Receive the Guelph’s Community Call to Climate Action report. That Council approve staff actions to support the community in taking collective climate action as described in…

2:23:18over to you great good afternoon I'm anti-villico general manager for facilities and energy management

2:23:26I wanted to share some introductory comments to get us started here so the community call to

2:23:30climate action provides key areas of focus and priority climate actions to reduce greenhouse

2:23:35gas emissions throughout the community that work towards Guelphs community race to zero targets

2:23:41this work is aligned with the city's strategic plan theme of the environment

2:23:46and empowering the community to help create a sustainable city as well as the CAO's objective

2:23:51around relationships we are stronger together the community call to climate action is exactly

2:23:57about being stronger together reporting on race to zero target progress and how the city

2:24:03convenes the community towards community climate action given the magnitude complexity and shared

2:24:08ownership of the race to zero targets a single entity cannot be expected to solve a community

2:24:13wide challenge of fighting climate change implementation of action is needed by all

2:24:19the community called climate action is a stepping stone to a significant amount of collective work

2:24:23that will be needed for the long term the purpose is to bring focus for all of the different players

2:24:29in the community on what needs to be done so there's a role for everyone to play here that

2:24:34includes us as individuals corporately as the city of Guelph as well as not for profit organizations

2:24:40and businesses in the community on how we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in our daily lives

2:24:46and operations and help the community to be more sustainable so the city is looking to work with

2:24:52the community as a member of the community to bring greater focus on community climate action

2:24:57and work collectively towards race to zero goals so I'll just hand it over here to Brian O'Yam

2:25:03manager of energy and climate change to run through the rest of presentation thank you

2:25:18looking for the clicker thing

2:25:20was that okay great okay good afternoon uh so my name is Brian O'Yam and I am the manager of the

2:25:27energy and climate change team so the energy and climate change team has built up capacity over time

2:25:34and is a dedicated team of doers that consist of myself and five other talented individuals

2:25:40that project manage different energy and climate change initiatives the variety of work that we

2:25:45do pushes us to wear many different hats one day managing the design and construction of a

2:25:51zero carbon building the next supporting sustainable policies and then over to working with community

2:25:57members to promote and share information about the Guelph-Grenard Homes residential energy retrofit

2:26:03program that said having this wide exposure to different challenges allows us to leverage

2:26:10our interdisciplinary skill set today I'm here to present Guelph's community called to climate

2:26:16action what is the community called the climate action simply put it's all about collective action

2:26:27because that is the only way we can address climate change at a community scale no single entity can

2:26:33do it alone the first step to getting collective climate action is to get everyone in Guelph

2:26:39to have a shared understanding of the climate change problem which is our wasteful use of

2:26:44energy and fossil fuels and how that generates greenhouse gas emissions with a solid understanding

2:26:51we can gain more focus on what we all have to work towards to really affect change the call to

2:26:59community climate action clearly defines how we can fight climate change and the priority climate

2:27:04actions to meaningfully achieve carbon reductions and with this focus on what is needed we can

2:27:10figure out real ways to gain more momentum and support more in the community to join in on the

2:27:15action let me be clear on what the community called to climate action is not it is not the

2:27:23corporation of the city of Guelph shirking responsibility and dumping this on everyone else

2:27:28it is about coming together and working together we don't have time to waste although it feels like

2:27:34climate change has been forgotten we must remember it's still here and it affects everyone and

2:27:45everything these images around town are evidence that Guelph is seeing these impacts every day

2:27:50think of the extreme heat waves and the cooling centers that open up around the city

2:27:56the ice storm that went through here a few weeks ago or the windstorm last week

2:28:01and the amount of property damage power failure and felled trees that came from it

2:28:07with Guelph being the largest groundwater community in Canada we are vulnerable to floods and drought

2:28:12and how they impact water quality and groundwater supply historical data is telling us that global

2:28:21temperatures are climbing and at the fastest rate than ever before this is because of human

2:28:26activity our activity namely our excessive use of fossil fuels because the earth is

2:28:33because the earth is warming at such a rapid rate in such a short time whether events are

