North Frontenac Council Climate Change Action

John Inglis | Jan 25, 2023

North Frontenac Township Council passed a motion I brought forward in December, to state that it recognized that we are now in a climate emergency. It also agreed to receive recommendations from myself and Councillor Roy Huetl about what steps the township might take to reduce its carbon footprint in the future.

This is a major step for a small rural municipality to take- it will be meaningless if we do nothing, but it’s an opening for some innovative ideas and actions. We all recognize that atmospheric carbon dioxide is a global problem and that the few things we might do will not change anything noticeably. But the position I take is that this is not an excuse to forget about our collective responsibility, to continue blithely along as if there’s not a problem. A multitude of tiny actions creates a large action.

Roy and I are not experts.

It quickly becomes evident that we are surrounded by experts however, and we’re starting to use some of them. Rolly Montpellier is a former resident of Buckshot Lake, now living in Carp, who runs a blog on climate issues. He had some specific ideas in a Zoom meeting last week. Noelle Reeve is the planner for Tay Valley township, who has just started a home energy retrofit plan locally, funded by the federal government. We could access some of those federal funds as well by signing on to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ ‘Green Municipal Fund’. Steve Lapp is a retired professor from St. Lawrence College who ran their renewable energy program. He is coming to our February 24 Council meeting to give a presentation on electric vehicles. The public is invited to this 9am event at the township office. I learned that Lanark County is awarding rebates to its residents for electric car purchases, in addition to the $5000 federal rebate for ‘reasonably priced’ vehicles. Perhaps our County should consider something similar.

With each passing year we see more evidence of the destructive results of a world that is warming due to human activity releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This township has already recognized that weather events are becoming more severe and unpredictable, and are due to a quickly changing climate. For example, our roads department and emergency services have both considered strategies for adapting to what is known to be coming- more severe and unpredictable weather events.

Other municipalities, including Ottawa and Kingston, have officially recognized that there is a climate emergency happening right now, and that they will attempt to introduce policies and practises to mitigate climate change by reducing CO2 production within their jurisdictions. Tay Valley Township has formed a climate change working group that is tasked with proposing real ideas to Council. We all recognize that mitigation is a global challenge that will not be solved by actions only at the municipal level. At the same time, seeing the recent completion of the COP 27 meeting in Egypt, the 27th such meeting in a world where global CO2 output is still rising, we witness that global action is simply not in place yet. As minimal as our local efforts may be, they are important in demonstrating to ourselves and to the tax-paying public that we all recognize the enormity of this looming crisis and are attempting to do something about it. It is Council’s role as leaders in the community to make a bold statement and to take whatever action we can.

(Editors note – the resolution passed by North Frontenac Council in December:

“That Council recognizes that the world is facing a climate emergency, where global average temperatures are rising due to continued burning of fossil fuels.

And that this temperature rise will have severe and devastating consequences for people everywhere, including in this township.

And that the township state its intention to consider climate change mitigation actions in future decision making processes.

And That Council will form a Task Force called ‘Climate Change Working Group’, with two Councillors as members plus at least two members of the public, to make recommendations to Council.”