Record heat in Far North worries Trudeau government

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media while visiting a market in St.-Hyacinthe, Que., Wednesday, July 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Qc -

Tuesday's record-breaking heat in Kuujjuaq, in Quebec's Far North, where the temperature of 34 degrees Celsius was the highest in all of Canada, has the federal government worried.

"We're very concerned, and have been for several years, about the melting permafrost," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while visiting a farmers' market in Saint-Hyacinthe, in the Montérégie region of Quebec, on Wednesday.

"Not only does this contribute to the destabilization of communities in the North, but the methane that escapes from it is a very powerful greenhouse gas," said Trudeau, who was speaking to the media in a heat of over 31 degrees Celsius in the early afternoon, with a humidex of no less than 40 degrees.

KUUJJUAQ: A WARNING

The Kuujjuaq example, he says, is a clear warning that "we have to slow down global warming. We must do everything we can to fight climate change."

He took the opportunity to praise his government's environmental initiatives, notably the National Adaptation Strategy, "which talks about infrastructures like we're going to need in the Far North in the years to come.

Unsurprisingly, he also took the opportunity to denounce "the fact that there are still people and politicians - particularly Conservatives - who refuse to accept that climate change is a reality."

For him, beyond the record-breaking heat in the Far North, forest fires, Hurricane Fiona and the atmospheric river in British Columbia are all indicators that this change has already begun.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 5, 2023