Editor:
Human Rights Watch Canada just released a report detailing the experiences of people living with disabilities during the heat waves this last summer in B.C.
The record-breaking heat, a symptom of the climate crisis, killed over 900 people, in particular, the elderly and those living with chronic illnesses. 200 of them lived right here in Burnaby and New Westminster.
Tackling the climate crisis is a matter of survival for thousands of people across this country, but we won’t have a shot at doing so without a big and bold plan to transition off of climate-wrecking fossil fuels.
We need a Just Transition Act that’s going to ensure fossil fuel-dependent communities are supported in the transition to cleaner, greener and more just forms of energy, and it’s up to the federal government to see that through.
In the weeks to come, our federal government will be drafting important Just Transition legislation that could be there difference between a climate-safe future or not. For the sake of our neighbours, especially those most at risk of climate impacts, I hope you’ll join me in holding this government to account by demanding a Just Transition Act that leaves no one behind.
Monica Tang, Burnaby
