National Observer: ‘Later is too late’: seniors show up for climate across Canada

Seniors across Canada attended “rocking chair rallies,” marches, movie nights, town halls and other protests Monday to stress the importance of fighting climate change.

In Ottawa, the day kicked off with a flash mob to “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees outside city hall. It was a hit, so the organizers queued up the classic for a second dance and bystanders joined the fun. The slogan “Later is too late” was plastered on T-shirts and banners at the Ottawa event and many attendees sported a literal emissions cap — a baseball cap with the word “emissions” printed on the front — to pressure the federal government to release its regulations to limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector.

“It’s National Seniors Day in Canada, but we’re rebranding as Seniors for Climate Day, because this is the issue of our generation,” said Rebecca Aird, a 65-year-old organizer with Seniors for Climate Action Now!, an Ottawa-based group that is part of the broader coalition behind 76 country-wide events on Oct. 1.

“We’re just really trying to demonstrate that there are a lot of seniors who care,” Aird said. “Politicians know that seniors vote more than any other bloc, so part of this is about demonstrating voter intent to help to build political will.”

Along with free time, seniors are well-off as a cohort and “we have huge numbers,” Rolly Montpellier, a lead organizer with Seniors for Climate, told Canada’s National Observer in an interview.

“With 10.5 million seniors aged 60 and over in Canada, now that’s one in every four Canadians. One in every three votes is a senior,” he noted.

“What we’re encouraging seniors to do, and asking seniors to do, in the next round of elections, the federal election, probably next year, is to vote for candidates who have a climate plan.”

The Conservative Party has yet to release a clear plan to address climate change beyond Party Leader Pierre Poilievre’s statements that they will do so with technology, not taxes (referring to his pledge to repeal the federal government’s carbon pricing system).

“The problem is, climate change has been defined as a partisan issue, like an issue for the left? Well, I’m sorry, emergencies should not be considered partisan issues and they shouldn’t be treated as such by politicians,” Letitia Charbonneau, lead organizer at Seniors for Climate Action Now!, told Canada’s National Observer. The Liberals are still moving too slow on some climate policy, Charbonneau said, pointing to the Liberals’ long-promised emissions cap.

B.C. and New Brunswick are nearing provincial elections, and on Oct. 1, Saskatchewan entered election campaign mode, too.

“It is extraordinarily troubling that there are political leaders who do not prioritize addressing climate. This is obviously really distressing,” Aird said.

The flash mob was followed by a town hall discussion across the street at Knox Presbyterian Church. Here, six local organizations spoke about what they’re doing to tackle climate change and push the city to take action. They invited attendees to get involved, suggesting upcoming actions and educational resources to keep the momentum going.

Sharon Katz, a member of a housing advocacy group called Ottawa ACORN, explained how renters are impacted by climate change and what can be done to keep people safe in the face of extreme heat.

“We’ve been pressing for the city to pass a maximum heat bylaw,” Katz told Canada’s National Observer in an interview during the town hall.

Landlords are required to keep units at a minimum heat in the winter, but there’s no equivalent maximum heat in the summer, Katz explained.

“In the old days, that was not too bad. But the way things are going, the situation is getting more serious,” she said. Extreme heat kills. During B.C.’s 2021 heat dome, 619 people died. New Westminster is exploring such a bylaw.

ACORN surveyed 295 tenants across Ottawa and found 40 per cent don’t have air conditioning or cooling in their unit and nearly 50 per cent said their unit gets too hot in the summer. More than 70 per cent pay for electricity and hydro in addition to their rent. Katz argued for free heat pumps for low-income renters, called on the city to establish energy efficiency standards for all buildings and funding with strings attached, so landlords can’t evict people or hike rent after doing retrofits.

The other community groups presenting their work, resources and opportunities for action included Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability, Ecology Ottawa, Horizon Ottawa, Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

Initially, Seniors for Climate — the coalition of groups behind the Oct. 1 activities — were hoping for 50 events, and even worried that goal might be too ambitious, Montpellier noted. The 76 events suggest there is an appetite for climate action among seniors.

At the time of writing, it is unknown how many seniors attended the events.

“We weren’t really focusing on large numbers,” Montpellier explained. “Because seniors are less mobile than young folks, the goal was to have as many different accessible events as possible rather than trying to march in droves up and down the streets.”

At one point, at least 100 people were packed into Knox Presbyterian Church for the town hall in Ottawa.

Seniors for Climate intends to make this an annual event, said Montpellier, who leads the group’s national steering committee. There will likely be more events since 2025 is a federal election year, he added.

“We have a climate crisis, but it’s really a burning-fossil-fuels crisis,” Montpellier said, adding that an aggressive cap on oil and gas emissions and ending fossil fuel subsidies are two important steps to achieve what scientists say is necessary to address climate change: phase out fossil fuels.

The town hall provided countless opportunities to get involved in the fight against climate change. For example, at the town hall Charbonneau urged people to come to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board’s public meeting on Oct. 10 at the Westin Hotel to pressure the board to stop investing national retirement funds in fossil fuels.

Seniors for Climate Action Now! also has an ongoing campaign where people send postcards to federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault urging the government to keep fossil fuel interests out of Canada’s delegation to COP29, the international climate negotiations happening in November. The group regularly attends climate and environmental protests in the city and supports local organizations doing similar work.

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Article by Natasha Bulowski for National Observer