Atlantic Canadians favour tackling climate change: poll

By Clara Pasieka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Telegraph-Journal

Dec 20, 2020

A new poll for Abacus Data in conjunction with Clean Energy Canada indicates 83 per cent of Atlantic Canadians want Canada to be seen as a country determined to help combat climate change.

The survey results were broken into a series of reports released last week, a week that culminated with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing the federal government plans to increase the carbon tax to meet Canada’s long-term climate goals. The move has been criticized by some Conservatives for its timing when many Canadians and Canadian industries are struggling. 

In the same survey, 78 per cent of Atlantic Canadians indicated they would prefer the world see Canada as an economy that runs on renewable energy.

Only 17 per cent of Atlantic Canadians think the federal government is doing too much to shift Canada toward a green economy. Almost half think the federal government should be doing more. 

Forty per cent of Atlantic Canadian respondents think Canada is among the most ambitious countries in terms of shifting toward clean energy and technology, but more than that want us to do more – to be a world leader.

The survey also indicated that the country is less regionally divided on the issue than it once was, although numbers in Alberta favouring a shift toward tackling climate change and relying on renewable energy were lower than elsewhere. 

“What’s interesting about the results is how ready the public is for change and change that leads to a cleaner image but also a much cleaner economy dependent on electricity produced from renewable energy systems like wind, solar and existing hydro,” Louise Comeau, director of climate change and energy at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, told the Times & Transcript.

“Canadians, and Atlantic residents also, want a planned transition and that’s critical, as New Brunswick in particular is resisting the switch to greener technologies. We need to get with the program and fast,” she said.

Trevor Melanson, communications manager for Clean Energy Canada, said the organization was pleased with the results, which he says are part of a trend in which more Canadians want to see the issue of climate change prioritized. 

Over the last few years, climate change has increasingly been polling as one of the top few issues Canadians care about, he said, adding that he thinks this partly comes from more Canadians seeing the effects of climate change in their own lives, and seeing moving towards a clean economy as an economic opportunity. 

The results point to Canadians caring very much about the way they are viewed by the world on this issue, he said.

At the same time, Mount Allison’s Canada Research chair in ecophysiology Doug Campbell said, people and politicians may be more comfortable with scientific and technical solutions to climate change than they were, but that isn’t the same as being willing to tackle socio-economic realities of doing so.

“Throughout Atlantic Canada we continue to make 50 year infrastructure expenditures on assumptions that everyone will continue to drive cars to schools, to pools, to rinks, to hospitals, and to shop,” he said.

“We continue to build facilities on coasts that are going to be submerged.  We continue to pave roads across marshes. We continue to deforest watersheds and wonder why we have floods,” he said. As we look to the type of Canada we want to be seen as, we need to consider that the future can’t look like the past, he said.

The survey was conducted among 1,419 Canadian adults from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1. A random sample of panelists was invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.