John Rustad clapped back at Vancouver City Councilor and BC NDP candidate Christine Boyle after she accused him of denying climate change, slamming her support for tolls on drivers trying to enter the downtown core.The BC Conservative leader said in no uncertain terms that regardless of what can be done to mitigate the impacts of climate change, "taxing people into poverty" will not solve anything.."When it comes to adding a toll for driving in Vancouver, Christine Boyle says: 'Everybody agrees it's a good idea'," Rustad wrote in a post on X, citing a comment she made in 2020. "I disagree — people shouldn't have to pay an extra tax to drive to Stanley Park or a Canucks game. Taxing people into poverty won’t solve climate change."In her post, Boyle quoted an attack on Rustad by the BC NDP in which they called him a "climate denier." She cited comments he made to the Globe and Mail earlier this year in which he suggested that the science around how much humans are to blame for climate change was "a theory and not proven," and that the situation was "not even a crisis.""The climate crisis is impacting communities across BC," Boyle added. "We need to be doing more, not less, to reduce emissions and support communities. The science is clear. We can’t afford John Rustad and the BC Conservatives dragging us backwards.".Boyle was "ratio'd," meaning she got more replies than likes on her post. Most of those who left comments were on Rustad's side."BC's carbon taxes fill government coffers and at the same time have done absolutely zero to change the world's climate," one user wrote. "[Rustad] is on the right track: BC needs to innovate, not make life of people in BC harder by taxing them more."As the CBC reports, Boyle had long claimed that tolls on drivers entering or leaving downtown Vancouver were a good idea, and that the only barrier to implementation was a lack of political will. In 2020, city council approved the Climate Emergency Action Plan, which included the study of "mobility pricing" for the downtown peninsula and Broadway corridor. Two years later, however, Mayor Ken Sim and his new crew nixed the plan and put an end to discussions over the controversial idea. Since then, little has been done to resurrect it.
