Vancouver topped the charts in four categories of a citizen-led climate and sustainability contest that assessed 57 Canadian cities on a range of indicators like public transit, urban green space, air quality, and walkability.

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island also placed well, winning the urban garden and “transition employees” categories in the fifth edition of the coveted National Climate League (NCL) standings [pdf], compiled by Climate Reality Project Canada (CRPC) with the help of volunteers across Canada.

Vancouver won top honours for 2022 on walkability (a repeat from last year), public transit, democratic representation, and shared vehicles. The city’s Frequent Transportation Network (FTN), which runs buses “no less than 15 minutes apart seven days a week,” contributed to a big win over Montreal, which has led in the transit category since the NCL’s inception.

With 36 sites of urban food production per 100,000 people, Charlottetown has been focused on accessible food for all, an acute need after food costs in PEI rose 11.5% between 2021 and 2022, writes CRPC. The province’s Island Community Food Security Initiative, announced last May, grants local organizations up to C$10,000 to fund community food security projects, boosting its performance in this NCL category.

Charlottetown also led in a category measuring how many municipal employees are dedicated to working on the energy transition, with 10 staff for its 39,000 citizens (or 25 per 100,000). Saskatoon came second, with 11 employees for every 100,000 citizens., ahead of Vancouver with four and Toronto with two.

Charlottetown also shared the best air quality crown with Yellowknife and St. John’s, all of them reporting 362 days with a daily score higher than three on the Air Quality Health Index.

Ottawa posted the best score for air quality for very large cities, with 348 clear days. Calgary fared worst, with only 285 clean air days last year, 12 days fewer than Vernon, a small town in British Columbia’s interior that has suffered intense wildfire seasons recently, and has a longstanding problem with particulate-laden roadside dust.

On the other hand, Calgary is doing a very good job keeping solid waste out of its landfills, tying with Guelph, Ontario, in generating the fewest kilograms per household of solid waste annually, at 250 kilos per year. Victoria residents, by contrast, generated a whopping 980 kilograms per household in 2021. CRPC notes that landfill waste accounts for 2.3% of Canada’s total annual emissions.

To fairly represent the climate efforts of small and rural communities this year, CRPC produced six case studies illustrating how places like Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Yukon nurture sustainability and liveability in their communities. For the Vuntut Gwitchin population of 250 residents, this includes the 2,160-panel Sree Vyah or Sun Snare, a solar array installed in 2021 that has cut diesel use by 189,000 litres per year and reduced annual emissions by 680 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Sherbrooke, Quebec, won the affordable housing category, with a “rental wage” required to rent a two-bedroom apartment of $14 per hour, lower than the province’s minimum wage of $14.25 ($15.25 as of May 1).

Québec’s rent control regulations have likewise ensured a low rental wage of $18 in Montreal, Quebec City, and Laval, well below other large cities like Vancouver, at $41, Ottawa, at $30, and Winnipeg, at $25. In Quebec, “tenants are able to refuse rent increases requested by their landlords, and landlords are required to disclose to new tenants what the lowest rent paid in the previous 12 months was,” writes CRPC.

Referring to global heating and the deep shortage of affordable housing in Canada as “parallel crises that need to be tackled together,” the NCL report adds that “when all people in Canada have their basic housing needs met, they’re more able to think about and exert their personal political power and demand emissions reductions.”

Those emissions reductions, in turn, also mean a chance at greater safety for unhoused and low-income people who are already more exposed to extreme weather and “less able to replace or repair damaged homes.”

Strong regulatory regimes were also likely a factor in Victoria’s success in sustainable buildings, writes CRPC. The B.C. capital won the category with its high per capita concentrations of LEED and Passive House buildings, but CRPC says the province’s Energy Step Code also had a part to play, allowing “municipalities to implement higher tiers of energy efficiency requirements above the BC Building Code.”

Victoria also won the bikeability category, with its 32-kilometre All Ages and Abilities (AAA) Cycling Network. The city aims to ensure that 95% of its population is within 500 metres of the AAA network by the end of 2023.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that a medium-sized city like Fredericton should win the urban green space category, with 9.7 hectares of natural spaces and 21.4 hectares of parkland per thousand people, writes CRPC. But the New Brunswick capital is very much taking an active role in preserving and protecting natural spaces: “For the first time this year, Fredericton took part in No Mow May, suspending mowing on over 60 municipal properties, or roughly 25% of the land normally mowed, to provide pollinator-friendly habitats.”

Electric vehicle charging honours went to Osoyoos, B.C., which now boasts 407 charging stations per 100,000 people, leaving behind other contenders in the province like Merritt, at 284, and Victoria, at 257.

Saskatoon measured best-in-Canada on a new NCL indicator for water consumption, with an average of 152 litres each day, well below the national average of 427 litres.  The city’s Be Water Wise program, its rain barrel rebates, and free water conservation retrofits for low-income households all contributed to the win. The dry, fire-prone, and heavily-developed Okanagan consumed the most water in 2021: West Kelowna at 614 litres daily, Kelowna at 675, and Merritt at 742.

In a virtual launch of the NCL standings in mid-April, Vancouver councillor Christine Boyle said regulation can bridge the ideological shifts away from climate action that electoral cycles tend to bring. She emphasized a “triad” of effective climate action: “strong elected leadership, strong community leaders, and strong staff leadership.” The City of Vancouver is particularly strong in this last category, she added, with many engineers and technical experts on staff who share a deep personal commitment to climate action.