How well are the municipalities across our country tackling climate change? While we can see obvious projects towards sustainability in our own communities, it can be harder to see the bigger picture beyond what’s happening in our backyard and see what is happening across the entire nation.
In the past few years, a number of Canadian and global organizations have invested their resources into indexing various data related to climate change and Canadian cities, releasing their information to the public. While the results of each of these indexes vary greatly, they prove a useful resource independently, and when utilized together, potentially reveal which municipalities in Canada have stepped up to the plate regarding climate change and which municipalities need to do more.
“The Canadian Environmental Quality Index (Can-EQI)”
Written by Zoë Davis (University of Melbourne), Margaret de Groh (Centre for Surveillance and Applied Research, Public Health Agency of Canada) and Daniel G. Rainham (Dalhousie University). Available online 15 November 2022. Published in Environment International (Volume 170, December 2022)
- London, ON
- Guelph, ON
- Sherbrooke, Qu
- Barrie, ON
- Kitchener, ON
Perhaps the most-intensive inquiry on the sustainability and environmental quality of Canadian cities, this academic index sought to develop a way for Canadian municipalities could measure the impact it had on the surrounding environment.
This study looked at datasets across seven domains to include in the index:
- Outdoor air quality
- Natural environments
- Built environments
- Noise
- Water quality
- Radiation
- Climate/weather
The study was published in December 2022, and includes data from a timespan ranging from 2016-2022.
The 30 cities indexed are the 30 cities that fit the criteria the researchers had chosen, including being a “large population centre” of over 100,000 people. The resulting index included roughly 55% of Canada’s population at the time (2016).
This ranking skewed towards smaller cities and metro areas, with cities with a population >1 million people exclusively appearing in the last third.
Edmonton, AB bottomed out the ranking, while Calgary, AB came second last and Kelowna, BC appeared third last.
Corporate Knights is a sustainable-economy media and research company, that publishes yearly indexes of sustainable cities on their website. Corporate Knights worked with the 70 cities to review and revise data for the creation of the 2023 Sustainable Cities Index, of which 10 Canadian cities were represented.
The only list on this infographic that looked at cities outside of Canada’s border, Corporate Knights reviewed cities globally and ranked the top cities in sustainability – and Canadian cities ranked well.
- Winnipeg, MB
- Vancouver, BC
- Halifax, NS
- Montreal, Qu
- Toronto, On
Corporate Knights used twelve indicators to develop this index:
- Scope 1 emissions per capita
- Consumption-based emission
- Particulate air pollution
- Open Public Space
- Water Access
- Water Consumption
- Road Infrastructure Efficiency
- Sustainable Transport
- Vehicle Dependency
- Solid Waste Generated
- Climate Change Resilience
- Sustainable Policies
Globally, cities from Europe led the way with the top 5 most sustainable cities in this index. The Asia-Pacific region and Canadian regions followed, each with two cities in the top 10.
Canadian cities scored well, with eight cities scoring before the most sustainable US city, San Francisco (21), and ten being included overall.
By indexing GDP per capita, the Gini index (a metric of unequal income distribution), and the Human Development Index (HDI), the CKSEAF allowed us to discount environmental indicator scores to the extent they coincide with unsustainable social and economic conditions.
A 2023 dataset, supplied by the website GreaterTorontoHomePros.com, was shared by media sources across the nation (see the linked article below). While we couldn’t find the original place the information was published, the original Google Sheets page was easy to source. This dataset used publicly available data, and was indexed to rank 29 Canadian cities.
- Kelowna, BC
- Lethbridge, AB
- Fredericton, NB
- North Vancouver, BC
- Halifax, NS
This dataset indexed a limited range of information, primarily data pertaining to a city’s green space, sustainable transportation, and air quality. As a result, municipalities with a large amount of green space in particular ranked well.
When necessary, Indicators were scaled by population and size, so the cities were more fairly comparable. Despite the scaling, Canada’s largest cities still performed lower than small cities.
The resulting list features a top 10 including many locations across Canada, with BC, Ontario, Alberta, and Atlantic Canada represented in the top 10.
The top spot of this list, Kelowna, BC, along many unusual options within the top 10, like Lethbridge, AB, likely relate to the amount of “green space” within the municipality.
Saskatoon, SK was ranked as the least green city that was indexed, with the runner up staying in-province as Regina SK takes the penultimate spot . Third last position in this index belonged to Hamilton, ON
