feel a bit more hopeful. And then…

The section finishes with Nuclear Energy on page 107. The section basically says, and this is a heavy paraphrase, “It’s losing lots of money but we’ll continue to support it!”

Just a reminder that if you want to see Green Economics then you had better Vote Green.