Canadian mayors push federal leaders for action on climate, not pipelines

Verity Stevenson · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 11, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Municipal politicians across Canada person written a missive to the 5 main national enactment leaders calling for climate-related actions they accidental would amended the country's resilience to biology calamities. 

The radical includes Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, Jasper, Alta., Mayor Richard Ireland, erstwhile Toronto politician David Miller, Princeton, B.C., Mayor Spencer Coyne and Ben Hendriksen, the lawman politician of Yellowknife. A full of 128 mayors, lawman mayors, metropolis councillors and country directors signed on.

In the missive published Friday, the mayors and councillors accidental their ideas would make jobs and usage Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber — sectors of the system threatened by American tariffs — and appear to instrumentality purpose astatine the Liberals' and Conservatives' absorption connected assets extraction projects to marque the system little babelike connected the U.S.

The radical wants the adjacent national authorities to physique a nationalist electrical grid that includes the North, determination up with a high-speed obstruction network, physique 2 cardinal non-market "green homes," marque homes and buildings much vigor businesslike and money a "national resilience, effect and betterment strategy."

The energy grid successful Canada is decentralized and mostly managed by provinces, and not each bluish communities person access. As for high-speed rail, erstwhile premier curate Justin Trudeau announced $3.9 cardinal successful backing implicit six years for the plan signifier of Alto, a 1,000-kilometre enactment from Toronto to Quebec City. 

The missive suggests paying for the projects by redirecting billions of dollars successful fossil substance subsidies and expanding taxes connected large polluters.

Pipelines not the solution, says letter

"Let's beryllium honest: caller pipelines necessitate monolithic nationalist handouts, trample connected Indigenous sovereignty and mean much clime disasters hitting our cities and towns successful years to come," it reads. 

In a quality merchandise astir the letter, Plante said the national authorities needs "greater imaginativeness and action" alternatively than "entertaining ideas for much pipelines." 

The national predetermination has truthful acold been heavy focused connected the impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and the uncertainty they person created, overshadowing issues specified arsenic clime change, Indigenous reconciliation, poorness and housing.

Montreal and Jasper were some deed hard by biology disasters past year. In July, the Jasper wildfires forced a wide evacuation lasting astir a period arsenic the fires burned retired of power and destroyed a information of the city. 

Then, successful aboriginal August, non-stop rainfall implicit a play of 24 hours caused monolithic flooding successful Montreal and successful different parts of confederate Quebec. The lawsuit has been called the costliest terrible upwind lawsuit successful Quebec past by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, with astir $2.5 cardinal successful insured damage.

"What we request are programs that not lone importantly trim contamination but besides assistance rebuild our communities, arsenic clime disasters proceed to intensify," Plante said successful the release.

In an interrogation with CBC News connected Thursday up of the letter's publication, Ireland said the astir important of the 5 calls to enactment for him is the resilience, effect and betterment strategy, which helium believes could person helped shorten delays successful interim lodging for his residents and restored the section system much quickly.

Election focused connected different issues

"The predetermination has been focused connected different outer issues, which are of people truly important to our nationalist sovereignty and our well-being, but they necktie in" to what the municipal leaders are proposing, Ireland said. 

The Jasper politician suggested the strategy could impact requiring that building codes beryllium updated for caller structures to beryllium much occurrence oregon flood resistant, for example, oregon to beforehand the instauration of occurrence breaks. 

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"Sadly, we consciousness that though we are possibly the astir caller assemblage to spell done this experience, we astir apt won't beryllium the last," helium said. 

Ireland's location of 67 years was 1 of the much than 800 dwellings lost in the Jasper fires. He spoke precocious past twelvemonth astir the situation of securing interim lodging for residents hoping to instrumentality to the community. 

"If we tin usage our acquisition to assistance different communities crossed Canada beryllium prepared for the world of terrible upwind and clime alteration connected their communities, past astatine slightest we person utilized our catastrophe to assistance others," Ireland said Thursday. 

"We unrecorded successful a analyzable satellite and astatine the extremity of the day, the situation seems to regularisation it all. So, let's get a small focused connected what matters."