Singh, municipal leaders tackle climate change at FCM conference in Halifax

HALIFAX – Climate change was on federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh's mind as he delivered his keynote address at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Halifax Saturday morning.

In his speech, he told the packed ballroom that municipalities need to invest in reducing their emissions and introducing programs to promote green alternatives.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Singh said Canada needs to implement a ban on single-use plastics to help reduce marine litter, following in the footsteps of other countries that have already implemented bans on plastic products that are used once and then thrown away.

That morning, over a thousand delegates at the FCM overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution to urge the federal government to create a marine litter mitigation strategy.

FCM first vice-president and Halifax city councillor Bill Karsten says the timing of this vote couldn't be better, as it comes less than a week before the upcoming G7 Summit in Quebec, where the issue of marine litter will be discussed by world leaders.

He says eight million tons of plastic finds its way into the world's oceans every year.