November 25, 2008
In a repeat of last year's lukewarm performance
on the environment, Mayor O'Brien and the majority of Ottawa's city
councillors coasted through 2008 without decisively pursuing the strong
environmental actions that are needed, according to a report released
today by two grassroots environmental organizations.
The report, Voting Green, Voting Grey: The 2008 Ottawa City Council Watch Report, was written by Ecology Ottawa and the Ottawa Local Group of the Sierra Club of Canada. It is the third in a series of annual reports
that grade the performance of Ottawa's mayor and city councillors on
matters of environmental significance. The grades are based on the
votes cast by each member of council on sixteen key decisions made since November 2007.
"In
one corner, we have a few councillors working tirelessly to make Ottawa
a healthy, environmentally responsible city," says Graham Saul, chair
of Ecology Ottawa. "In the other corner, there's a handful of
councillors who've tried to block almost every environmental initiative
put before council over the past five years. But Mayor O'Brien and the majority of councillors are just milling around somewhere in between."
The
report identifies councillors Georges Bédard, Alex Cullen, Clive
Doucet, Diane Holmes, and Jacques Legendre as environmental leaders,
while councillors Jan Harder, Gord Hunter, Rob Jellett, and Doug
Thompson are criticized for having scored an ‘F' in at least two of the
three report cards.
"We look at Toronto and Vancouver, and we
see cities that are being led by their mayors on ambitious paths
towards sustainability," says Lori Waller, Ecology Ottawa's research
associate. "Ottawa could be following a similar course, but we'll never
get there if dithering and half-way measures continue to dominate at city hall."
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Council members' grades can be seen here.
The full report can be downloaded below:
