Karen Beazley

My policies are driven by a fundamental concern for the climate, biodiversity, and humanitarian crises. These global issues play out on the local level. Challenges in housing, transportation, and healthcare are just a few examples. Addressing social justice and equity is key.

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Affordability

Public transit

Karen Beazley's promises

I will support urgently needed initiatives to increase the extent, efficiency, efficacy, and affordability of public transportation systems.
I will work to forward improvements to public transit to make it preferable to owning a vehicle and dealing with traffic and parking.
I will focus on increasing active transportation options and infrastructure, to foster both environmental health and human well-being.

Climate Change & the Environment

Carbon price

Karen Beazley's promise

Carbon pricing is an important tool for reducing emissions. I will support initiatives in which the highest producers pay the highest fees.

Climate adaptation

Karen Beazley's promises

This is a core goal of my platform. I will forward initiatives to support nature-based solutions and restrict inappropriate developments.

Natural forests and wetlands are crucial to carbon storage and sequestration. They are needed to offset historical carbon emissions, and to reduce current and future emissions that would occur with their disturbance, conversion, or use as fuel.

Retention and restoration of natural areas are core aspects of enabling wildlife and ecosystems to adapt to climate changes, such as by providing avenues for them to shift to cooler places as the climate warms.

Nature-based solutions are key to addressing both climate and biodiversity emergencies, as well as supporting human well-being, ecosystem services, and our ecological life-supporting system.

Adaptation responses need to be done in ways that are socially equitable and do not further disadvantage those groups that are often excluded from decision making or bear a disproportionate share of the burden of environmental disasters.

The provincial government needs to take a lead role and provide the necessary legal and policy framework to take on this complex task in a highly coordinated manner.

I will work to bring back the Coastal Protection Act. It is crucial to protect and manage the coast, both for ecosystems and communities.

Climate and associated changes (e.g., sea-level rise, storm surges, erosion, flooding, increasing storm intensity and frequency) require that we undertake a coordinated province-wide strategy to adapt to and mitigate these changes in ways that are effective and equitable.

Roads and other built developments will need to be relocated further inland or otherwise raised up. These relocations and adjustments will need to be made in ways that do not further jeopardize key ecosystems, such as those that support endangered species and habitats, and those that provide key ecosystem services.

Key natural areas that buffer the coast from storm surges and erosion, reduce runoff and flooding, and store and sequester carbon need to be protected .

Conservation and environmental protection

Karen Beazley's promises

Conservation of nature and resources and protection of the environment are crucial to addressing climate, biodiversity and health crises.
I will push for additional protected areas and conservation of natural corridors between them to maintain and restore connected habitats.
I will strive to enact the "Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities" that is proposed by East Coast Environmental Law and others.

Electric vehicles

Karen Beazley's promises

Better incentives and infrastructure for electric vehicles are needed. I will push for these province wide as well as in my riding.
I will forward the Ecology Action Centre’s call to electrify school buses to reduce emissions and support better health outcomes.

Forests and forest conservation

Karen Beazley's promises

I will collaborate with other MLAs and citizens to implement the recommendations of the 2018 Lahey forestry report, for ecological forestry.
I will call for full implementation of the Endangered Species Act on public and private land, including monitoring and enforcement.
I will support measures that contribute to carbon sequestration and climate resilience, such as conserving mature and intact forests.
I will urge legislation preventing the use of forest biomass for the purpose of electricity generation both domestically and abroad.
  1. Collaborate with researchers and the forestry industry to develop more sustainable forestry practices.
  2. Support measures to ensure the legislated elimination of clearcutting forestry practices.
  3. Support facilitation of best practices silviculture on public and private land forestry and for old-forest restoration.
  4. Urge legislation preventing toxic agents, such as glyphosate, from being applied to fields and forests.
  5. Urge legislation preventing the use of forest biomass for the purpose of electricity generation both domestically and abroad.
  6. Require both survey-based and molecular-based assessments of forest health and monitoring of invasive or destructive species.

Green construction and retrofits

Karen Beazley's promises

I will push for well-planned developments that provide livable healthy environments and nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.
I will work towards policies that encourage new developments to retain and restore natural land cover (parks, trails, urban forests).
I support initiatives that provide equitable access to nature for mental and physical well-being, air quality, and carbon sequestration.
I support development that is planned in ways that maintain and restore a network of connected green spaces, for people and nature.

Oil and gas development

Karen Beazley's promise

I will make every effort to discourage and limit oil and gas development and transition to clean, renewable and sustainable energy sources.

Pollution

Karen Beazley's promises

I will fully support and forward the Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities proposed by East Coast Environmental Law and others.
The Bill would enshrine the rights of all people to a healthy environment and make the provincial government legally responsible for it.
A bill of rights would provide a way for communities to hold government to account for exposure to pollutants that endanger their health.
I would work to strengthen the Environment Act and its application to better limit the cumulative impacts of multiple sources of pollution.

Public transit

Karen Beazley's promises

I will support urgently needed initiatives to increase the extent, efficiency, efficacy, and affordability of public transportation systems.
I will work to forward improvements to public transit to make it preferable to owning a vehicle and dealing with traffic and parking.
I will focus on increasing active transportation options and infrastructure, to foster both environmental health and human well-being.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Karen Beazley's promises

I will make every effort to discourage and limit oil and gas development and transition to clean, renewable and sustainable energy sources.
Better incentives and infrastructure for electric vehicles are needed. I will push for these province wide as well as in my riding.
I will focus on increasing active transportation options and infrastructure, to foster both environmental health and human well-being.
Carbon pricing is an important tool for reducing emissions. I will support initiatives in which the highest producers pay the highest fees.

Walkable, bikable communities

Karen Beazley's promises

I will focus on increasing active transportation options and infrastructure, to foster both environmental health and human well-being.
I will push for well-planned developments that provide livable healthy environments and nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.

Water and watersheds

Karen Beazley's promises

Water is crucial to human and non-human life. I will make every effort to forward initiatives to conserve water and protect watersheds.
It is crucial to maintain and restore natural land cover (forests and wetlands) in large portions of key watersheds and along watercourses.

Wildfires

Karen Beazley's promise

I will push for programs and policies that address the underlying causes of wildfires, primarily human actions and climate change.

Education about human roles and responsibilities surrounding wildfire, its causes, and preventive measures is key. Development, monitoring, and enforcement of policies to address causes and support preventive measures are needed.

Jobs, Businesses, & Labour

Oil and gas development

Karen Beazley's promise

I will make every effort to discourage and limit oil and gas development and transition to clean, renewable and sustainable energy sources.

Biography

submitted by the candidate or their team
Born in Nova Scotia, I have worked first as a professional Landscape Architect in Ontario, followed by 25 years as Professor and Director at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies. Recently retired, I remain engaged with students and their research.

Throughout my career, I have been engaged in numerous professional, community, and volunteer organizations. For 15 years I chaired Nova Scotia’s Land Legacy Trust, which has provided game-changing matching funding support to land trusts to protect private lands of ecological significance. I have twice served on Recovery Planning Teams for species at risk in Nova Scotia. I have helped organize international conferences, and provided guidance to Parks Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, most recently for Canada’s National Ecological Corridors Program.

My interests have always focused on the inter-relationships between humans and our environment. Primarily I have centered on wildlife and natural ecosystems and our responsibilities as humans to think and act in ways that recognize that we are all related. The biological diversity that makes up ecological systems comprises our life-support system. My work has explored and advocated for ways to live in co-existence, for the benefit of all, both people and nature. I have focused on nature-based approaches to address both the climate and biodiversity crises in socially just ways.

I have always enjoyed outdoor activities, especially backcountry camping, canoeing, hiking, and sea kayaking. I have done a lot of long-distance running, swimming and biking, including the Boston Marathon, and competing for Team Canada in international triathlon and duathlon competitions, earning an award of excellence and a bronze medal for Canada in 2013.

Reason for running

submitted by the candidate or their team
We are facing urgent crises in climate, biodiversity, and social justice. Action is needed now for transformative change across social, economic, and political systems. I have a deep sense of responsibility to stand up and speak up for the future of humanity and the planet.

At this point, we are essentially and literally talking about the survival of people and the planet as we know it. We are now near or beyond the tipping point of collapse of major planetary systems (i.e., climate; biodiversity). We need to work together to turn this ship around, for the good of people and the plant. 

I have a lifetime of lived experience, skills, and knowledge across these domains. I am now retired, with time to serve in a different way towards creating and supporting these crucial changes towards a more sustainable and equitable future. 

Vote for me, vote Green, because we need to transform social, economic and political systems in fundamental ways to address the interrelated climate, biodiversity, and humanitarian emergencies. The necessary transformative shift will only come about by thinking and acting differently than the status quo.


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