An Ecological Political Economy of Climate Urbanism in Ottawa

Abstract

Over the past few decades, decreased federal and provincial funding for municipal services and infrastructure has constrained municipal budgets and led to competitive, entrepreneurial styles of municipal governance. These structural changes have coincided with growing public demand for municipalities to protect the local environment and take action on climate change. Drawing on discourse analysis, historical research, and interviews, this thesis applies an ecological political economy (EPE) perspective to examine the influence of federal and provincial neoliberal policies on municipal environmental governance in Ottawa. The main argument of this thesis is that amidst global economic instability and a worsening climate crisis, the City is shifting to a ‘climate urbanism’ policy approach that positions Ottawa to compete globally for labour and capital investment to fund ‘low-carbon’ and ‘climate-resilient’ technological and infrastructure fixes. Strategically adopting discourses from global climate science, ‘climate urbanism’ is the City’s current attempt to reconcile ongoing fiscal challenges with worsening environmental problems and a neoliberal economic growth imperative. Over the past three decades, the City has co-opted environmental discourses to legitimize economic growth while externalizing the problematic consequences of this growth, contributing to deepening social and ecological crises. Case studies on the People’s Official Plan and the Herongate redevelopment demonstrate how Ottawa residents are contesting the City’s ‘climate urbanism’ by developing and advocating for grassroots policies that recentre social and ecological needs.