NDP MP Niki Ashton, whose Churchlll-Keewatinook Aski riding covers all of Northern Manitoba, says the Climate Adaption Strategy announced by the federal Liberal government last week doesn’t do enough to support communities most at risk from extreme climate disasters like flooding and wildfires.
"Communities need to be ready before a disaster hits, not after," said Ashton in question period Nov. 25 "It took years for the Liberals to finally announce a Climate Adaptation Strategy. A strategy that even they deem insufficient. It is underfunded and fails to deliver the urgent help communities need to face the catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.
"We need to use every tool at our disposal, including changing the way Canada's Infrastructure Bank does its work. Indigenous and Northern communities are already bearing the brunt of climate change. Why are the Liberals shortchanging regions like ours?"
Last February, Ashton tabled a bill that would instruct the Canada Infrastructure Bank to prioritize projects that help the country adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change. It would also require the bank’s board to have at least three members recommended by Indigenous organizations to represent Inuit, Métis and First Nations people.
If passed, the bill could facilitate important infrastructure projects like access roads to remote Indigenous communities. A recent study found a disproportionate number of wildfire evacuees in Canada were from First Nations communities, and determined communities and municipalities are best placed to decide what they need to fight climate change.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank is a Crown corporation that financially supports revenue-generating infrastructure projects that are "in the public interest" through public-private partnerships. Its growth plan includes investments in clean energy, broadband internet, energy-efficient retrofits, zero-emission buses and agricultural projects.
Ashton’s bill would remove language in the bank’s mandate that allows it to seek out private investment and instead encourage the federal government to fund public projects that will help Canadians manage the climate crisis.
The bill does not earmark money for specific projects, it simply reorients the bank’s priorities so the $35 billion in its coffers would not be directed to for-profit projects with private partners.
- with files from Canada’s National Observer
