Toronto Mayor John Tory says public transit key to fighting climate change

Toronto mayor John Tory emphatically declared that Toronto will continue to invest in public transit to help fight climate change.

"Build more public transit," Tory replied when asked by CBC News Network's Power & Politics guest host Hannah Thibedeau if there's one commitment the city is prepared to make to battle climate change. "What we need is to get people out of cars and offer them a viable transit system."

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Tory and a delegation from Toronto heads to COP21, the global climate-change summit underway just outside Paris, on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Tory said he believed the best way for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Kathleen Wynne to honour their commitment to fight climate change is "to fund Toronto's priorities, including building transit, repairing and retrofitting of Toronto Community Housing" and to invest "in our infrastructure so we can further reduce our carbon emissions and conserve energy."

Tory reiterated his comment on Power & Politics.

"I hope we're going to get some help with that because that's consistent with what the current government said during the election campaign," he said.

Tory also said the city is committed to building more separated bike lanes downtown.

Earlier this year, the city reported that the overall cycling volume on Richmond, Simcoe and Adelaide has tripled since separated lanes were added.

On Friday, Tory said, "The gathering of global mayors in Paris is happening because the impact of climate issues will be felt in our cities, and that is also where solutions will be found." 

Trudeau has promised to work out a national climate change strategy with the Canadian premiers 90 days after the summit.