The forest fires wreaking havoc across southern Quebec were front of mind to many municipal leaders and environmentalists attending a climate change conference in Old Montreal Thursday.
“We saw terrible floods and now these fires. We don’t know what will be next but we know it will be intense,” said Mathieu Maisonneuve, the mayor of Saint-Lin-Laurentides.
Maisonneuve was one of 400 people attending the conference titled Collective Change, Municipal Response: Together in Climate Action at the Marche Bonsecours. It was an opportunity for environmentalists and municipal leaders to discuss their response to climate change.
The forest fires were front of mind to many of the delegates attending.
“The smoke has had such a wide impact, it is maybe the wake up that we do need to adapt and we do need to reduce our emissions with greater urgency,” said Joanna Eyquem of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation.
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There are 150 active fires in Quebec. The havoc they are creating garnered international attention this week, when New York City was engulfed in an orange haze.
Environmentalist Anna Zetkulic lives in New York City and experienced the toxic air before flying up to Montreal for the conference.
“It’s apocalyptic. It’s feeling the crisis far more viscerally,” Zetkulic said.
Zetkulic works at the Rocky Mountain Institute based in New York City. She said Quebec can learn from the wildfires in California, and the lessons learned there. She says urban sprawl feeds the fires and encourages municipalities to redevelop land not used.
“We have big mall shops that are underutilized, that have huge amounts of parking that are already integrated close to transportation corridors. This is such a huge opportunity to be developing housing where people already want to live,” she said.
Municipal leaders say towns must consider the impact development has.
“We need to stop to destroy natural environments,” Maisonneuve said. “We need to stop to go on agricultural fields. We need to redevelop existing spaces in our cities.”
Experts say the wildfires should force people to pause and consider daily changes they can make.
“We need to reduce the use of car to have more room for people, more room for green space,” said Marie-Andree Mauger, the mayor of Verdun.
“If we want to have the best air quality, most of the time during the year our air quality is not about fires, it’s about traffic.”