{"id":165998,"date":"2018-06-03T02:09:23","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T06:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=165998"},"modified":"2018-06-03T02:09:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-03T06:09:23","slug":"singh-municipal-leaders-tackle-climate-change-at-fcm-conference-in-halifax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/03\/singh-municipal-leaders-tackle-climate-change-at-fcm-conference-in-halifax\/","title":{"rendered":"Singh, municipal leaders tackle climate change at FCM conference in Halifax"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Climate<\/a>
Climate change was on federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s mind as he delivered his keynote address at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Halifax on Saturday morning. (Photo<\/a>: Jagmeet Singh\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HALIFAX \u2014 Climate change was on federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s mind as he delivered his keynote address at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Halifax on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

In his speech, he told the packed ballroom at the Halifax Convention Centre that municipalities need to invest in reducing their emissions and introducing programs to promote green alternatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, climate change, and the impact of it, isn’t an issue of tomorrow,\u201d he said, pointing to flooding in parts of the country as recent examples. \u201cWithout a doubt, we’ve got to take action right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh’s speech also addressed inequality, affordable housing, addiction, and mental health.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Singh called on Canadians to take steps to reduce marine litter by implementing bans on single-use plastics like shopping bags, disposable drink bottles and plastic cutlery.<\/p>\n

He said\u00a0Canada\u00a0can start small by, for example, banning plastic straws and introducing steel or paper alternatives before widening the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make a step. There’s so many countries that have already taken that step ahead of us, there’s certain cities that have taken that step ahead of us,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a nation, we need to commit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday morning, more than a thousand delegates at the FCM overwhelmingly voted in favour of a resolution to urge the federal government to create a marine litter mitigation strategy.<\/p>\n

FCM first vice-president and Halifax city councillor Bill Karsten said the timing of this vote couldn’t be better, as it comes less than a week before the upcoming G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Que., where the issue of marine litter is set to be discussed by world leaders.<\/p>\n

He said in an interview Saturday that he believes the resolution will be welcomed at the summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will show the municipalities’ support, from
\ncoast-to-coast-to-coast, for the federal government moving ahead,\u201d
\nhe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith eight million tonnes of plastic finding its way from our shores to the oceans on an annual, every-year basis, it’s time to find solutions together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karsten said highlights to the resolution incude finding ways for both provincial and federal governments to support innovative waste management, as well as developing public education and awareness campaigns.<\/p>\n

In April, federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna launched a public consultation on plastic garbage to help pinpoint ways for the country to eliminate plastic waste and reduce marine litter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not just cleaning up after the fact: it’s actually being thoughtful about how we reduce, how we recycle, how we compost,\u201d she said at the time.<\/p>\n

According to the federal government, more than 150 million tonnes of plastic waste is clogging the oceans worldwide and it’s estimated that plastic could outweigh fish by 2050.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALIFAX \u2014 Climate change was on federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s mind as he delivered his keynote address at the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":165999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[1365,19112],"class_list":["post-165998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-climate-change","tag-jagmeet-singh","mauthors-alex-cooke","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}