April 22, 2020 To: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Of

April 22, 2020 To: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada Cc: Members of Parliament Re: Green, just recovery and creating resilient local governments Climate Caucus is a non-partisan network of more than 250 Mayors, Councillors, and Regional Directors working collaboratively across Canada to build equitable, regenerative, and resilient communities through fact-based, science-driven policy. This letter is endorsed by the Climate Caucus members whose signature appears below, and others whose endorsement will follow. We appreciate the difficult and essential work that you are doing to sustain individuals, communities, and businesses through the immediate Covid-19 crisis. We agree that Canada must ensure the health and safety of all citizens, particularly those hardest hit by disruption including Indigenous communities, racialized people, women, low-income earners (many of whom we now recognize as essential workers), seniors, and people with disabilities. Local governments play a critical role for precisely these individuals, communities and businesses. As you know, local governments have lost significant revenue in this crisis and are being forced to cut spending and to layoff staff in order to balance our budgets, as required by law. This cutback not only undermines federal and provincial economic recovery efforts; it undermines our efforts to respond to the climate emergency. While some politicians and members of the public yearn to return to the pre-Covid “normal”, Climate Caucus members stress that the old “normal” was a planet losing its ability to support life, with an economic model that disregards planetary limits. The old “normal” was a global population suffering from gross inequity, exacerbated by decades of failing to take decisive action on climate change. The old “normal” repeatedly failed to honour the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The old “normal” was unsustainable and unjust in so many ways, for both people and the planet. We refuse to accept that old “normal.” This moment, Mr. Trudeau, is your moment to act decisively and to embrace a bold plan that confronts these interconnected crises. As your partner at the level of government closest to the people, we pledge our commitment to work with you to rebuild our communities into the sustainable, equitable future everyone deserves, and that we know is possible. To perform this critical work, local government requires unprecedented investment at the community scale, along with transformative policy initiatives at all levels of government. We also know that this investment needs to be equitable, as those who are most marginalized in our communities are being hardest hit by this pandemic, just as they are by the changing climate. 1 Numerous challenges threaten the ability of cities to become viable pillars of sustainable development. Unequal access to, and inefficient use of, public services, as well as financial fragility and the harm inflicted by natural hazards, demand an integrated and coordinated response at the local, national and international levels. (source: United Nations World Economic and Social Survey 2013) The types of disruption every citizen has experienced with Covid-19 will become more frequent as our climate changes. We can begin life-saving work by building resilient and regenerative communities right now, in a way that respects planetary limits and creates jobs centred in equity, well-being, and health. A Green and Just Recovery To ensure a green and just recovery, we respectfully ask you to support green local government: ● Legislate and honour the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at all levels of government. Fulfill Canada’s commitment to end ongoing human rights violations, including the right to water and sanitation, through public, not private, partnerships with Indigenous peoples. ● Invest in building Canada’s decarbonized and resilient future. Local governments across Canada need to retrofit millions of existing homes and buildings - and construct hundreds of thousands of affordable, climate-resilient homes just to address the current wait-list for subsidized housing. Building and retrofitting with wood and other plant-based materials will create homes that people love to live in, plus jobs in forestry communities, while sequestering carbon in the buildings. ● Invest in the restoration of forest, stream, river, wetland, and coastal ecosystems. Restored ecosystems will, for free, provide a wide variety of Ecological Goods and Services such as clean air, clean water, long term carbon storage, and habitat, which are required for life on this planet and to combat climate change. Local governments, through natural asset management, can increase carbon sequestration, reduce carbon emissions, increase health and well-being, and lower infrastructure and related costs by working with, rather than against, nature. Implementing green infrastructure projects including urban forests, daylighting streams, and stormwater management systems requires transforming the way local governments work and how they partner with stakeholders, but are worth the investment by several orders of magnitude. ● Invest in universally accessible public transit. Our public transit systems require direct funding from the Federal government to remain functional during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to avoid a death spiral afterwards while people maintain physical distancing. Public transit is critical and is utilized by people who support our communities by working on the front-lines. Public transit is the only transportation option for some people on fixed incomes, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities. Long-term, stable funding in decarbonized public transit will create good jobs, improve health and well-being, support equity, and help Canada achieve its climate goals. 2 ● Invest in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Safe, universally accessible infrastructure for active transportation provides inexpensive, non-polluting mobility, supports public health by allowing physical distancing plus physical activity, and enlivens a community. ● Invest in health-sustaining environments. Clean air, water, and food supplies through reduction of polluting activities and toxic wastes and support of safer technologies and practices such as local organic farms. One way to achieve this is through a federal environmental bill of rights. This means the right to clean air, clean water, and food. This is essential for the health of all. ● Invest in renewable energy infrastructure, transmission & storage. Rapid deployment of renewable energy is a dependable path to a cleaner future. It also creates a high level of good localized jobs per dollar invested, and is increasingly the cheapest way to generate electricity. An interprovincial grid would pair the outstanding wind and solar resources in western Canada with the outstanding hydropower storage in Manitoba, Quebec and Labrador. Distributed renewable energy generation plus energy storage builds resilience and would allow remote communities to get off diesel. Ample access to low-carbon electricity would support massive electrification of personal and freight transport along with other present uses of fossil fuels. ● Invest in local food security. While much of the agricultural industry is a significant contributor to the climate and ecological emergency, restorative agriculture can contribute much to lowering emissions. In addition, the coronavirus has demonstrated that relying on long supply chains for the essentials of our lives makes us highly vulnerable; food insecurity will only increase as the climate changes. Local farms and farm workers need support in the transition to regenerative farming practices. Climate Caucus supports a national food security network and the inclusion of effective food security plans in local climate mitigation and adaptation plans. This would require cross-sectoral collaboration between municipalities, provincial and federal ministries, local farmers, nonprofits and industry, and new tools/ authority for local governments to preserve and expand food growing areas that are relevant to the multitude of climates. ● Work with provinces to restructure municipal funding so that municipalities are no longer financially dependent on property taxes, gas taxes and development cost charges. The current funding model essentially forces municipalities to allow endless urban expansion, which has major adverse impacts on carbon and ecological footprints and municipal budgets. ● Work with provinces on infrastructure repair including highway and street pavements. Consider specifying hot in place patch repair instead of cut/remove/replace with new asphalt. Reusing the asphalt that is already paid for can save up to 40% on CO2 production. Consider rebuilding the entire surface course pavements by hot in place reconstruction, instead of mill and remove, a process which has proven successful in BC for many years. ● Support local, independent, small businesses. Clean, compact, connected, low-carbon, resilient communities allow most residents to meet essential needs within a 20 minute walk. This means keeping alive local, small businesses that create a sense of community and contribute to the mental health of our residents. Over 69% of Canada’s workforce (2017 data from Stats Canada) are employed by small businesses (1-99 employees), but many will not survive the pandemic without your energetic support. In 3 the medium term, energy efficiency

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