Nova Scotia municipal elections: A chance to advance climate justice

In recent years, Nova Scotia has experienced unprecedented environmental devastation, which was a wake-up call about the urgency of responding to the effects of the climate crisis in our local communities. The impact of environmental disasters—like Hurricane Fiona in 2022, and snowstorms, flash flooding, and wildfires in 2023—our local communities has been profound, underscoring the need for climate readiness strategies that ensure municipalities can respond swiftly to their communities’ needs, restore critical community infrastructure and resources, and work towards mitigating (if not preventing) further damage.

Environmental stewardship—care and respect for the natural world through conservation efforts and sustainable practices—is a crucial responsibility of municipalities and is key to ensuring economic and social well-being for current and future generations. Moreover, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has identified that “municipalities have influence over roughly 50 per cent of the nation’s GHG emissions.”

Read the full report

The coming municipal election provides an opportunity to talk about important issues, and to elect candidates who will bring forward progressive changes.

This article is drawn from a longer research project by the CCPA’s Nova Scotia office outlining a progressive agenda for the municipal elections happening across Nova Scotia. Read the full report for more information.

There are several steps municipalities must take to address the climate crisis, plan to mitigate its effects and promote sustainable practices within their communities in the years to come. Municipal candidates across Nova Scotia should adopt a number of forward-thinking principles if they want to be serious about addressing the crisis.

Creating Climate Readiness Strategies: Local environmental organizations have applauded HRM for its ambitious climate action plan. HalifACT 2050: Acting on Climate Together, informed by consultations with community members, outlines the actions required to respond to the climate crisis in homes and communities across the municipality to “build a more resilient and healthy future in Atlantic Canada while preparing for current and future climate impacts.” Measures include retrofitting buildings, expanding public transit, protecting infrastructure from flooding, and dramatically cutting emissions to achieve a net-zero economy by 2050. Climate readiness strategies are only as effective as their enforcement. Municipalities must democratically develop these strategies with an open and transparent collaborative process to ensure they are responsive to diverse communities and do not perpetuate environmental racism so they can be held to account by residents to meaningfully implement them.

Developing Municipal Energy Investment Plans: Municipalities have a crucial role in addressing energy poverty—when residents cannot afford or access the energy levels needed to fulfil their everyday needs and maintain safe and healthy temperatures within their homes year-round. In 2014 and again in 2018, Bridgewater was awarded the Efficiency Nova Scotia Bright Business Award for “excellence in energy management, solidifying its reputation for engaging businesses and residents alike to find new ways to be energy conscious and to live more responsibly.” Energize Bridgewater offers an innovative model for sustainable energy investment that municipalities across Nova Scotia and nationwide can replicate to enhance communities while working towards a just transition and achieving climate readiness goals.

Working Towards a Just Transition: A just transition policy must ensure initiatives towards environmental sustainability and stewardship have equitable benefits across communities—that is, they do not negatively affect those who have not largely been responsible for environmental degradation. A just transition relies on addressing environmental racism—where “colonialism and capitalism have decreased [marginalized peoples’] ability to protect their communities and identify their future needs.” Environmental racism is not a product of the climate crisis, but a product of the historical neglect of and indifference to these communities’ health, well-being, and ways of life in municipal planning and policies. Municipalities must, therefore, develop plans that forefront racialized communities and Indigenous communities’ ability to address the climate crisis and respond to ensuing extreme weather events.

Expanding Public Transit and Active Transportation: All levels of government have a crucial role to play in supporting residents’ ability to access basic needs and essential amenities within their community and between communities while also prioritizing environmental goals. As the level of government responsible for sidewalks, trails, and public transit, municipalities are often left to do the heavy lifting—including stabilizing and subsidizing transit options within and between communities. Residents across Nova Scotia should be able to travel between and across communities with a convenient, reliable inter-community public transit system, minimizing dependence on private vehicles. With the reality of the climate crisis and rising costs of fossil fuels, collective transportation options that reduce emissions are increasingly critical.

The Ecology Action Centre (EAC), a local environmental charity and advocacy organization, has created a helpful toolkit for voters in the upcoming HRM election. It includes summaries of key environmental issues the region is facing, and questions voters can ask of their local candidates on how they will address them. They have also created toolkits for Cape Breton Municipality and the province’s rural regions. 

The EAC has also sent out a HRM Candidate Survey to all councillor and mayoral candidates, with seven questions on how they plan to tackle key environmental and social issues. Candidate’s responses will be made available on their website, allowing voters to assess how candidates plan to put these into action.

Recommendations:

• Develop climate action plans with targets and timelines, and follow through meaningfully on their implementation;
• Develop Community Energy Investment Plans that include leveraging green technologies to address energy poverty and work towards environmental sustainability;
• Invest meaningfully in public and active transit, ensuring these systems are informed by disaggregated data;
• Establish a risk reduction committee to plan for adverse weather events and ensure better protection for the most vulnerable, including seniors and people with disabilities;
• Ensure public transit routes are informed by disaggregated data.