Councillor Leanne Piper could barely contain her disappointment Monday night.
Things had been building for several weeks in anticipation of her motion coming to council calling for the City of Guelph to officially “declare a climate emergency.”
Instead, council voted 7-6 to change the wording of her motion, "watering it down" according to some, and then voted 9-4 in favour of “acknowledging a climate crisis.”
“Words matter,” Piper said of the changes to her motion.
“It completely alters the intent … it is not enough to ‘acknowledge.’ It’s absolutely meaningless.”
Earlier the Ward 5 councillor had said the vote was a “historic moment,” but it didn’t turn out that way.
“Local, municipal is where action happens. It’s where we take a stand,” said Piper in delivering the motion.
7-6 vote to change the word "declare" to "acknowledge" completely alters the intent of the climate emergency motion. A sad moment in Council history. I've voting against the amended motion, because sometimes leadership is a line in the sand about intent and vision. #wordsmatter
— Leanne Piper Ward 5 (@leannepiper) May 28, 2019
Coun. Dan Gibson proposed the alterations to Piper's motion.
A vocal opponent of the term “declare a climate emergency,” Gibson said the new wording was something more members of the community could support.
Gibson said “declaring a climate emergency” was too radical,
“The word ‘crisis’ is a swap out of ‘emergency’ so we can have more consensus on the terminology,” Gibson said.
"I'm trying to build consensus."
Coun. James Gordon called it an attempt to water down Piper’s motion.
Coun. Mike Salisbury said it was “watered down and weak.”
Coun. Bob Bell said that no matter what the wording is, council needs to be unanimous in its decision.
“If it’s not unanimous, then there will be doubt,” Bell said prior to voting on the motion.
The votes turned out to be anything but unanimous.
The changes in wording of Piper’s motion passed 7-6 (For: Cam Guthrie, Dan Gibson, Bob Bell, Rodrigo Goller, Christine Billings, Dominique O’Rourke, Mark MacKinnon; Against: Leanne Piper, James Gordon, Cathy Downer, Phil Allt, June Hofland, Mike Salisbury).
The final vote on the newly-worded acknowledging a crisis motion saw it pass 9-4: (For: Cam Guthrie, Dan Gibson, Rodrigo Goller, Bob Bell, Cathy Downer, Mark MacKinnon, Dominique O’Rourke, Christine Billings, June Hofland; Against: Leanne Piper, Mike Salisbury, James Gordon, Phil Allt).
There were originally 23 delegates registered to speak at Monday’s council meeting, but some didn’t show and others, including several high school students, left early when the agenda item wasn’t heard until almost three hours into the council meeting.
There were some prickly moments, such as the mayor repeatedly asking the three-quarters-filled gallery to maintain decorum, or when the mayor got prickly with frequent sparring partner and delegate Susan Watson, who he felt went off-topic to take a personal dig at him.
But overall it was a litany of people passionate about their council making a statement and showing leadership by declaring a climate emergency.
“The urgency of the climate crisis is a reality, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not,” said Rev. John Lawson.
“It’s daunting for any of us, and yet it seems the leadership that’s required from you, and other leaders in our democracy, has never been more needed than it is now,” Lawson said.
Coun. Downer pointed out to Lawson that there were “zero delegations” when council was deliberating its climate targets, yet now there are many delegates here looking for council to make a statement.
“What i’m struggling with is that people are looking for a statement, rather than action, here tonight,” Downer said.
Watson said it would be hypocritical of council to declare a climate emergency after refusing to reconsider moving up its carbon emissions net zero goal of 2050 to 2035.
Council voted earlier in the evening against a motion to reconsider the 2050 decision.
“A mindset of a climate emergency needs to be considered in every single decision that this council makes,” Watson said.
Guelph Federal Green Party candidate Steve Dyck said Guelph should declare a climate emergency “to respect our young people.”
“They are asking us to declare a climate emergency,” Dyck said.
Horeen Hassan of the University of Guelph’s Central Student Association, said “this is not the time to say we’ve done what we can, and just stop there.
“If democracy truly matters, listen to the people,” Hassan said.
Evan Ferrari of eMERGE Guelph said his generation has failed the younger generation.
Three high school students spoke passionately about their situations, saying how they feel helpless that those in a position to make change aren’t.
“It’s not highly apparent what the city is doing,” said Indigo Kim about how young people feel removed from the city’s efforts on climate change.
