Final Report of the Canadian Youth Climate Assembly
Inquiry--Debate Continued
March 24, 2026
Two for one. I am not sure how this all works, but Tuesday night is inquiry night.
Honourable senators, I rise today again to speak to Senator Coyle’s inquiry on the final report of the Canadian Youth Climate Assembly. I would like to begin by thanking Senator Coyle for kicking off this important discussion in the chamber.
I also want to commend the 33 remarkable young Canadians whose thoughtful work brought forward the sophisticated, eloquent and impressive report before us. We hear you, and we are immensely grateful for your work.
This report conveys a clear and powerful message: Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is essential, and this transition will require innovation.
As someone who worked in education and sport with young people, I cannot help but look to the world of sport and our young people as the potential leaders in driving this change. Sport at every level is already experiencing the effects of climate change. Each winter, athletes wait for snow to fall with bated breath, hoping there will be enough to support competition. Their anxieties are far from unfounded. In Cortina, average February temperatures have risen by 3.6 °C since Italy last hosted the Olympics only 20 years ago. Meanwhile, snowfall levels around the world have steadily declined since the mid-20th century.
Summer sports do not escape unscathed. In January, athletes competed in the Australian Open under extreme heat conditions, with play suspended as temperatures rose to 40 °C. In coastal regions, rising sea levels and increased flooding threaten stadiums, playing fields and venues for beach sports.
The evidence is clear: Preserving sport as we know it requires decisive and timely action, and the Canadian Youth Climate Assembly’s recommendations lay a framework for this action.
Young Canadians are calling on governments to invest in retrofits that will strengthen the resilience of existing infrastructure. This recommendation is no less relevant for sports facilities. Progress is already under way, with countless projects in progress, aiming to improve the sustainability and resilience of sports infrastructure. At the same time, many local and provincial sports organizations are adapting their policies and professional development programs to better protect athletes and address climate risks.
Alberta Soccer is a phenomenal example. They have implemented air quality policies requiring officials and coaches to modify play intensity, shorten practices or even reschedule when air pollution reaches unacceptable levels.
Meaningful climate action extends far beyond adapting to rising temperatures. It also means recognizing the role that sport itself plays in contributing to the climate crisis. The professional sports sector alone generates emissions through stadium operations, merchandise production and waste management, as well as through the extensive travel required of athletes, employees and spectators. Work is under way to address this.
The recent Milano Cortina Olympic Games exemplify this environmental impact. While we’re watching from the comfort of our living rooms, it is easy to forget that athletes are not always competing on real snow. While this may have been the case decades ago, declining snowfall levels have made it increasingly rare. Today, Olympic ski runs, half-pipes and snow parks owe more to water from springs, valley rivers and dam reservoirs than to freshly fallen snow.
There is a challenge here. Climate change makes it more difficult to host winter sporting events, which, in turn, pushes organizers to intensify artificial snow production. Ultimately, this diverts water resources and damages local ecosystems in the process.
Colleagues, I believe deeply in the power of sport. It brings people together across national, cultural, linguistic and religious lines. But the unity and joy that sport fosters should never come at the expense of the planet that we all share. Fortunately, it does not have to. Not only can sport be sustainable, but it is also uniquely positioned to demonstrate that decarbonization is both achievable and necessary. Few other sectors can claim the same global reach, demographic diversity or ability to inspire collective action.
Encouragingly, many parts of the sporting world have taken up the mantle. Major leagues are pursuing sponsorships aligned with environmental, social and governance standards. Athletes are increasingly speaking out as advocates for sustainability. Recreational facilities are being retrofitted with climate-smart technologies.
The International Olympic Committee, or IOC, has been addressing sustainability for several decades. Prince Albert II of Monaco, a five-time Olympian, presently chairs the Sustainability and Legacy Commission of the IOC.
While you heard about the challenges, the Milano Cortina Olympics were still perhaps the most sustainable in Olympic history. Eighty-five per cent of the infrastructure used was pre‑existing. They developed sports clusters, used public transportation — reducing the use of private cars — made Olympic medals from recycled metals, ensured that 20,000 items from the Games will be reused and plan on restoring the games sites back to their natural state.
While the final data still needs to be assessed, organizers also pledged that 100% of game-time electricity would be drawn from renewable sources, reflecting one of the youth assembly’s central recommendations: accelerating the transition to clean energy.
Canada is also making strides. Municipal infrastructure projects such as Vancouver’s Hillcrest Centre, the Richmond Olympic Oval, Halifax’s Canada Games Centre and Toronto’s net-zero carbon community recreation centre demonstrate how climate-smart infrastructure can make sport more sustainable, energy-efficient and resilient.
I am so proud of Mr. Seyi Smith, a former Canadian summer athletics sprinter and winter bobsled team member who has used his platform — he is incredible — and professional background to bridge the gap between high-level sport and environmental action. In fact, he founded a company called Racing to Zero that offers sustainability education, carbon inventories and sustainable strategy support to local, regional and national sports organizations in Canada.
The Canada Games Council, or CGC, which runs games, as we know, in our communities every few years for young people, has also been very busy. They have been able to build capacity and integrate sustainability into their overall practices. They launched an environmental sustainability strategy in the spring of 2025 and now work with all of their host societies on initiatives to reduce the impact on the environment over the course of the games’ lifecycle, from vision to planning, to execution and follow-up.
In 2019, the Canada Games Council joined the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework as the first Canadian signatory. To this day, the CGC remains committed to this framework, which unites sports organizations globally to play their part in responsible climate action.
