Putting climate at the heart of every decision in Ontario
Joel Harden
MPP Ottawa Centre
613-722-6414 | Twitter | Email | Website
Putting climate at the heart of every decision in Ontario
Over the past few weeks, I have been having conversations with local environmental groups and climate change experts. It has been a welcome reminder of the great climate action work being done in Ottawa.
Meanwhile, climate policy debate in Ontario has been frustrating. Everything is reduced to discussions on carbon pricing, but local environmentalists say there is more to discuss, and we have an opportunity right now.
With the right approach, we can unite rural, suburban and urban Ontario by doing right by the planet and making life more affordable.
It starts with rejecting the claim that carbon pricing has caused today’s affordability crisis. That is false, and we have to say it’s false. The Bank of Canada and other economists have made this plain.
Pivoting from that, we must acknowledge the powerful actors who really are making life unaffordable and unsustainable in climate/environmental terms.
It’s the profit margins of fossil fuel companies, real estate speculators, sprawl developers and food giants like Loblaws that are driving up the cost of living and destroying the planet. And this is just a partial list.
These actors are paving over prime agricultural land, wasting food, gouging people at the pump, building sprawl housing and pushing the wrong infrastructure projects, like highways we don’t need or costly gas contracts – for energy generation, and for home heating – that will make everything else more difficult.
If we allow this to continue, we prevent people from getting the things they need.
Like a heat pump for their building, for their home, for their farm or their business.
Like public transit that gets you where you need to go on time or a charging network and subsidies that can make electric vehicles an option everywhere in Ontario. Or protected infrastructure for pedestrians, wheelchairs and bicycles.
Like renewable energy projects scaled up through public utilities, taking advantage of public and community space and the expertise of Ontario firms and workers.
Like an affordable home or a small business location in vacant public land or buildings. Or subsidies to help retrofit buildings and homes. Or a fund like British Columbia’s that allows non-profit housing providers to acquire buildings.
Like help for local farmers and farmers markets. Or support for programs that keep organic waste from landfills, textiles from landfills or tools and construction waste from landfills. Or a strategy in general that deals with our overflowing landfills!
Some might suggest these concerns are impossible to address, and I can appreciate that climate action can seem challenging. But I have heard from Ottawa groups with solutions, and we must empower them at every level of politics.
From safe cycling to home energy retrofits, from public transit to affordable and sustainable housing, from reducing food waste to supporting local farms and community kitchens, from ensuring equitable access to outdoor gear and home construction tools. Ottawa is home to environmental leaders that are putting action behind their climate commitments.
Now that business at Queen’s Park has resumed, I look forward to highlighting the local climate leaders who will benefit if we make smart moves at the provincial level. The public needs to know about the great climate work being done that deserves wide support.
At a time when Enbridge sponsors Winterlude, when our beloved Rideau Canal skateway is open for a scant few days, when we wrap ice sculptures in cold blankets to survive warm winters, we need to act.
It’s time to put climate at the heart of every decision in Ontario.
