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| Mayor Lee Brain expanded on some of the City's Climate Action goals as part of the discussion at council Monday evening |
An opportunity to seek access to over 100,000 dollars in grant money towards climate action goals was approved by City Council on Monday evening, as the council members authorized application for a funding request through the UBCM.
The City's Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller provided the synopsis of the city's plans on Monday, providing some background from a report prepared for the Council Meeting by one of the city's planners, Myfannwy Pope.
Noting that the proposed city project would build on climate commitments in the City of Prince Rupert's 2021 Official Community Plan, which specifically identifies the objective to develop a plan for climate change adaptation.
The City's request towards grant money totals 103,000, with the City anticipating in house expenses of 16,800 dollars towards staff time and engagement platform subscription.
The documentation notes that the project would not proceed without the external funding.
Towards what could be accomplished from the project if it moves forward, the full scope of the expectations for the plan can be found in the application included in the report.
The full application package can be reviewed as part of the Report to Council available through the Council Agenda for Monday night, starting on page .
In comments Councillor Adey offered his full support for the application.
"I'm in support of this, I've felt that this issue is of critical importance. I've felt this way for a long time, so I'm really pleased to see a practical step on the horizon in terms of moving us in the right direction in the climate change initiative.
I'm also encouraged by the fact that it allows us to develop this initiative in a way that supports the other things that we're trying to deal with.
I think it will create some cohesion between a number of different things that we're working on"
The Councillor also observed how he was looking forward to seeing how the initiatives from other communities that could be reviewed have progressed; as well as to made note of the timeline limitations for the application, but was reassured by the Corporate Manager that the application met the deadline requirement.
Councillor Cunningham noted how much of the industry is not within control of the city and sought out some corporation elements to the framework.
"Most of our heavy industry isn't under our control, it's under the Port's Control.
And I know they're working towards the same goal we are, but I think it's something we should look at as a cooperation for low carbon from the Port as well.
Because they're the ones that have the most of the heavy industry on their sites and we have no control of that. So we can bring in a lot of different frameworks and that, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be followed by Port Corporations or that"
Towards the Councillors comments the Mayor observed how he viewed the process moving forward.
"I think what this will do is create a process where we can have that kind of engagement, not just with them but with the entire community. You know under the OCP that's part of the actions of the OCP this then would kick off towards the funding level because there's so many aspects to this"
Mayor Brain followed that observation, by listing a number of the elements towards Climate action that the City could realize in the future.
"Local food production, local energy production, electrification of the fleet. You know, Net Zero buildings and the new step code that is going to be implemented where all buildings are going to have to have zero emissions coming 2030.
There's a variety of things that have to happen. So all of that though has to be within cost considerations right?
We've got waste treatment solution that we're moving forward with, wot the pilot project for the Natural Capital solution, which would be heavily reduced emissions for this community.
If we were going to go with a more mechanical solution, then you know we would probably have a lot more oil and gas dependancy on that, where here, we're going to use nature to treat the waste, if that's successful.
These are the types of things we are doing.
You know you have the dam, we purposely raised the Dam higher. Council elected to do that for the future potential of electric generation of that dam, that would produce you know renewable energy for the community and could also be a revenue generator for the community.
You know, How do you double down on infrastructure replacement but also meeting climate goals.
This then would take it to the next step, where we need to do a full robust, engagement and costing and all that kind of stuff.
You know, this will probably be a few year process for sure, but it needs to get moving and if we get funding for it, then it's not taxpayers paying for the process which is great"
Councillor Cunningham picked up on a few of the themes from the Mayor, observing how there could be a number of benefits to enhance the quality of life in the community and perhaps even provide improve the tax situation.
You can review the presentation of the report and the commentary from the Council membership through the City's Video Archive starting at the 52 minute mark.
The City's Official Community Plan was approved in May of 2021, you can review the document here to explore some of the elements outlined by the Mayor during his commentary.
As well, a past Climate presentation from the Mayor and Ken Shaw from 2018, provides a guide to some of the other climate action themes that Council has been exploring.
Further items related to planning can be reviewed here.
More notes on Monday's Council Session can be explored through our Council Timeline.
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