CALGARY—As Alberta and British Columbia spark over everything from pipelines to wine supply, a new study shows mayors in the neighbouring provinces are also divided on the topic of climate change.

Researchers at the University of Calgary recently surveyed more than 1,000 municipalities across the country, asking their mayors and councillors to rank the importance of a range of issues. There were some common concerns preoccupying municipal leaders, like economic development, planning, transportation, and water supply.

But rankings were far from universal, and one of the biggest differences was how likely municipal politicians in Alberta and their neighbours to the west were to view climate change as a significant issue, said Jack Lucas, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in U of C’s political science department.

On a four-point scale of importance from “slightly” to “extremely” important, climate change was ranked more than one point higher in B.C. than in Alberta. As Lucas put it, that’s the difference between “a little below somewhat important” in Alberta and “approaching very important” in B.C.

“It’s one of the more substantial differences that we see across all of the different policy issues,” he said. “These are striking differences because they’re not just a function of city population.”

Unlike economic development, which was important to respondents across the country, the perceived importance of issues like immigrant settlement, homelessness, transit, climate change, and Indigenous relations varied from city to city, and were often seen as less important in smaller municipalities than in the country’s biggest cities.

Lucas pointed to the high importance of economic development across the country as a possible reason for the differences between B.C. and Alberta, especially when it comes to climate change. Economic development means something different to every municipality, he explained. For example, the issue of climate change might be important to a city that relies on nature-based tourism, whereas in cities that rely on the oil and gas sector, it might be a different story.

“To the extent that an issue like climate change is seen as being in tension with economic development, then you’re going to see people ranking that as lower in importance,” said Lucas.

“We never quite know what exactly is in someone’s mind when they answer that question,” he added. “But it would be hard to imagine that the politics of the energy sector and pipeline politics and these kinds of things are not in these respondents’ minds when we’re asking them about the importance of climate change in their communities.”

Brendan Boyd, an assistant professor at MacEwan University whose research looks at subnational climate change policy, agreed, explaining that “economic development” is hinged on different sectors depending on the municipality.

“Acting on climate change … would be a much bigger, much heavier lift for Alberta,” he said, and many of the province’s municipalities rely on the oil and gas sector for their economy.

“When they think about climate change … they frame it as an economic issue,” he said.

However, Boyd said it’s also important to consider the provincial government’s role in shaping municipalities’ views on climate change. In B.C., 98 per cent of municipalities have signed a climate change charter, and in return receive carbon tax revenue.

“One of the things that the B.C. provincial government did was they really made municipalities a big part of their strategy,” said Boyd. By raising awareness and providing an economic benefit, he said this strategy could be an important factor when it comes to the survey results.

It’s not that the Alberta government hasn’t taken action on climate change, he added, but it has had to “tread more carefully” and consider the economic impact of certain climate-related policies on Alberta municipalities.

Boyd said it’s also important to remember that the survey asked participants to rank important issues — not to state whether they believe in climate change.

“This doesn’t mean that … Albertans are a bunch of climate change deniers or that they don’t care about climate change,” he said. “Governments have a lot on their plate.”

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Now that this national survey is complete, Lucas said there’s an opportunity to take a closer look at some of the results through in-depth research and case study analysis.

“Is this about the energy sector? Is it about sustainability policy or emergency management? … It could be a wide range of things,” he said. “The next step is to just like drill down a little bit more in more detail to figure out what these differences mean.”

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