2:28:38becoming more and more extreme and this impacts health security cost it affects the social fabric

2:28:46that connects everyone here our families and our neighbors the damage we've seen from forest fires

2:28:53in jasper flash floods in toronto heat dome in bc are jarring and we need to take collective ownership

2:29:00and do what we can to lower emissions to break this ongoing cycle of disaster rebuild

2:29:07disaster rebuild and so on and so on the science is telling us that to stop climate change from

2:29:19getting much worse we need to hold global temperatures to not increase by more than 1.5 degrees celsius

2:29:25to keep this temperature limit we need to really slow down how much greenhouse gas emissions we're

2:29:30putting up into the atmosphere that is what the paris agreement is where countries around the world

2:29:35signed up and committed to reducing emissions from the international stage to the federal to the

2:29:41provincial there are commitments that line up it's realized that cities have a huge play in the

2:29:48climate change fight concentrated in cities our major our majority of our populations buildings

2:29:56industries cars cities like guelph are a hive of activity and where many emissions are generated

2:30:03and with this concentration is the potential where collective action across many sectors can take

2:30:09place as such the city of guelph joined the united nations race to zero campaign where we have committed

2:30:17to rally the community to reduce community emissions per capita on a per capita basis by 63

2:30:25percent against the 2018 baseline by 2030 and to become a net zero carbon community by 2050

2:30:38here's the latest data that shows the progress that has been made the brown graph on the left

2:30:44is looking at emissions on a per person basis in guelph we have seen some reduction about an

2:30:50eight percent drop when comparing 2023 to 2018 emissions sorry per capita emissions but we still

2:30:58have a massive chunk to take out to get to the 2030 race to zero target which is only five years away

2:31:05the more concerning thing is that after the drop during covid in 2020 emissions are climbing back

2:31:10up and going in the wrong direction the colored graph on the right is the same information but

2:31:17shown in total emissions by using population projections the different colors represent the

2:31:23different sectors in the community from where the emissions are coming from starting from the bottom

2:31:29and going up in dark blue is residential orange is commercial and institutional green is industrial

2:31:37light blue is transportation and purple is fugitive emissions from waste and waste and wastewater

2:31:45so i live in guelph i work in guelph i've studied at the university of guelph my kids go to school

2:31:52here i drive around town and i buy stuff and generate waste so what i'm getting at here

2:32:00is that many aspects of my life adds to every single one of these colors and how big that bar

2:32:06and ends up and it just it it it just isn't me the same applies to everybody here and the

2:32:15rest of guelph we can find ourselves contributing to many of these colored uh colored blocks in the bar graph

2:32:22so the take home message we need to come together and figure out how we can lower our

2:32:26emissions and get to the 2030 target which works out to eliminating about 500 000 tons of carbon

2:32:32emission carbon dioxide equivalent to give perspective burning 400 liters of gas which

2:32:39can be used to drive about 4 000 kilometers makes about one ton of emissions now that we've seen the

2:32:49data and have a better understanding of where emissions are coming from what can we do to drive

2:32:54those bar graphs down these are key focus areas that reduce emissions we can do better with our

2:33:01buildings new and old and we can think about how we design and construct them but also how we use

2:33:07them every day we can lower costs to run businesses by decarbonizing deep carbonization being more

2:33:15energy efficient on how we manufacture things or provide goods and services we can use cleaner sources

2:33:22of energy and use more sustainable ways to get around we can right size our lives and rethink

2:33:28how we can do things in a more circular way to be less wasteful and we can maintain and invest in

2:33:34guelph's natural environment as it sequesters greenhouse gas emissions and as a natural defense

2:33:39against climate change looking at these focus areas there's something for everyone there are

2:33:49everyday climate actions for anyone or any organization who works plays studies or visits guelph

2:33:54whether you're a storm fan taking a bus to the game or you've g-student renting a place with

2:34:01classmates and looking to lower their energy bill or if you're working in the handland business park

2:34:06and have ideas on how to optimize a manufacturing process or a contractor installing insulation

2:34:11on a building these all add up to the collective action towards guelph's race to zero targets

2:34:22i like to go back and take a deeper look at the sectoral breakdown of where the emissions are coming

2:34:26from we see that the emissions are pretty evenly spread out amongst the residential

2:34:31institutional commercial and industrial sectors transportation has the largest chunk and fugitive

2:34:38emissions from waste and wastewater come in at around five percent by taking a sector-based

2:34:44approach we can hone further in on the key focus areas and determine priority climate actions that

2:34:49will drive emissions down and help meet the 2030 target remember we're looking for 500

2:35:00500 000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent these priority climate actions across the different

2:35:06sector across the different sectors can get us there for the residential sector we need to get

2:35:1340 000 households to change over to heat pumps this will be a reduction of 80 000 tons and for all

2:35:19new buildings we want them to be net zero carbon so we aren't adding more emissions to the problem

2:35:23the industrial sector must look at optimizing processes and equipment and reduce emissions by

2:35:28100 000 tons the commercial and institutional businesses similarly take a look at their

2:35:34operations and reduce emissions by 100 000 tons as well for transportation replacing 60 000 gas

2:35:41guzzlers with sustainable transportation alternatives or electric vehicles eliminates

2:35:45around 190 000 tons of carbon dioxide and managing the fugitive emissions that come from processing

2:35:52waste and wastewater will reduce emissions by another 30 000 tons adding these all up get us

2:35:59the 500 000 tons that we need to get to 2030 with these sectors sorry with these sector focused

2:36:08climate actions we can also think about how to tap into what motivates the different sectors

2:36:14for example the way we talk with residents about installing heat pumps is completely different

2:36:20from how we talk with plant managers we're installing variable speed chillers

2:36:24to cool their the plastic extrusion machines we need to understand the audience and figure out

2:36:32where the pinch points are to really get at emissions reduction you're probably wondering

2:36:40how does the corporation in the city of guelph in all this when it comes to community-wide emissions

2:36:47municipalities are in a unique position since they have different connection points with varying

2:36:51levels of influence the federation of Canadian municipalities articulated quite well with the

2:36:57diagram on the screen the city owns and operates a bunch of infrastructure this is where a lot of

2:37:03the direct control can happen as we invest more into infrastructure to get corporate emissions down

2:37:09but also build out infrastructure to help others get their emissions down too so when you think of

2:37:14bike lanes or public transit and helping the community out that way moving to the indirect

2:37:21control there these are things like plans and policies that can be developed to help encourage

2:37:26community members to reduce emissions from their activities a good example is the work going on

2:37:31with the green development standard finally there's the limited or no control and these are things

2:37:37like having residents or businesses actually reduce their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions

2:37:42from their operations the corporation currently does a lot of work in all of these levels and will

2:37:51continue to do so and evaluate new effective ways to work alongside the community to get community

2:37:57wide emissions down by understanding these levels of control we can be more effective at designing

2:38:04appropriate methods to activate other members in the community that may be sitting on the fence

2:38:12here are some real actions where the corporation is leveraging its relationships finding meaningful

2:38:16ways to contribute to the community called the climate action and provide support to the community

2:38:23we're working with utilities to gather up data up-to-date data on the emissions and sharing it

2:38:29with the whole community so they can know how things are going administering the youth climate

2:38:34action fund and awarding those aged 15 to 24 and how that will help grow new climate leaders

2:38:41working shoulder to shoulder with industry and businesses learning about their climate work

2:38:47their climate work and sharing lessons learned through the new local ici and institutional

2:38:53commercial industrial stocktake climate change summit that we held last year and continue and

2:38:58will continue to do so building climate knowledge throughout the community by working with strong

2:39:04and passionate community groups that are trusted by their members and networks and i'd be remiss for

2:39:11not mentioning the gulf greener homes program and supporting real action taken on by hundreds of

2:39:16gulf households we recognize that climate change is extremely complex and it can be daunting the

2:39:24energy and climate change team is positioned to convene the community and work together as part

