Municipal politicians throughout Canada have written a letter to the five main leaders of the Federal Party who ask for climate -related actions that, they say, would improve the country’s resistance to environmental calamities.
The group includes the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Aposition, Jasper, Alta., Mayor Richard Ireland, the former mayor of Toronto, David Miller, Princeton, BC, Mayor Spencer Coyne and Ben Hendriksen, the Vicealcalde de Yellowknife. A total of 128 mayors, attached mayors, municipal councilors and area directors signed.
In the letter published on Friday, mayors and councilors say that their ideas would create jobs and use Canadian steel, aluminum and wood, sectors of the economy threatened by US tariffs, and seem to point to the approach of liberals and conservatives in resource extraction projects to make the economy less dependent on the US.
The group wants the next federal government to build a national electricity grid that includes north, advance with a high -speed rail network, build two million “green houses” that are not market, make houses and buildings more energy efficient and finance a “national resistance, response and recovery strategy.”
The electricity grid in Canada is decentralized and mostly administered by the provinces, and not all communities in the north have access. Regarding the high speed rail, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $ 3.9 billion in funds for six years for the high design phase, a 1,000 -kilometer line from Toronto to Quebec city.
The letter suggests paying the projects by redirecting billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies and increasing taxes on large pollutions.
Pipes, not the solution, says letter
“Let’s be honest: new pipes require mass public brochures, trampling indigenous sovereignty and mean more climatic disasters that hit our cities and towns in the coming years,” he says.
In a press release on the letter, he said that the federal government needs “greater vision and action” instead of “entertaining ideas for more pipes.”
So far, federal elections have focused on the impacts of the tariffs of US President Donald Trump and the uncertainty they have created, eclipssing issues such as climate change, indigenous reconciliation, poverty and housing.
Montreal and Jasper were affected by environmental disasters last year. In July, Jasper’s forest fires forced a massive evacuation that lasted almost a month when the fires burned out of control and destroyed a part of the city.
Then, at the beginning of August, the rain without stopping for a 24 -hour period caused mass floods in Montreal and in other parts of the southern Quebec. The event has been called the most expensive severe climate event in the history of Quebec by the Canada Insurance Office, with almost $ 2.5 billion in insured damages.
“What we need are programs that not only significantly reduce pollution, but also help rebuild our communities, since climatic disasters continue to intensify,” said the statement.
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday before the publication of the letter, Ireland said that the most important of the five calls for action for him is the strategy of resilience, response and recovery, which he thinks he could have helped to shorten delays in intermediate homes for his residents and restore the local economy more quickly.
Elections focused on other topics
“The election has focused on other external issues, which, of course, are really important for our national sovereignty and our well -being, but they are linked” with what municipal leaders propose, Ireland said.
The mayor of Jasper suggested that the strategy could imply requireing the construction codes to be updated so that the new structures are more resistant to fire or floods, for example, or to promote the creation of fire jumps.
The conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has made a campaign promise to establish what he refers to as a national energy corridor of “First Canada”, which would imply prior pipes to the approval of the pipes. Researchers at the School of Public Policies at the University of Calgary have been examining this option during the last decade.
“Unfortunately, we feel that although perhaps we are the most recent community to go through this experience, we will probably be the last one,” he said.
The 67 -year -old Ireland house was one of the more than 800 housing lost in Jasper’s fires. He spoke at the end of last year about the challenge of ensuring provisional homes for residents who hope to return to the community.
“If we can use our experience to help other communities in every Canada to be prepared for the reality of severe climate and climate change in their communities, then we have used our disaster to help others,” Ireland said Thursday.
“We live in a complex world and at the end of the day, the environment seems to govern everything. So, we focus a little on what matters.”
