An Open Letter From Canada’s Muncipal Mayors & Councillors To Federal Leaders For Action On Climate Crisis

(A Note from Niagara At Large – To This Date & Time, April 15th, 2025 At 12:15 P.M., St. Catharines Regional Councillor Haley Bateman is the only elected representative  in all of Niagara to join more than 170 municipal representatives across Canada in lending  her name to this Open Letter. How Disappointing Is That?)

Posted April 15, 2025 on Niagara At Large

Here Is The Open Letter  to Canada’s Federal Party Leaders –

St. Catharines Regional Councillor Haley Bateman, the only municipal representative in all of Niagara to so far sign an Open Letter to federal leaders urging more action on climate change

To Messrs. Blanchet, Carney, Pedneault, Poilievre, Singh, and Ms. May:

We are mayors and councillors from across Canada, where we represent and serve millions of residents of all political backgrounds.

Like so many of you, we are already feeling the effects of U.S. trade attacks in our communities through lost jobs, uncertainty for businesses, and increased costs of daily living.

Increasingly, we are also guiding our communities through another kind of crisis: recurring wildfires, floods, storms and deadly climate events. We believe this is the moment for Canada to fight back, by investing in national projects that will connect and protect our country from the dual threats of tariffs and climate change. 

Leading through a climate emergency changes you. You can’t witness elderly neighbours overheating in low-income apartments during a heat wave, and not recognize the critical role of well-insulated, affordable housing.

You can’t comfort people who have lost everything in floods and fires, and not wonder how we will afford to rebuild. You can’t watch your kids and loved ones choke on toxic wildfire smoke without knowing the time to act boldly on climate change is right now – because later is too late.

Over the past decade, we’ve watched wildfires rip through nearly every part of our country. Just like you, we were stunned when Lytton disappeared off the map. Then parts of Halifax went up in flames. Last year, wildfires engulfed the iconic and beloved Jasper.

What’s next? Who’s next?

We can’t keep watching our homes, towns and forests burn to a crisp, and pretend the status quo is working or safe. We can’t adapt our way out of this problem. 

It is time for us to get to work. We are proposing five bold and achievable ideas the next federal government can implement as soon as it is elected, to tariff-proof our economy and create a jobs boom in every community:

• create a national East-West-North clean electric grid, delivering affordable energy to urban, rural and Indigenous communities across the country;
• build a national high-speed rail network, and extend it with locally-made electric buses to reach every community in this country;
• build at least two million non-market, energy-efficient homes, creating more affordable, transit-linked communities; make our homes and buildings warmer in winter, cooler in summer with retrofits and heat pump installations across the country, that will cut energy bills and pollution;
• and fund a national resilience, response and recovery strategy so our communities can prepare for the climate disasters we know are coming, respond when they hit, and rebuild afterwards.

These projects would create hundreds of thousands of good local jobs in cities, rural and Indigenous communities, using Canadian steel, aluminum and lumber. They would bolster our economy and make daily life safer and more affordable for all of us. We can afford to pay for them now: by redirecting billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies, and strengthening the polluter pays principle, for example.  

This is the kind of action that this moment calls for. 

That is why it has been so disappointing to hear voices following Donald Trump’s lead and using this crisis to revive long-dead and unpopular pipeline projects. 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.

As local leaders, we know that whatever their political backgrounds, our constituents are worried about the same things: good jobs; a safe and affordable place to live; and confidence that their leaders have a plan for the next crisis we face, whether a climate disaster – or an economic sucker punch from our closest ally.

We are facing a growing climate threat, and an attack on our economic sovereignty.

We can and must take them both on at once. This federal election, let’s put our elbows up for climate action, and commit to truly national projects to protect and connect our country.

To Review the Open Letter and list of municipal representatives who have so far signed it, click on – https://elbowsupforclimate.ca/

A Footnote – Herb Sawatzky, the leading member of 50by30Niagara, a Niagara-wide citizens group advocating for more action from our municipal representatives on the climate crisis, has, in his words, “sent an email to every councillor and mayor in Niagara asking them to add their names to that letter. So far I’ve heard back from one regional councillor, Haley Bateman, who signed on immediately. I’ve also heard from two municipal Environmental Advisory Committee members who have passed it on to their respective committees (thanks to Niagara Falls and Port Colborne).”

He is urging residents across Niagara to contact the mayor and councillors in our municipality and urge them to sign the letter.

Let’s contact Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley and members of Niagara’s Regional Council and urge them to sign this letter too.

(In any email you may sent to your muncipal representatives, include this link – https://elbowsupforclimate.ca/ – so that they have the text of the Open Letter and the list of municipal representives across Canada who have already lent their name to it.)

For more on 50by30 Niagara, click on – https://50by30niagara.org/News

To read a CBC news report on this open letter, click on – <https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/letter-mayors-federal-leaders-1.7507440>

NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders