Good Sunday Morning!
And June is just around the corner. (Did May whiz by faster than normal?)
Click here for a printer-ready PDF version of this newsletter.
I write from Montreal after a wonderful week at home in Saanich-Gulf Islands, with May Day on Mayne and marching in the Victoria Day parade – keeping pace with the amazing kids of the Reynolds High School band. I was so impressed as the young marshals leading the band pointed out their flags for Pride Day, Black Lives Matter and the orange shirt flag for Every Child Matters. I had meetings with constituents and attended the Mount Doug High School Grad, with a stage full of young people born in 2005! Somehow that seemed shocking…
On Friday, I flew to Toronto to speak yesterday at the annual national conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). It was great to see so many old friends – elected Greens like Joanna Killen and Brent Harris from St. John City Council, N.B., Pete Fry from Vancouver City Council, Tim Wake from Bowen Island Municipal Council, Bruno Tremblay, Ste Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, and Paul Manly from Nanaimo (whom I miss in parliament more than I can say!) and many more. I had a generous reception and a standing ovation as I wrapped up a 15-minute speech.
The focus of my address was to remind FCM delegates of the Green call to improve federalism in Canada with a greater role for local governments.
It is our local governments that feel the greatest impact of extreme weather events, of inadequate infrastructure, of homelessness, mental health and addiction crises. Yet they are hamstrung by the structure of our federation put in place in 1867 through British North America Act. Under our constitution, local governments are the creatures of the provinces. Despite being responsible for 60% of Canada’s infrastructure, local governments are able to collect only 10% of taxes. They go cap in hand for grants and programmes doled out by provincial governments and the feds. And they are often left with money spent based on promised reimbursement, with the provinces deciding not to pay their share of the costs.
Back in 2015 when Deborah Coyne was playing a big role on Shadow Cabinet, she made us aware of how Australia organizes its various orders of government. We embraced it immediately and it was part of our election platform. Australia’s “Council of Australian Governments” meets regularly at the national level on the big picture, with smaller tables and councils on specific topic areas – Transport, Energy, Housing etc. The Australian Council brings the State governments (like our provinces), the federal government and representation of local governments to the same table to develop a shared vision. The Canadian Green version adds a fourth quadrant for Indigenous governments (First Nations, Metis and Inuit.)
When I presented it to the Big City Mayors at FCM that year, former Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson drew it on a piece of scrap paper – a circle cut in four sections. I will never forget how he transformed it, saying “I love it. It’s a Medicine Wheel.”
They loved it today as well. I shared with them how frustrated I am with the provinces. Regardless of political stripe, the one thing David Eby and Doug Ford will agree on is that the Feds do not send the provinces enough money. But since 2000, the federal government has quadrupled its funds to the provinces for health care. The provinces have definitely not used those health care dollars on their intended purpose. Health Care spending by provinces has NOT quadrupled. There are billions of dollars unexplained. But premiers love delivering tax cuts. Who pays for the unfunded promises? What accountability is there when provinces take federal dollars and use them to get themselves re-elected?
The European Union with its 28 separate and sovereign nation states (29 before Brexit), with 24 official languages, have consistently been better able to act collectively to address the climate threat than has Canada. Back in 1997, at Kyoto, the EU set a target of eight percent reductions below 1990 levels to be achieved between 2008-2012. Canada committed to six percent reductions below 1990 on the same time frame. Within a few months of the 1997 negotiations, the EU countries had agreed upon a plan to ensure that it would hit its target. Some EU countries reduced more to allow others to manage with less of a carbon slashing effort. The EU exceeded its Kyoto target.
Over many months and then years, Canada’s governments never did agree on any shared plan. Collectively, the EU exceeded Kyoto pledges, now collectively 34% below 1990 levels. Canada was nearly 21% above 1990 levels when Covid hit. Emissions declined in 2020, but are expected to have bounced back whenever the 2022 figures are released. It is a sorry record.
I shared some specifics with the delegates. How hard a lot of us worked over summer 2020 to create Covid-safe places for kids to go back to school in September – using the shuttered and larger facilities, like community halls and convention centres. We had the teachers’ unions, the convention centre association, FCM, bus lines, and tourism associations on board to make it work, but could not get a single provincial education minister willing to engage. Even Chrystia Freeland was helping me try to put it together. In the end, she put $3 billion in transfers to the provinces for better ventilation in schools. They took the money, but I cannot find any evidence that provinces spent the dollars on school ventilation.
In fall 2021, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra wrote every provincial transportation minister asking whether governments could work together to address the crisis in ground transportation in response to the withdrawal of Greyhound and bus lines across Canada. Not one minister even answered the letter.
So that was pretty much my rant at FCM. I am convinced that if the mythical “average Canadian” knew this, the provincial premiers might not keep getting away with this. Of course, a few Green provincial premiers would make a big difference. For now, I pledged to this country’s big city and small village councils that Greens will keep working with them.
And I urged them to be ready for the coming extreme weather events; to call publicly for the provincial governments to declare a state of emergency when they see a heat dome, fires or floods coming… not wait until after homes are gone or hundreds have died.
I just love being a leader of the Greens again with the huge honour of being able to engage directly with the great folks at the level of our local governments!
Lots of love from the NDG-Westmount campaign trail, and please help me get signatures on the petition below to act on the health threat of asbestos in drinking water!
xo
Elizabeth
Please sign and share the Parliamentary Petition to investigate and to act on asbestos in drinking water by June 2. (NOTE: Be sure to complete the final email confirmation.)
Unlike the U.S., Canada does not regulate asbestos in drinking water. Canadians are somewhat protected against airborne asbestos, but many residents drink contaminated water supplied via deteriorating asbestos cement pipes. The International Agency for Research on Cancer states that all forms of asbestos are known human carcinogens, causing “mesothelioma and cancer of the lung, larynx, and ovary. Also positive associations have been observed between exposure to all forms of asbestos and cancer of the pharynx, stomach, and colorectum.”
You may have seen the recent W5 investigation Something in the Water. It is high time to address asbestos in drinking water, humidifiers, showers and more, in households across Canada. For more information, please see PCN’s landing page, with links.
Parliamentary petitions are special—they force attention to an issue. This is not a typical one-click, attention-getting action, so don’t forget to confirm via email. With over 500 signatures by June 2, the federal government must respond substantively on protecting our health from asbestos in drinking water. Don’t delay – sign to be counted today!
……………………
Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens
http://www.sgigreenparty.ca/