This is one of the 26 segments of Guy Dauncey’s Climate Emergency: A 26-Week Transition Program for Canada. Excerpted by permission.
Without widespread citizen engagement it will not be possible to achieve our climate goals. The new initiatives announced today will build on Canada’s Climate Action Fund, which funds initiatives that raise awareness of climate change and build capacity to increase climate action.
- In 2021 we will form a Climate Solutions Citizens’ Assembly of 50 people selected at random from across the country who will spend six residential or teleconference weekends learning about the climate and ecological emergencies and proposing solutions additional to those announced this year. Citizens’ Assemblies have operated successfully in British Columbia, Ontario, Netherlands, Ireland, Poland and Belgium. Cost: 6 x 50 x $500 + costs = $200,000, one-off. (#3)
- We will offer 500 Community Engagement Grants of $10,000 each to communities across Canada that submit winning proposals to engage residents and neighbours in a six-months effort to reduce their household emissions. Lessons will be learned and reported back to Canadians, and a Canada-wide program will be rolled out in 2021. Cost:$5 million, one-off. (#4)
- In 2021, based on insights from the Community Engagement Grants, non-profit societies will be invited to organize teams of Climate Action Coordinators, each of whom will help 1,000 people make the transition to 100% renewable energy and climate and ecologically friendly lifestyles over 10 years. To cover Canada’s entire population, funding will be provided for 40,000 coordinators. The scale of the effort is appropriate to the urgency of the climate and ecological emergencies, and similar to the scale of organizing that occurred during the Second World War. Cost: 40,000 @ 40,000 a year = $1.6 billion + 500 coordinators (each responsible for 80 coordinators) @ $60,000 = $30 million + costs and offices. Total = $1.7 billion per year (#5)
- We will invite bids for the creation, launch and operation of Climate Solutions Roadshows to be produced in partnership with the Climate Action Coordinators, to show in multiple simultaneous venues across Canada starting in 2021. 50 simultaneous week-long roadshows, two organizers each. Cost: 100 people x $50,000 = $5 million. Material costs for 2,500 roadshows a year @ $1,000 = $2 million. Total = $7.5 million per year (#6)
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