The fight for climate justice requires that we decide how to live better together. To succeed in meeting this challenge, municipalities are the place where citizen participation can be most effective, if one decides to take an interest in it.
Perhaps you recently received a nice package of letters from Elections Quebec telling us to go and vote on November 7. Registration on the electoral list, three different votes… when you leave, it’s confusing. And then, anyway, it’s no use, the municipal government, right?
Between the widening of social inequalities, the housing crisis, the climate crisis, we have the right to ask ourselves: “So what are our politicians doing?” We are supporting a third highway link at the provincial level and we say that we need to extend an oil pipeline to finance the energy transition at the federal level. Besides that, the same level of government is telling us that Canada will be carbon neutral in 2050 …
Bin manager
This somewhat crude introduction simply aims to highlight the fact that municipal governments are never the object of consideration when addressing these subjects, even though they are the closest to us (the famous ” local governments ”). The major decisions would be made at the provincial or federal level, and basically, the role of the municipalities would be to manage waste collection.
Where is the concrete impact? That is to omit the fact that our cities have competences in terms of culture, protection of natural environments, mobility, social housing, urban agriculture or even land use planning. All responsibilities that affect us directly, on a daily basis. We can see it, if our municipality gives priority to private investors at the expense of the creation of social and affordable housing.
We know, when we miss our bus by a few seconds, that we will be late for a class because there is only one per hour. We are able to count them if, in our neighborhood, there are fewer trees than parking spaces.
In short, we could go on with the examples, but the goal here is to affirm that municipalities have an immense role to play in the quality of our living environments and in the reduction of social inequalities. Between a municipality that is proactive on these issues and a climate law for 2050, where is the concrete impact?
So that we can decide
The fight for climate justice requires that we decide how to live better together, by transforming and reorganizing our living environments. And to succeed in meeting this challenge, municipalities are not only the best placed, but they are also the place where citizen participation can be most effective, if one decides to take an interest in it.
Let’s start with a vote, then why not a participatory budget or citizens’ assembly project. But on November 7, let’s start with a vote. Not to say that political participation ends with one vote every four years. But to decide who will be best able to support us in fulfilling our commitments within our communities, at school or in the street. Because a municipal council on our side is synonymous with a tenfold power of action. For all that, it’s ultimately worth our attention.
What do you think? Express your opinion