Recent highlights from the Council of Canadians
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
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World Water Day
On World Water Day, March 22nd, Water Campaigner Mark Calvazara presented St. Teresa Secondary School in London, Ontario with a certificate designating them a Blue Community. St. Teresa is the 100th Blue Community worldwide since the project began in 2009, joining places like Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin.The Blue Communities Project encourages municipalities and Indigenous communities to support the idea of a water commons framework, recognizing that water is a shared resource for all, by passing resolutions that:
- Recognize water and sanitation as human rights.
- Ban or phase out the sale of bottled water in municipal facilities and at municipal events.
- Promote publicly financed, owned, and operated water and wastewater services.
Demand for fresh water to outpace supply by 40 per cent by 2030
The need for more Blue Communities is growing ever more urgent. Not only are 28 First Nations in Canada still under boil water advisories, but a recent report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water showed that the global demand for fresh water will outpace supply by 40 per cent by 2030. According to the Commission, “We are seeing the consequences not of freak events, nor of population growth and economic development, but of having mismanaged water globally for decades. As the science and evidence show, we now face a systemic crisis that is both local and global.”
The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated. We must act at every level to ensure that there is a safe, reliable supply of fresh water for everyone on Earth, forever.
Why we need to wind down the fossil fuel industry – and how it can be done
In order for the climate to remain stable enough for organized human civilization to endure, we must stop extraction of new fossil fuel resources, and wind down existing extraction projects. This will require shifting our global energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The choice we have right now is not whether we will make a radical, transformative change to our economy and society or stay the same, it’s between whether we drive the change forward with an eye towards justice and hope, or let the changes catch up to us, when we’re wholly unprepared.While it’s difficult to imagine, there are things that can be done, and quickly, to set us on the correct path:
- Ending government subsidies of the fossil fuel industry – which has never been more profitable – is necessary. No more public money can go towards these companies.
- Public money must instead be devoted to decarbonizing the economy, including investments in dense urban housing, public transit, and decarbonizing the food system.
- The RCMP occupation of Indigenous lands and surveillance of Indigenous land and water defenders must cease immediately and completely.
- Work collaboratively with communities that will be most impacted by the loss of the fossil fuel industry as an employer to ensure the community remains viable into the future.
Climate groups sound the alarm on public transit death spiral
A coalition of 15 environmental groups, including Environmental Defence, Équiterre, Greenpeace Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation and Climate Action Network Canada, signed an open letter calling on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to intervene once again to save public transit systems from financial crisis related to lower farebox revenues due to the pandemic.The expansion of public transit is a key component of achieving Canada’s environmental goals. In every major city, there are plans to give residents greater access to transit service as a way to shift commuting patterns and reduce GHG emissions. Expanding these services can result in good jobs building transit lines and new vehicles, as well as maintaining the transit infrastructure and running the operations on a daily basis. Read More
We can – and must – resist Ford’s sprawl agenda
Doug Ford and his government tabled Bill 23, part of an all-out attack on environmental protection, climate action, and democracy. The new bill, along with a host of changes to other acts and regulations announced at the same time, will result in an important loss of biodiversity and productive farmland, more urban sprawl, poorly designed and poorly serviced communities, and significant increases to municipal tax and utility rates. Big developers are thrilled with these changes – but they are the only ones.Communities understand the threat posed by Bill 23, and opposition has been fierce. Residents across the province hosted countless pop-up rallies outside their Members of Provincial Parliament’s office. Housing advocates, farmers, environmentalists, labour unions, Council of Canadians chapters, and everyday Ontarians came together to oppose the Bill, and opposition is still strong despite the bill’s passage. Efforts across the province are continuing to apply pressure on PC MPPs to remain accountable to their constituents. Read More
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