Last night, the City of Charlottetown unanimously passed a resolution declaring a climate emergency. In doing so, they join hundreds of municipalities taking local leadership, something we would argue is required given a general lack of real Federal and provincial leadership that pervades our current context.
PEI chapter activist Leo Cheverie worked with the Environment and Sustainability Committee of Council to move this resolution forward. A formal request to pass a resolution was sent by chapter member Cheverie, and Chapter chair Nouhad Mourad and National chairperson of the Council of Canadians (and local resident) Leo Broderick.
Cheverie was pleased to work on this issue as Charlottetown is one of the most vulnerable cities in Canada related to climate change with storm surges and sea level rise. The IPCC Report has demanded urgency in dealing with climate change to avoid catastrophic climate change and that provincial and federal levels of government who both face elections need to demonstrate that urgency.
The PEI chapter members were thrilled with the news this resolution passed unanimously (one member attended the Council session but others were at a leadership debate on the Environment for the PEI election), and agreed it will now be important to hold Charlottetown to account on this commitment.
Read the City of Charlottetown’s full resolution here, on pages 372-373.
Read Climate justice campaigner Bronwen Tucker’s most recent blog here for more analysis about our current context and what we can do.
