Where Are Cities In Carney’s Nature Strategy?

So, the long awaited federal Nature Strategy has been released and there’s a lot to praise

and a lot that leaves me frustrated and angry.

On the praiseworthy side is support for indigenous leadership and input, culminating in two

long awaited projects finally being scheduled to move forward – the northern Seal River

Watershed, a protected area right here in Manitoba, and Wiinipaawk, another indigenous

led project on the Quebec side of James Bay.

Add to that plans for other protected areas, including marine conservation zones, and

Canada might – and I stress, just might – come close to hitting its target of protecting 30%

of our lands and waterways by 2030.

Hard as it may be to believe, only 14% of this country’s vast landmass and coastlines are

currently protected.

So what, you may ask, am I frustrated about? Well, given that more than 70% of us live in

cities, I am stunned that there’s little in the way of funding for urban conservation and

nature smart city planning.

And before you get your knickers in a twist, yes, there is funding for 15 national urban parks.

High profile, big money, voter-pleasing projects that could see 15 urban areas, like the

proposed Little Forks riverside park in Winnipeg, become a reality. And yes there is also

some reference to making infrastructure projects more “nature smart.”

Areas like this in Point Douglas could be remediated to become larger treed parks and greenspace if the Little Forks project goes ahead.

But while big projects like Little Forks are great – assuming it also means the feds cough up the money needed to modernize a sewage system that dumps billions of litres of raw sewage into Winnipeg rivers every year – there doesn’t appear to be any money to address the smaller, and to my mind, more significant conservation efforts that will help to climate proof our cities.

Money that could be spent to speed up the expansion and protection of our urban

canopies. Funds that could be used to buy up and conserve our few remaining natural

forests and wetlands or dig up and remediate a couple of downtown parking lots to plant

mini-forests.

All of which would go a long way to making our lives more liveable and our cities more

climate resilient.

So why is that? Why aren’t the Feds investing in nature in the city?

Parking lots in downtown Winnipeg featured in red which could be dug up for parks or planted with mini forests.

Well, I think it has a lot to do with the misguided belief that nature doesn’t really belong in cities. Nature, for many of us, only exists somewhere “out there,” hundreds of miles away, in the wilds. It’s a place you have to drive an hour or two to get to, assuming you’re lucky enough to have a car, not mention the cottage or family sized tent to go with it.

I happen to be one those lucky people - I do have a car and a shack on a boreal lake - but

there are thousands of urban dwellers, especially children, who don’t. And many of them

live in low income neighbourhoods that have faced huge tree losses or had little in the way

of trees, parks and natural green spaces to begin with.

And just to make matters worse, the few natural forests and big city parks available in

places like Winnipeg generally aren’t anywhere near those neighbourhoods.

So unless families want to undertake an hour-long bus ride, in the middle of a heatwave,

with a picnic basket, a couple of rambunctious kids, plus the equipment required to

entertain them, they’re pretty much inaccessible.

And that needs to change.

Which is why our federal government needs to be working with municipalities to protect

biodiversity and conserve and expand nature in the city to facilitate that change.

Because here’s the thing – without urban trees and forests, without healthy green and blue

spaces, our cities - draped as they are in heat-absorbing, water-repellant concrete and

asphalt - will become increasingly unlivable.

More people will die in heatwaves; more properties will be destroyed by flood and some of

us will be rationing water to deal with drought.

That’s a very real, future reality for city dwellers everywhere in this country, and we need to

tell Prime Minister Carney to start planning for that future now.

Because welcoming nature into our cities is one of the smartest, most effective and

equitable ways to ensure that we’re all less vulnerable, because our cities are more

resilient and better able to cope with a changing climate.

Erna Buffie is a writer and environmental activist. Read about her upcoming book, Out on a

Limb @ https://www.ernabuffie.com/new-out-on-a-limb