Don’t wait for governments to lead the way on taking action against climate change, it’s up to the community to show how it’s done.
That’s among the key messages delivered Saturday during a ‘Community Climate Forum’ held at the Italian Canadian Club of Guelph.
“All of the environmental initiatives in Guelph that we’ve had have always started with the community – it never starts with the municipality, the province or the federal government,” said Evan Ferrari, executive director of eMERGE Guelph, one of five guest speakers.
“We all have that power to act,” noted Bryan Ho-Yan, the city’s manager of corporate energy and climate change, another guest speaker. “Every bit does help.”
The event, hosted by the Guelph Climate Action Network and the Guelph/Wellington Coalition for Social Justice, saw about 150 people hear-out the guest speakers, followed by group discussions about the individual efforts they can all make in their daily lives.
Carbon emission reductions can be made in the modes of transportation we choose, at our homes and in our workplaces, participants heard. They can also be influenced by how we choose to spend our money, the foods we eat and the government agendas we support … or don’t.
Community initiatives that preceded governmental action include habitat restoration. waste management, water conservation, recycling and more.
“It starts in the community, but then we institutionalize,” said Ferrari.
Climate change impacts aspects of our everyday lives, from floods and power outages to respiratory illnesses, anxiety and more, including municipal infrastructure damage, Ho-Yan pointed out.
“All that hits our bottom line in terms of money – the cost of living, insurance prices going up, food,” he said. “This is a Guelph problem as well as a global problem.”
Municipal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions include community centre upgrades, expanding trail and bicycle networks, treating wastewater and more, explained Ho-Yan, noting corporate emissions come from things such as buses, recreation centres, public works, street lighting, etc.
Though city council has a stated goal of seeing the community reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, emissions are rising, the city manager added, noting a report showing elevated levels in 2022 will soon be released.
He urged people to take public transit instead of drive private vehicles, and to use recreation centre pools rather than build backyard pools, as examples of making the most of municipal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“We (the City of Guelph) are part of the community and we want to work with the community,” Ho-Yan said. “We have to right-size our lives. Everybody wants more, faster, bigger. We’re in a race (to reduce emissions) and I don’t see how a U-turn is going to help.”
The people most negatively affected by climate change are the people who contribute to it the least, said Horeen Hassaan, a member of the Guelph Environmental Justice Collective and Water Watchers.
“We know that the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue, but rather it touches every aspect of society,” she said. “It is a labour issue, a race issue, a gender issue, a human rights issue and so on and so forth.
“And in so many ways, climate change is also a class war.”
It’s the “capitalist class” which produces and profits from the climate crisis, Hassaan continued, adding “literally everyone else” suffers as a result.
“If we are actually serious about tackling the climate crisis, we must divest from the systems of oppression that maintain the status quo and manufacture such results,” she said. “On a global level, we must confront these systems of power and oppression.”
Ferrari and others urged forum participants to speak out against a series of potential climate change project cuts proposed by city staff as part of a plan to lessen the currently set 9.79 per cent property tax hike for 2025.
The proposed cuts, with a value of $15.5 million, were put forward in an April 5 report that responds to an order from Mayor Cam Guthrie to bring the tax increase to four per cent or less.
“Essentially, almost anything related to the environment is on this list for budget cuts,” Ferrari said, noting that includes enhancement plans for transit, the urban forest and parks, downtown parking, waste, water and more. “It’s the biggest punch in the face that we’ve had on any environmental initiative that we have accomplished over the last 50 years.
“If you want to kill anything environmental, do it with a budget, do it under the shadow of darkness out there,” he added.
Speaking to the city budget issue, Coun. Leanne Caron told the crowd it's the allocation of dollars which turn plans into actions.
“Plans are great. Actions are great. But it fails or succeeds at implementation and implementation doesn’t happen without resources,” she said. “If you don’t put resources to change, those actions and plans aren’t going anywhere.”
The proposed budget cuts for 2025 haven’t been put into effect at this point, Caron added, explaining that’s something that will be discussed in the fall as the mayor’s budget moves through the confirmation process.
With the exception of Enbridge Gas, he said all utilities pay the city some form of revenue. If Enbridge were to pay same municipal fees as required in Alberta, that would boost municipal coffers by up to $9 million and ease the financial pressure being felt.
“That single action (of the mayor ordering a lessened tax increase for 2025) brought us from being an environmental leader to a lagger,” said Ferrari. “We have all the solutions that we need to fight climate change today, they’re here. What we need is the political will to make it happen.”
