Council here is supporting a call for the province to give municipalities “adequate, stable and long-term funding resources” to invest in greenhouse gas reduction initiatives.
At its Dec. 12 meeting, council endorsed a staff recommendation to support a collaborative petition of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UQM) seeking enhanced support of municipal climate action.
The resolution from the AMO and UQM asks the province to help municipalities meet reduction targets and reduce emissions while improving resilience in local economies. It asks the provinces to:
– give municipalities adequate, stable and long-term funding resources to invest in greenhouse gas reduction initiatives such as public transit and active transportation, public and private building energy efficiency; water conservation, planning development and other programs;
– recognize municipal projects that reduce greenhouse gases for offset credits in cap-and-trade programs;
– provide dedicated funding for climate change adaptation to help municipalities provide resilient infrastructure to keep local economies and communities functioning and productive; and
– provide tools to help facilitate and transfer knowledge regarding greenhouse gas reduction and climate adaptation projects.
Council also approved CAO Bill White’s suggestion that the following stipulation be added to the document:
– that reporting required for existing local Green Energy Plans not be enhanced or increased as a pre-condition to receiving funding for climate change programs so that valuable local municipal staff resources can remain focused on program execution.
“Once again, Minto should continue to call for the option to pursue climate change resiliency using innovative, flexible and creative ways without a regimented framework of reporting and ‘red-tape’,” White stated. “Already our LED streetlight initiative, Trees for Minto, VFD technology in arenas, blower and aerator technologies and other important initiatives are underway. This action should not be mitigated by requiring significant staff resources to be ‘re-deployed’ by the province to report back on what has already been done.”
White told council he is anticipating increased pressure on municipalities to help meet goals established at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, France.
“What came out of Paris in my mind was a couple of things,” said Mayor George Bridge. “There was supposedly a large dollar amount went to what I call the Third World developing countries and if we do have a win-win maybe on this it’s that they don’t get into the whole area that we’ve been into with relying on oil … so if they can do it with solar power and other things in some of the rural areas it’s probably better.”
Bridge also advised staff and council “there will be a lot of stuff coming out on cap and trade,” and suggested taking courses where possible.