2:39:28of the community to help navigate towards our race to zero in closing climate change is here

2:39:42and there is no time to waste in getting community emissions down we need to work together and answering

2:39:47the community call to climate action thank you thank you mr. hoyan for your presentation

2:39:55we have one delegate um and we're going to go to him before we hand things over to us um so

2:40:03mr. david douglas if you could come up david mr. douglas is from gulf climate action network

2:40:10mr. douglas you've been here before you know you know the rules you've got five minutes

2:40:15um over to you thank you thank you thank you madam chair and members of council for this

2:40:22opportunity well once again you've seen the scale and the urgency of the tasks ahead of us ahead

2:40:31of all of us and what i would like to do is to remind council that there is now a very active

2:40:37cadre of community organizations and individuals selflessly working on the challenges associated

2:40:45with the climate crisis as they apply to our community i'd like to remind you that these

2:40:52constitute a major grassroots nonpartisan informed and active resource that the city as our community's

2:41:02local government should look to as a partner collaborator to work towards our common net

2:41:10zero targets and i would like to encourage city council and your staff to actively reach out

2:41:17and to connect and co-invest with this cohort of dedicated and committed community organizations

2:41:26among these organizations with the climate crisis as their central focus we have e-merge

2:41:32well known to you we have now seniors for climate action or scan the gulf chapter of this national

2:41:39organization and the gulf climate action network or gcan of which i'm proud to be a founding board

2:41:46member there are others that are addressing the challenges of the crisis and these include for

2:41:52example the gulf wellington coalition for social justice opyrgic university get involved with gulf

2:42:00or gig and happily green drinks there are several others of course active in many aspects of

2:42:08environmental issues water local food systems and other facets of sustainable development

2:42:14but those that i've listed here are the main ones with the central focus on the climate crisis

2:42:21and especially important they are focusing on community-based bottom-up participatory approaches

2:42:28to to the climate crisis mitigation and adaptation as an example of gcans current roster of activities

2:42:37i can highlight the climate circles and i'll elaborate on these if you've got questions

2:42:43the frescs another initiative we're undertaking continuing input to the community plan

2:42:50design management and implementation of community forums like last year's at the italian

2:42:56canadian center ongoing community communications through the media and her own newsletter heat pump

2:43:04social events community films earth day community activities a community climate survey that we

2:43:12conducted last year and more recently input to the current green development standards process

2:43:20that the city is thoroughly involved in and there's more to come city council as a council has

2:43:27already successfully implemented a progressive approach to city community collaboration via

2:43:33as just one example the partnership approach with the gulf hiking trails club of which i'm a member

2:43:40this is one where the city does not have to be in charge where powers funding capacity to implement

2:43:47and actually get concrete actions underway are shared and devolved it's a wonderful example

2:43:55of what really is community-led city partnered initiatives own investing together and i want

2:44:04therefore to strongly recommend that city council continue to encourage and direct staff

2:44:11to work with us in gcan and other community organizations so that together we can address

2:44:18the challenges of the climate crisis the challenges of mitigation and adaptation please assign staff

2:44:28time provide meeting facilities make critical information available provide convener and other

2:44:35support functions contribute financially and actively partner with us in addressing these

2:44:42community-wide challenges and opportunities thank you thank you mr. douglas for your delegation

2:44:51and thank you for your service um and the work that you do in our community um with uh with gcan

2:44:58i'm going to look to council and mr. mayor for questions i see um councillor Goller with your

2:45:04hand up councillor busetel councillor Caron let's start with councillor Goller thank you for your

2:45:10presentation mr. douglas and thank you for the work that you do with our um environmental groups

2:45:14here in the city i wanted to go back to the the list of requests that you had for the city on how we

2:45:20can work better with the organizations um i heard you mentioned that uh asking staff to work with

2:45:27organizations i believe they're already working uh with you um provide meeting facilities that was

2:45:33very clear after you said provide meeting facilities you mentioned something about a convener could you

2:45:38talk a little bit about what you meant by that yes i can give you a concrete example in our work

