Health care, peak oil and climate change are linked
Published Thursday July 30th, 2009
Municipalities are increasingly implicated in the health of their residents. Recently, the mayor of Bas-Caraquet even gave up her office so that a clinic could expand and offer space to a new doctor. While this is an example that speaks directly to the needs of rural communities, municipalities will also be involved in health care at more intricate and complex levels.
There are a number of inter-related factors leading to this involvement. The first is health care reform. A recently released document in the United States suggests health care reform is really about transportation reform. As Canadian provinces begin to face the mounting sustainability challenge, the effect of transportation on our health will become ever more apparent as well.
The second factor is the idea of peak oil, which has gained ground in Europe and predicts oil production will peak before 2015. It doesn't mean that oil will run out, however once it requires a barrel of oil to extract a barrel of oil, extraction will come to an end.
Finally, there's climate change -- I don't want to get e-mails or Tweets about how it's all a farce; let's just agree that pollution is not good and any initiative to reduce such while also leading to and/or promoting healthier lifestyles and resource conservation is a noble cause.
The United States, for once, will lead the charge as they undergo what is quite possibly the most dramatic health care reform since Medicaid, or ever. The problem is at what cost? Furthermore, how will they reduce the cost of health care to reduce that cost?
How does health care reform affect local governments? The present automobile-centric lifestyle is a health hazard. On top of obesity from inactivity, pollution from vehicles is a known cause of lung developmental problems in children as well as a source of asthma in kids and adults. Even our mental health is endangered, as the time we spend commuting back and forth to work has a direct relationship to the amount of stress we feel.
Dr. Charles Courtemanche, a University of North Carolina health economist, determined that the drop in real gasoline prices between 1979 and 2004 in the U.S. resulted in an eight per cent rise in obesity. Furthermore, Courtemanche suggests that for every permanent dollar per gallon increase in gasoline prices, there will follow a corresponding drop in the overweight rate by seven per cent and a drop in the obesity rate by 10 per cent.
Before wondering how the average overweight American compares to the average overweight Canadian, let's just say the average New Brunswicker is probably closer to the hefty American average than the Canadian one.
New highways are not the remedy. Pandering to the auto industry isn't either. It's all about proper urban planning in our cities and towns, getting people out of their cars and walking, biking or, at very least, using public transit. The automobile-centric municipalities spurred on sprawl, closed down the neighbourhood shops in exchange for big-box stores, and celebrated the drive-thru.
The future of our streets will include everyone, not just motorists.
Keeping in mind safer walking routes for students and a focus on integrating bus routes, bus stops and walking trails to access downtown cores will also be part of new urban planning. Also, municipalities will pull the plug on sprawl, promoting denser and pedestrian-friendlier communities.
This means a greater emphasis on sidewalk maintenance and clearing in the winter and an end to planning our buildings so far apart, as in the case of the Université de Moncton campus. Rather than planning our municipalities as though they're in California, we'll be mimicking Norway instead.
I recently read in this newspaper, regarding the closure of Main Street to automobile traffic in the summer, a merchant stating we are a "drive-thru society" and so closing Main Street would be detrimental to business and amount to "going back in time." The same merchant also suggested that free parking would be a means to increase the number of people visiting the downtown.
This comment was made while Charlottetown considers quadrupling its parking rates and doubling up their fining efforts to attract visitors to their downtown by encouraging short-term parking.
This merchant should be preparing now for the coming changes to the drive-thru society. The future will see the car-centred reality become more and more a quirk of history. Moreover, this society won't come off in a positive light in the history books.
Main Street's inevitable closure is just one example, another being the demise of drive-thrus. The change will come through a combination of an incremental culture shift and bylaws or greener urban planning decisions based on the inter-related factors of health-care reform, peak oil, and climate change.
Much as the federal and provincial governments offer funding for green projects, soon they'll begin doing the same for health related initiatives. Every dollar spent by municipalities on health will have a positive impact on the cost of health care to both the federal and provincial governments, as well as the taxpayer, while increasing the quality of life of all residents.
* David Gingras is a Metro Moncton resident and recently earned his National Advanced Certificate in Local Authority Administration (NACLAA).
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That said, the comments about transportation generally are well taken. Cities that cater excessively to driving - and Moncton is one of them - need to reform, to raise the priority of things like bicycle lanes and pathways, public transit and sidewalk maintenance, and to improve planning to increase density.
But these aren't health-related initiatives. That they can offer health benefits is tangential to their central purpose. But they are needed because the environment cannot support our current lifestyle.