May is expected to be momentous in terms of our city’s plans on climate change.
- May 13 the city is expected to make public its new climate change management plan
- May 20 the city’s Environment Committee meets, hopefully to approve the new plan
- May 28 full City Council meet, again hopefully to approve the new plan
A year ago Mayor Jim Watson addressed the GHG Roundtable at City Hall saying “the City of Ottawa is committed to renewing the Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan to include renewed GHG reduction targets for both community and corporate emissions.”
He made that promise because hundreds of people had told city hall this issue is important to them.
Despite a lack of news coming out from the city after the Roundtable we’re now on the cusp of progress.
In the fall of last year Ecology Ottawa became aware that city staff were indeed preparing a revised climate change management plan. We know that the city has consulted with subject-area experts about best practices. We believe the revised plan will encompass both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation; which means they’ll be trying to both reduce emissions and trying to plan for what climate change will inevitably bring to our city.
The new document is expected to come before council in May. The schedules of city council meetings etc. mean that the revised climate change management plan should appear on the City of Ottawa website on May 13. Ecology Ottawa will be watching for it; we will let you know what we think of it; and we’ll ask you for your input.
The reason we’re at this point is because Ecology Ottawa supporters just like you told the mayor or their councillor that climate change should be something our city takes action on. The messages of their voters created the political will. We are optimistic about the coming plan although we haven’t seen it.
But there’s more to do. Releasing a plan doesn't bring down emissions or limit damage from extreme climatic events. With your help Ecology Ottawa will be working to ensure that the plan is a good one and that it actually gets funded and implemented.
We’d love your help. If you want to get more actively involved please email Charles Hodgson and we can talk about what you can do.
For a full description of the background and current status on this issue see this post.
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