Toronto/CMEDIA: In a letter written reportedly to Canada’s five main federal party leaders, Municipal politicians across Canada have called for climate-related actions which they say would improve the country’s resilience to environmental calamities.
The letter was signed by a total of 128 mayors, deputy mayors, city councillors and area directors.
Included in the group of Municipal politicians were Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, Jasper, Alta., Mayor Richard Ireland, former Toronto mayor David Miller, Princeton, B.C., Mayor Spencer Coyne and Ben Hendriksen, the deputy mayor of Yellowknife..
In the letter published Friday, the mayors and councillors suggested that the focus of the Liberals and Conservatives should be on the sectors of the economy threatened by American tariffs — such as Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber — and on resource extraction projects to facilitate the Canadian economy to be less dependent on the US.
Their demands also included building a national electric grid that includes the North by the next federal government, and moving ahead with a high-speed rail network.
They added that building two million non-market “green homes,” as well as to make homes and buildings more energy efficient and fund a “national resilience, response and recovery strategy.”
Being decentralized, the electricity grid in Canada is mostly managed by provinces, and not all northern communities have access.
For high-speed rail, a 1,000-kilometre line from Toronto to Quebec City’s design phase of Alto, $3.9 billion in funding over six years was announced by the former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
It was suggested in the letter that these projects would be paid for by redirecting billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies and increasing taxes on big polluters.
Pipelines not the solution, says letter
“Let’s be honest: new pipelines require massive public handouts, trample on Indigenous sovereignty and mean more climate disasters hitting our cities and towns in years to come,” it reads.
In a news release about the letter, Plante said the federal government needs “greater vision and action” rather than “entertaining ideas for more pipelines.”
Being heavily focused so far on the impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the uncertainty they have created, the federal election has overshadowed issues such as climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, poverty and housing.
Both Montreal and Jasper were hit hard by environmental disasters last year with July’s wildfires in Jasper burning out of control and destroying a portion of the city forced a mass evacuation lasting nearly a month.
Non-stop rain over a period of 24 hours in Montreal during early August, caused massive flooding affecting other parts of southern Quebec as well. Having damaged nearly $2.5 billion in insurance, the Insurance Bureau of Canada called this event as the costliest severe weather event in Quebec history.
“What we need are programs that not only significantly reduce pollution but also help rebuild our communities, as climate disasters continue to intensify,” Plante said in the release.
On Thursday ahead of the letter’s publication, Ireland was reported saying that he considered the resilience response and recovery strategy — which could have speeded in interim housing for his residents and restored the local economy more quickly — as the most important of the five calls to action.
Election focused on other issues
“The election has been focused on other external issues, which are of course really important to our national sovereignty and our well-being, but they tie in” to what the municipal leaders are proposing, Ireland said.
“We live in a complex world and at the end of the day, the environment seems to rule it all. So, let’s get a little focused on what matters.”
