As our city deals with the most recent severe weather aftermath, we need to ask ourselves: are we doing everything we can to address the serious impacts of our changing climate?

The severe flooding on the Toronto Islands this week, the blackout during the 2013 ice storm, the storms that flooded highways, transit lines and basements in 2013 and again in 2015, are only the tip of the iceberg. Expect more of the same in years to come. We are on a collision course, and governments at every level are, at best, paying lip service to the problem.

The investments made during the era of Mayor David Miller to address stormwater in Toronto are still rolling out, but we have lost seven years of action since then.

Earlier this week, Mayor John Tory’s executive committee scrapped a long standing plan to implement a stormwater management charge on large parking lots that create surface runoff resulting in sewage overflows into Lake Ontario and flooded basements.

This is a cost-effective approach that has been successful in many other cities. The charge would be cost neutral to consumers because it would be taken off the current water bills. By rejecting this plan, we are throwing away years of hard work by the city and taking a huge step backwards.

The city’s next opportunity to show leadership on climate change will be next week when the new TransformTO plan comes to Toronto city council.

The test will be whether council commits to the funding we need to make sure these great plans get realized. But don’t hold your breath. Mayor Tory, along with a majority of city councillors rejected a minor $1.2 million increase in investment into climate action in the 2017 budget. The vote failed 23-21. Big words – little action.

At the national level, funding cuts by the Trump administration to protect the Great Lakes will harm our local ability to take action to protect the 34 million people living in the Great Lakes basin and the waters that sustain us. In the absence of U.S. federal support, Canada’s federal government and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec need to take this opportunity to lead the way. Ontario’s 2015 Great Lakes Protection Act is a good start, but municipalities are on the front lines for implementing any climate mitigation plans and many lack the resources required to take the necessary steps.

The stormwater charge rejected by Mayor Tory is one of those steps that municipalities need to take if they want to take serious action to protect public and private property from dangerous and damaging flooding, the economy and infrastructure from shutting down in the event of extreme weather, and the health of the natural environment for the benefit of us all.

Toronto should be taking a leadership approach where we harness our expertise, size and spirit of innovation to lead on climate action. If we fail, flooded basements and parks will be the least of our concerns.

Mike Layton is Toronto city councillor for Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina.

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