From ‘car-dependent hellish landscapes’ to green cities, Canadians find new ways to combat climate change

Contemplative Canadians know that there are always more ideas about how to spend money than how much money to spend.

This universal economic principle was highlighted at COP27, the latest edition of the United Nations conference on climate change, which ended in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Friday.contains a long list of competing demands for that cash compensation for climate damage biodiversity loss When Phasing out fossil fuel use.

Urban development—that is, how Canada is building cities to adapt—as governments at all levels consider the smartest use of tax revenues to avert global climate disasters. There is more and more evidence to show. growing population — It is the foundation of long-term climate policy.

Disappointed critics worry that the car-centric urban sprawl cannot be stopped, but the wave of low-carbon, high-density, tax-efficient and people-friendly city building is spreading and showing signs of spreading. Because we are showing, we see a new light of hope. .

Jason Slaughter, who grew up in a suburb of London, Ontario, is an avid critic of car-centric urban development and says, “If we care about climate change, we need to make it easier to walk, bike, or use public transport. Until he got his driver’s license at age 16, he said he was trapped in what he called “car addiction hell.”

Not Just Bikes, Slaughter’s YouTube channel Sophisticated video about urban design The millions of views keep him busy, but it’s also because he’s in a different time zone. A famous Canadian export, he is a refugee from Canada’s urban sprawl.

“Fundamentally, I don’t believe that Canadian cities will change materially in my lifetime,” Slaughter said in an exchange last week. That’s literally why our family left Canada to live in the Netherlands permanently.”

The shock value of that desperate comment is typical, Why I Hate Houston, Attack on Wonderland Road Widening in his hometown (“fake London” as he describes it for an international audience), what some considered unfair criticism $500 Million BRT System in Mississauga, Ontario.

Though written and delivered in a playful, disparaging style, Slaughter’s well-researched and well-produced videos are often US non-profit organization Strong Townsprovides accessible lessons about what is not working in North American cities, and uses Holland’s current home as a counterexample to show how North American cities need to change. .

Tetris with too many squares

And while the amount of work to turn the current model of development, the Titanic, is enormous, there are signs that the seeds planted by the Slaughters are beginning to take root. David Gordon, an urban planning expert at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, says this is especially true in Canada’s big cities, just a necessity.

“You can’t build a big city out of single-family homes where everyone drives,” Mr. Gordon said in a phone call last week, nearing the end of the COP27 conference.

He argues that the urban centers of Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto are the ones in the United States where government-funded structures have created the devastation of downtown “inner-city” unfamiliar in Canada’s bustling and expensive urban centers. I did a much better job than I did in the city.

For nearly 60 years Canadians have imagined perfection. leave it to beaver Gordon describes the lifestyle as “single-family homes where you can drive anywhere on uncrowded streets,” but like a giant game of Tetris with too many squares, it’s a continuous suburban anarchy. The spread causes traffic jams.

Gordon’s study shows suburban sprawl model Survive in a medium-sized city Partly because the saturation point has not yet been reached, but also because the model, which includes subsidies from existing state taxpayers, offers developers favorable short-term returns.

But in the long run, sprawl can lead to municipal bankruptcy, as research from Edmonton-based global design and engineering giant Stantech and others has shown.

suburbs don’t pay

This is a hard lesson learned by many US cities that lack the funds to undertake critical infrastructure repairs.

What Stantech’s study of the city of Halifax showed, beautifully demonstrated by graphics created by urban design group Urban3, is that the relatively crowded and walkable downtown portion of the city is a huge tax collector. low-density suburban areas yield a net tax. price.

“Many of our services are delivered on straight legs. delivery has to go a long way,” said Kate Green. Halifax Director of Regional Planning.

Tax productivity data show that “wealthier housing,” which was subsidized at the time of development, with large plots and parking space, has been subsidized for a long time. is. Suburban single-family homes on large lots cannot afford the costs of the local government, such as repairing asphalt and clearing snow.

In Halifax, transforming itself into a relatively compact, walkable, climate-friendly city and avoiding sprawl are built into every planning decision, right down to the mayor’s office.

“Our city is committed to economically and environmentally sustainable growth,” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said in an email last week. Outside experts like Gordon say Savage has made it happen.

In the city of Guelph, the only Canadian municipality analyzed by Urban 3, the city’s senior urban designer, David de Groot, said the analysis came as a revelation. What it showed was that even the poorest areas of the city center provided much more municipal revenue than the vast surrounding areas on which the city had expended its development resources.

Watch | Visualization of development costs associated with urban sprawl:

The city has a beautiful, well-preserved downtown along the river that once powered factories, and de Groot said that since the first Urban3 survey in 2014, Guelph has seen low- and mid-rise development in the center. are encouraged, which is leading to further urbanization. A vibrant place to live, work and visit.

“For long-term sustainability, having more people downtown was an important direction for the city,” said de Groot.

And today’s development decisions have far longer lasting implications than developers’ interests.

Tax savings equals green

“Land-use planning impacts community tax efficiency and community energy efficiency for decades, even centuries,” says Kate Daly, Designated Environmental Sustainability Expert in the Waterloo Region. said.

Ontario’s local government extends north from the historic town of Garut along the Grand River Trail, straddles Route 401 and includes two of Canada’s most prestigious universities and much rural farmland. increase. Never completely out of place in Slaughter Europe.

As part of the goal of preserving farmland and green spaces, all are connected by a central transport rail corridor run by the ‘AEON’ LRT, the area was ConvertWR Build a ’15 minute city’ where everything is accessible by foot, bike or public transport. This strategy is the exact opposite of the auto-centric sprawl and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

Daly wrote 2017 book length paper He described the Waterloo region – its people and its government – ​​that has enabled it to overcome public dissent and the Ontario City Council to “embrace smart growth policies” and bring about a new green growth.

Since she’s become a community employee, Daley said such talk is off limits.

But the move to curb sprawl was a community-building exercise, allowing the region to launch a strategy of interest to big cities whose reliance on cars is a hindrance to green innovation, she said. increase.

“It’s about figuring out how to use future developments, especially enhancements, to convert existing districts into 15-minute districts,” says Daley.