In May 28 2024, the Justice Team for Living Skies Regional Council of the United Church held its first online open house focused on what is anticipated to be a Fall 2024 general provincial election. The team invited perspectives on climate justice and poverty, so that we as the United Church community could learn from the experts in our midst, and take their justice perspectives into account when it comes time to vote for decision-makers whose actions can make a major difference, for good or ill. The team hopes to hold at least one more such learning space.

We thank Laura Stewart, a climate justice activist and educator involved with KAIROS Regina (among other fine groups) for her thoughtful, clear, and challenging presentation, and for sending her speaking points. We hope these will help guide your thoughtful and prayerful discernment as a person of faith who may vote in this election.

She, like the other resource people, responded to this question:

What is one key change in current provincial policy that would make a positive difference to the human or Earth community you serve? Why?

The response:

We the Saskatchewan public are not ready to discuss climate policy.

Let’s change that.

In our KAIROS Regina work for climate justice,

  • the community we serve includes:
    • younger generations
    • Indigenous people impacted sooner (e.g. wildfire smoke, evacuations; changes in the land affecting food security and culture)
    • the Global South (extremes of heat, drought, floods; crop failures; water scarcity)
    • Creation beyond the human – the larger tree of life
    • other justice seekers serving other communities: climate change is the hole in every justice bucket we try to fill (Katharine Hayhoe)
  • The relevance of climate justice work within current provincial policy:
    • might not seem as urgent as other justice issues re: this election cycle, in this province
    • but our province is blocking national action, and our nation is a drag on global action
    • globally we are nearing or passing tipping points that will lock in or accelerate warming for decades, or require drastic and immensely costly interventions to counteract
    • opportunity: do something big by getting SK out of the way of action!
    • challenge: MLAs/candidates afraid to even mention climate

I’d like to briefly list some climate policies that are urgently needed here.

Climate justice mandates for the Crown corporations

SaskPower needs directives to:

  • decarbonize rapidly, not wait for nuclear
  • prepare distribution network for electrification (e.g. heat pumps, EVs)
  • remove budget and hiring restrictions, and get the job done

SaskEnergy needs directives to:

  • prepare to wind down gas distribution network
  • shift workforce into related areas (e.g. networked ground source heating)

Redirection of fossil fuel subsidies

Spending redirected from fossil fuel industry subsidies to transition opportunities (e.g. renewable energy investments, labour training).

Policies on everyday activities and needs

Funding for expansion of public transit (urban service areas and frequency; intercity links)

Ambitious measures (funding, mandates, planning) for electrification of buildings and transportation

Ambitious measures (funding, mandates, planning) for built-in energy efficiency (e.g. high performance buildings, bicycling networks, walkable neighbourhoods)

Research and policy development to address nitrogen fertilizer emissions

Coordination across government, with other levels of government, and with private industry and investors, to build confidence and drive action forward

Strong review policies to protect against unjust consequences of climate and energy projects and programs, such as energy poverty, fortress conservation and environmental racism

Can you see any one of these policies gaining public support in the current election cycle?

How could it, in the face of relentless messaging that federal climate policy is unfair to Saskatchewan, that climate solutions are too expensive or not ready for adoption here, that Canadian emissions are small relative to other countries, and even that the climate crisis is exaggerated and can wait? In Saskatchewan today, it appears to be political suicide to even mention climate.

And yet, when we really look at the issue, the urgency for action is staggering. Not only that, but the rest of the world is taking notice and taking action, and Saskatchewan risks severe economic decline unless the province acts fast to jump start its energy transition, providing new areas of economic activity as the oil and gas sector loses markets, and building investor confidence to develop our transition opportunities. Self-interest alone should compel us to act.

And justice magnifies that call. In its 2023 report on the “State of the World’s Human Rights,” Amnesty International calls out countries with high historic emissions to take larger responsibility for phasing out fossil fuels and financing climate action and disaster recovery in lower-income countries (p. 20, “Right to a Healthy Environment”). A 2021 analysis by Carbon Brief found that Canada’s historic emissions were the 10th largest in the world. As justice-seeking citizens of a nation that became wealthy through a high-emitting past, we want our leaders to ensure that, both at home and abroad, our wealth is used to decarbonize and adapt.

Saskatchewan needs ambitious provincial climate policy. Instead, we have aggressive policies to block federal climate policy, and an entire legislature united in their public support for this stance.

 So, what can we do? Our proposal

Before the candidates come knocking, build bridges to people who disagree with you on climate: your friends, relatives, people you see at work, in church, and in the groups you belong to. Ask questions, listen faithfully, and find ways to connect. Help the people around you see that a reasonable person is concerned about the climate, and has a plausible vision for action. Use the free guide from Anand Giridharadas, “How to Become a Better Persuader,” which you can download here.

This may sound both scary difficult, and too small to make a difference. But it’s hard to see how any climate policy can gain traction until we build grassroots consensus that it is needed and feasible. As you patiently open up space for climate conversation, you don’t need to win passionate converts. All you need to do is invite a little more curiosity about what can be done.

(If you do win a convert, you can offer them a non-partisan lawn sign from EnviroCollective that says “I Vote for Climate Action.”)

And when the candidates do come knocking, may they discover that public appetite for climate policy is greater than they thought.