Canada's Changing Climate report came out last week, and says Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe.
Federal Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, was in Victoria on Tuesday to talk to the Environment Canada scientists who wrote the report, and local mayors.
She says the stats in the report are scary, and puts them in context for Victoria.
"So they looked at what would be the typical hottest day in Victoria now, 29 degrees. Under a high emissions scenario, where we don't take ambitious climate action, it would go up to 32 degrees. But if you look at the number of days 25 degrees or over per year, it would go from 8 in Victoria to 42."
She says the rising temperatures would lead to more hospitalizations and fatalities related to the heat, more invasive species, more wildfires, and rising ocean levels causing flooding, erosion, and a negative impact on marine life.
McKenna says we need to take action to quell climate change, and the federal government in taking some steps towards that goal.
"Clearly we need to act, and when you look at what we're doing, that's exactly why we're phasing out of coal, making historic investments in renewable's. That's why we're making historic investments in public transportation. Energy efficiency is a huge priority, actually I was at UVic this afternoon, looking at their energy efficiency measures, including super energy efficient boilers and the super energy efficient student housing that they're building. We're investing in clean innovations, I'm visiting Carbon Engineering, which is a great BC company that actually takes CO2 out of the air and creates products out it. But yes we need to act, this report is sobering and it's a real call to action."
She adds that the Federal Government has signed agreements with US States representing almost 50% of the US Economy to do concrete things together, like investing in clean innovations and zero emission vehicles, and cutting back pollution.
McKenna says that while there still is pushback from some people, after last year's extreme weather, most Canadians have acknowledged that a change needs to happen. She says the rest of Canada should follow BC's lead.
"I always say look at BC. It's had a price on pollution for a decade, it's worked, BC's lowered it's emissions. It has the one of the fastest growing economies in the country. And it also has all these clean solution, clean-tech companies."
McKenna will head to Vancouver next, where she will make an announce about electric vehicles. The Federal Government has already created a $5,000 incentive for electric vehicles, and adds that 25% of emissions in BC are from transportation, and moving towards clean electric cars will be really beneficial to the environment.