On Friday afternoon about 200 people, mostly high school students, gathered outside Guelph City Hall to demand greater local action to combat climate change.
One of the things they were calling for was for city council to officially declare a climate emergency.
On Monday, after weeks of back-and-forth in the media and on social media between members of council, the polarizing issue of whether the city should officially proclaim a climate emergency will enter council chambers.
Councillor James Gordon will be presenting a notice of motion at the Committee of the Whole meeting that could eventually lead to the city deciding on whether or not to join other municipalities in declaring a climate emergency.
Or it could be shot down in flames by those opposed to such declaration.
Councillors Gordon and Leanne Piper have been at the forefront of a recent move to make the declaration, a move that would later include some additional concrete climate action by the city.
Several members of council, including Mayor Cam Guthrie, are opposed to such a declaration, feeling the city has and will be doing its part to battle climate change and has a well-laid out plan to do so.
The mayor and several councillors feel declaring a climate emergency might actually impede some of the work being done by the city on climate change.
What Gordon will be presenting Mondy is a notice of motion of reconsideration of a previous motion passed last year that set a target of 2050 for the City of Guelph to achieve 100 per cent of its energy needs through renewable energy.
Gordon’s new motion calls for that target date to be lowered to 2035.
If successful, a revamped motion would see an attempt to add a clause declaring a climate emergency.
Monday’s meeting will not see any discussion or decision. That should come at the full meeting of council on May 27.
Piper told GuelphToday that she and Gordon were informed by the clerk’s office that in order to put a new motion on the floor that would include the declaration of a climate emergency, council would first have to undo the old one from last May.
Gordon’s motion to reconsider would require the support of two-thirds of council in order to be successful, Piper said.
“Right now, the new motion doesn't use the words "climate emergency," Piper told GuelphToday. “However, it is a draft. We could add a new clause ‘that the City of Guelph declare a climate emergency,’” to the current draft.
Clauses could then be voted on separately if the effort go to that stage.
“Councillors who don't support the emergency declaration can vote against clause number 1 but vote in favour of 2, 3 and 4,” Piper said.
So a new target date of 2035 could potentially happen without the “climate emergency” clause being successful.
Several Canadian cities, including Hamilton, have declared climate emergencies.
Gordon and Piper feel that an official declaration would enhance and broaden the city’s efforts to battle climate change.
“We’ve taken our baby steps. We’ve done the low-hanging fruit. We’ve changed-out the lightbulbs, we’ve insulated the roof, we’ve put water conservation devices on our taps. The low-hanging fruit is done,” Piper said in a previous interview.
Coun. Dan Gibson, who fully supports efforts to battle climate change on a local level, is one of several council members opposed to declaring a climate emergency.
In a recent opinion piece in the weekly Guelph MercuryTribune, Gibson said that for some “the focus still seems to remain on inserting partisan declarations into this file. Declarations that will only serve to erode our unified approach, and in the process, disregard much of the foundational work that is already taking place.
“Simply standing on the shoulders of our political supporters and shouting declarations at each other will not advance this file. Rather, it will only serve to polarize it,” Gibson wrote.
When and if it comes time to vote on May 27, the issue will also be the first real test of the new council, most notably new councillors Dominique O’Rourke and Rodrigo Goller sit.
Both Piper and Gordon have said that they have no desire to bring forth a motion that would fail.
Whether or not council reopens the previous motion would likely be the litmus test that would determine that.