Since 2022, the Canada Games Council has been monitoring GHG emissions related to hosting its events in Canada, including carbon offsets related to participant travel, annual emissions of the franchise holder and, most recently, game-wide emission measurements for the 2025 Canada Games in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Coming up in 2027, the games will be in Quebec City, and they will be using all this data, including detailed recommendations, towards having games with as low emissions as possible.
Honourable senators, if there is one point I hope resonates with you from my remarks today, it is this: We cannot overlook sport as we consider the assembly’s recommendations. Decarbonizing the sports sector is essential not only because it’s an emitter in its own right but because the very future of sport depends on it and, perhaps most importantly, because it has the power to inspire others to follow its lead.
Thank you. Meegwetch.
Honourable senators, today I rise to speak briefly to the inquiry initiated by Senator Coyle on the final report of the Canadian Youth Climate Assembly. I felt compelled to add my voice to Senator Coyle’s and encourage those of you who haven’t yet engaged with the report to do so.
I want to reiterate some aspects of her observations as delivered to the chamber on February 24 of this year and offer other observations.
Before I begin, I want to congratulate and thank our colleague Senator Coyle for her ongoing leadership and dedication as founder and continued co-chair of Senators for Climate Solutions. The group has grown to have over 60% of our chamber as members. As you know, this group brings together senators who want to learn more about efforts here at home and abroad, exploring solutions for climate change.
I had the pleasure of co-chairing that group with Senator Coyle for three years. Senator Muggli has assumed the co-chair role since I stepped back. Thank you and congratulations for taking on this responsibility.
The focus of our sessions over the years has been to bring informative discussions and presentations by experts who have shared their work and their experience in environmental and climate change areas. This provides an opportunity for senators to learn and ask questions so that we can better understand the vast array of subject matter being considered in this area. It’s an invaluable learning opportunity.
I want to focus the rest of my brief remarks on events that took place last August, September and October as the Senate hosted the first-ever Canadian Youth Climate Assembly.
Climate change is here, and its effects are increasing rapidly and more frequently. Unprecedented floods, fires, droughts, shore erosion due to rising sea levels, larger spring runoffs and extreme fluctuations in temperatures are some among the many challenges we face, and all are indicators telling us that things are out of balance.
Further, there is an urgency that things must be done before that balance is skewed in a manner that takes us beyond the point of no return. While I cannot define where the point of no return is, I can say that the past 10 years have each resulted in increasing global temperature records, and it is projected to be an even hotter summer this year, so we will find out then.
This assembly reflected the approach taken by citizens’ assemblies that have been held for many years around the globe. Those assemblies bring together citizens who are chosen to debate, query and provide input on issues of the day, and the results are made available to decision makers in government.
Discussions addressing this reality most often include those well informed within academia, political practitioners, environmental experts and so on, but it has not been a common practice to bring young people into the fold — who are on their way to adulthood — and ask them their views on climate change.
Senator Coyle was the driving force that made this idea become a reality: Canada having the first youth climate assembly. When Senator Coyle first talked to me about her idea of having a youth climate assembly, I was not sure where she was going with it, but the more she talked, I knew that this woman from Nova Scotia — from Antigonish — was not going to be distracted. She was going to make it happen, and she did. And I congratulate her for doing that.
There were 33 young participants, ranging in age from 18 to 25, who were chosen from a pool of over 700 applicants. They came from regions all across the country and represent the diversity of what makes Canada Canada.
Their involvement took place over several work periods, discussing their points of view, organizing their work, collaborating and producing a report — which is the topic of this inquiry — that summarizes their combined effort. If you haven’t read their report, I would encourage you to do so. It reflects insightful thinking from tomorrow’s leaders.
The assembly heard from subject-matter experts, engaged in extensive small-group and plenary dialogue and reached consensus on the 23 recommendations presented in their final report.
The recommendations were grouped into three themes: preparing for climate risks, reducing emissions in the oil and gas sector and climate accountability. Their observations were astute, their resolve was admirable and their arguments were compelling.
In the report, participants noted that they have experienced first-hand the effects of climate change on their lives. They also noted their disappointment that young people’s opinions aren’t being heard, and I agree that this is a reality for the most part.
They found themselves united by a common goal to build toward a green and sustainable future. They said they are ready for the challenge and eager to lead, and they are not only prepared to demand solutions but also ready to be part of them.
This was abundantly clear when participants of the assembly had the opportunity to present their report to a group of senators and members of the House of Commons here in the Senate Chamber on September 21, 2025. At the end of their presentation, parliamentarians posed thought-provoking questions, and the assembly participants’ responses demonstrated informed understanding of the issues and pragmatic solution-based inputs on the larger discussion around climate change.
But they are also further highlighting what we should already be doing: encouraging parliamentarians, public policy-makers and private sector actors to find their own grit to seize the moment and act.
Colleagues, I want to briefly summarize all of what took place at that assembly. They challenged us to take them into consideration, including their thoughts and willingness to participate in dialogue that will lead to solutions for abating the disastrous effects of climate change.
For my part, I felt that this Sunday presentation provided great insight into the views of young people from across Canada, as represented by the participants. I also felt very optimistic about our future and dealing with climate change. These future leaders will continue to push this generation to move the dial forward.
As their own stories unfold, climate action will be pushed even more decisively. We owe it to them and to future generations to take this seriously.
In closing, I want to reiterate that Senators for Climate Solutions offers an opportunity for all of us to learn more, as well as have a better understanding of the challenges associated with climate change and perhaps help steer us in a direction to become more involved and responsive to young Canadians.
I want to add that being part of the group is not a significant demand on time, but it is time well spent. The more informed we are, the more meaningful our contribution to this discussion can be. In closing, colleagues, thank you for allowing me to share these brief observations with you.
