GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor from Guelph resident, David J.A. Douglas, regarding the provincial government's role in climate change legislation:
I would like to encourage all members of my elected local government to register their opposition to the Ontario Provincial government’s decision to reverse our belated and overdue progress in addressing climate change and invest in gas plant facilities for electricity.
While this decision is beyond the remit of local government in this country, we can contribute to its reversal. And its reversal is imperative as we have somewhere within 8-12 years left to stem the further escalation in global temperatures, which will have a devastating impact on the world’s population. Regardless of which jurisdiction you live in - a municipality, a province, a country.
The City of Guelph does have a morally and otherwise legitimate stake in this choice, because your constituency, the people you represent on a daily basis, have a legitimate moral stake here.
And it is antithetical to everything you, as a local government, have being doing to alleviate the disastrous effects of climate change. Here, your province, our province is working against our common interests.
Is it just a gesture, another symbol? There is an element of symbolism to a council motion and vote against this retrogressive choice. And symbolism matters. It matters to our community. That is why we wear poppies, that is why we reflect on the original Indigenous occupiers of these lands, our current home. That is why we want people to know that if we could, we would hug them. Symbols as gestures of concern and caring matter. They matter hugely to the community.
Democracy, fragile as it may be, allows us voice. Use it. As our representatives, let the Provincial government know that this decision is not o.k. with this community. There are alternatives. It is retrogressive and unacceptable.
Thank you for your attention.
David J.A. Douglas
