In a unanimous decision, Chatham-Kent Council has decided to make the environment a priority.
The municipality has declared a climate emergency following a motion from South Kent Councillor Trevor Thompson, to identify target areas in policy to have the greatest impact on reducing Chatham-Kent’s collective environmental footprint.
The final motion reads: Be it resolved, That the Municipality of Chatham-Kent officially declare a climate emergency for the purposes of joining a national and international movement and to provide a lens through which all strategy, policies, action items and opportunities can be viewed; and that staff work swiftly to identify target areas in municipal policy through which specific changes going to have the greatest impact to reduce our individual and collective environmental impact, and that staff be challenged to work internally, as well as engage stakeholders in the community members, to prepare information and recommendations for concrete and cost-effective initiatives to address the climate change emergency in CK ahead of the budget 2020 deliberations.
A friendly amendment from Melissa Harrigan helped to give it some teeth.
“The motion now directs staff to go back, look through and identify opportunities for us to make changes,” Harrigan explains. “Taking kind of what our baseline is in what we’re doing in the area of environmental impact and climate change and sustainability, and to say here are some changes we can make that are low cost or no cost that actually move the dial on our impact on the environment in a more positive way.”
While he supported the motion, Ward Six councillor Doug Sulman says the devil’s in the details.
“We’re all well meaning in passing these, but you’ve got to worry about what impact it has on people’s livelihood, what impact it has on their homes, whether they have to get different building permits because we passed regulations,” Sulman says. “I think there’s a lot more we have to look into here before we pat ourselves on the back for having passed it.”
As a Conservation Authority board member, North Kent councillor Joe Faas says it’s not something Chatham-Kent can do alone.
“We can do what we want to do,” Faas says, “but the provincial government has to come on board, do the funding that needs to be done, so that we can maintain the initiatives that protect our environment, such as species at risk, tree planting, wetland promotion, that type of stuff.”
As many as 40 other communities across the country have taken similar steps to ensure being environmentally responsible is kept top of mind.