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The famously acrimonious councilors of the City of Toronto recently took a vote on whether to pass a climate emergency. They passed it unanimously, even with the conservatives on council. They usually never agree on anything.

Perhaps it was just past due. After all, hundreds of local governments across Canada have now declared climate emergencies as a starting point in accelerating their climate action. Seemingly every week there’s a new scientific report underlining how dire the situation is and how quickly we need to act. We are all collectively very late to the party.

We asked the main federal candidates in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford for a brief description of what they would do about climate change and the environment. These are their answers, reproduced in alphabetical order by last name. The Conservative candidate Alana Delong has not answered.

One Cowichan Releases Climate Emergency Checklist for Local Governments

(Duncan, BC; August 19, 2019) Today the citizens group One Cowichan released a checklist to measure local governments’ progress towards climate emergency action. The 10-point list covers issues from land use and sprawl to transportation and energy efficiency.

“The purpose of this checklist is to give the public a way to measure whether local governments are actually making progress on reducing emissions and adapting to the climate crisis,” said Jane Kilthei with One Cowichan. “A critical first step is for local governments to stop approving sprawling housing and commercial developments, since they’re one of the biggest drivers of our increasing emissions.”