CALGARY—A group of Alberta doctors wants to make the public to think about climate change as a health issue and is pushing for stronger promises on the issue from political parties as the province heads into an election.

For the next two weeks, people around Calgary will see video billboards proclaiming, “Alberta doctors support strong climate action,” paid for and organized by the local committee of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

The 18-month-old group is filled with health professionals who believe it’s their responsibility to make people think about climate change as a public health issue.

One member of the group, Dr. Joe Vipond, said the billboards aren’t meant to be supportive or critical of any political party. Instead, the group wants to see the debate between every political party include more specific alternatives to the carbon tax.

“Generally, this election campaign has been seen to be about economy, economy, economy, and pipelines, pipelines, pipelines. We want to add some nuance,” Vipond said about the ad campaign.

It’s important to Vipond that climate change policies announced during the election campaign consider the health risks since environmental disasters are already hurting Albertans.

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In the last decade, Alberta has seen some of the costliest natural disasters in its history between the Fort McMurray and Slave Lake wildfires and the 2013 Calgary flood. Smoke exposure from wildfires has also become a health concern every summer, Vipond said.

Despite being a provincial group, the group’s ads will be focused in Calgary, Vipond said, because of how much environmental debates take a back seat to concerns about the oil industry in this city.

“From our perspective, because we have an industry so focused on fossil fuel generation and GHG (greenhouse gas) production, we have a special responsibility to deal with this more so than other jurisdictions,” Vipond said.

The doctors behind these billboards hope the ads will make Albertans think about climate change beyond just the current election, and will encourage the public to press their representatives to act more strongly on climate change, regardless of who wins on April 16.

Vipond said he also hopes the billboards will push people to think about climate change mitigation policies and a transition away from fossil fuel industries.

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“We need to prepare ourselves for a world where our product is not seen to be as valued as it is now,” Vipond said.

“The time to have that discussion is during the election. We can’t just pretend it’s all going to be sunshine and roses and drill bits.”

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