Prince Rupert Council looks to remain engaged on climate issues as part of OCP review

Prince Rupert City Councillor 
Blair Mirau carried the bulk of the
discussion on climate change themes
at Monday's Council session
(photo from City of PR)

The themes of Climate Change carved out a small part of Monday evenings Prince Rupert Council session, with Councillor Blair Mirau taking the lead in highlighting some of the measures he would like to see included as part of the long term planning that the city has embarked on.

As part of his lengthy review of planning themes on the night Mr. Mirau also expressed his enthusiasm for the city's commitment towards environmental oversight.

"I'm really encouraged to see the commitment to the Paris agreement targets.  I think that's admirable and I think we've all seen through the waves of environmental  protest obviously pre COVID, that some of these words just aren't enough that we really need to be supported by actions to get us there" -- Councillor Blair Mirau

Among some of the elements of those commitments towards climate issues, the councillor called attention to the city's plans for improvements towards the transit system and electrifying the transmission grid, which he says will reduce the environmental footprint.

Mr. Mirau also made note of some omissions from previous discussions on the OCP when it comes to climate change themes, those of District energy, particularly as to the Civic Centre, Pool, Arena and Lester Centre area, which he notes would have a tremendous capital cost but would bring fantastic long term returns on investment to save on energy costs and reduce emissions. 

He also spoke to the landfill site and the need for composting and organic diversion options, something he acknowledged would require some navigation with the Regional District.

"One of the largest sources of community emissions is obviously the landfill, which we've talked quite a lot about and has been a big priority of this council. And there is reference to recycling, but not any reference to composting or to organic diversion. And I appreciate that there's a lot of complexities obviously with the relationship with the Regional District and the Recycling Depot and how we may have to navigate that relationship.  But I'm wondering if we could not include a reference to organic diversion ... again it's a high up front capital cost to get going, but I think the long term dividend for us is not only diverting waste from the landfill, extending its life expectancy, but also turning a liability into an asset in the form of soil and I think that turning liabilities into assets is something we all know a little bit about from Watson Island so I think we could take a lesson from that' -- Councillor Blair Mirau

The reference to the city's ongoing efforts at Watson Island certainly should catch a few eyes and maybe even raise a few concerns; and if nothing else should serve as a reminder that we have not had any form of a progress update on the city's interest in that site in a number of years.

However the Monday conversation was very much one in passing, with few details provided towards his vision for tackling the climate themes; something which perhaps could be expanded on as the process towards adoption of the Official community plan moves forward.

And that was an approach that the city's contract planner Rob Buchan made note of, adding how those policy changes related to Climate change issues could be included as part of their review for the next Council meeting

Councillor Cunningham also spoke to climate themes, adding his own desire to see a European style incinerator put in place at the landfill site to reduce the impact on the footprint of the Ridley Island site and to generate energy for the area and how themes of alternative disposal methods should be added to the OCP.

"On Councillor Mirau's last two things about composting and organic diversion, those are big items and not only that, but I've often floated some sort of incinerator that is used in Europe for our landfill  and rather than using cells and polluting more land as we progress having some sort of plan in the future to get away from landfill waste and start using something that generates energy in the future, to not only run the landfill operation but anything near it ... I think it's something that I would like to see also mentioned in the OCP,  you know in the future we should be looking at alternative methods of disposals instead of landfill " -- Councillor Barry Cunningham

As Mr. Cunningham noted the call for an incinerator for the landfill site has been an oft discussed one for the City Councillor, who has been calling for that capability for a number of years.

He last brought the topic up for review during the course of a contract award for work on the landfill site back in 2018.

Mayor Lee Brain who was appointed  to the BC Climate Solution Council earlier this year often speaks to climate themes at Council, though on Monday he did not share many thoughts towards the themes on climate change measures offered up by the council members.

You can review some of the Council themes on the environment from the City's Video Archive starting at the one hour mark of the meeting.

For a wider overview of Monday's Council Session see our Council Timeline Feature here.

Further notes on past City Council sessions can be explored through our Council Discussion archive here.