2:45:45on the community plan which is happily a community plan separate from as you well know the official

2:45:51plan uh we've been meeting with the community group that sits around the table and talks about

2:45:59community issues social development issues mental health issues economic development issues

2:46:05land use issues environmental issues and so on so we meet with them on an as required basis

2:46:12but it's also part of that work we've been working in moving the community plan document from its

2:46:18aspirational uh edition where it's at at the moment and helping to move from goals to concrete

2:46:27objectives as action plans that takes a lot of work but it will remain as a report on the shelf

2:46:35like so many reports unless we move from goals to action plans that will identify precisely

2:46:42what should be done to move the community in in our particular contribution towards successful

2:46:51community led uh mitigation and adaptation measures in the climate crisis so that's a specific example

2:46:59and what the city does there besides working with us through staff is providing rooms where we can meet

2:47:08the community with the community members so that's a very practical example the city can also look

2:47:15after some of the paperwork and the grunge work that goes with organizing 25 or 35 people in the same

2:47:22room on the same day at the same time and more or less together that takes a lot of work so the

2:47:28convening facilitating work that the city has done there is very constructive and very important

2:47:34and I think that's the sort of thing that can help community organizations who are running very thin

2:47:41on scarce volunteer time okay okay thank you so so to clarify it's when you say a sign a convener

2:47:48you're asking for the city of wealth to provide administrative support so that these groups can

2:47:53can work better together okay yes okay that is clear and um were there any any other um

2:48:01any other supports or requests that that you're asking for today that that that you haven't covered

2:48:07we've talked about time facilities convener was there anything else that the that you need to

2:48:14like like you said it is a significant shift going from goals and the staff presentation was very clear

2:48:19you know for example we need 40 000 homes to go into heat pumps and that will help us that is a

2:48:24target we need x number of vehicles um are there any other supports that you see from your groups

2:48:29perspectives that are needed to get us from to achieve those those targets well the current

2:48:38collaboration that is going on across a number of staff members and departments the sharing of data

2:48:46is and current research is very useful community organizations don't have their own research arms

2:48:53their own research bureaus we're all running fast and furious picking up what we can we can pick up

2:48:59case study information which is very very important from other communities what has been done what has

2:49:05been tried what has been invented or reinvented uh staff are often very aware of these things

2:49:12through the FCM through a UMA through AMO through roma other municipal organizations also professional

2:49:19organizations so ready access to information and intelligence on innovative ways of addressing these

2:49:28issues the sharing of that is is very important uh as it is going on and I think we are encouraging

2:49:36you to extend and expand on that thank you for that and and through the chair my last question

2:49:43we've talked about what the city can do to provide support and I think a big part of this is also the

2:49:48responsibility on community members to take this up and to to work with it um is there

2:49:54something else that needs to happen from the community side to actually have widespread

2:49:58understanding that this is a priority if I understand the question correctly councillor

2:50:06what we are doing and what other community organizations are doing are spreading information

2:50:13what's this all about uh being clear we're not trying to try and change the chinese government's

2:50:18policy or the american government's policies or so the mitigation we're doing like emissions reduction

2:50:24is something we can do in our own backyard in our own households and in our own businesses so

2:50:30we're sort of focusing on that the adaptation is trying to find ways as to how we might adapt

2:50:38and how neighborhood organizations how communities how streets how uh community subgroups how faith

2:50:46based organizations whatever they might be might not just talk about it and share their concerns

2:50:52and their very fears their anxieties about this issue but also try and identify ways

2:50:59by which we ourselves can do something about this retrofitting houses as one of our organizations

2:51:07that I mentioned is doing it's addressing the question of fossil fuels in schools a very tangible

2:51:15project that can be undertaken so we're working on a variety of fronts

2:51:22and we believe that greater collaboration operational collaboration with the city

2:51:28is a very good way to go and just overdo thank you thank you so much thank you chair

2:51:34thank you and I just wanted to give staff the opportunity to respond to anything that you

2:51:38heard from the delegate and the counselor in that last exchanger through you madam chair to

2:51:49counsel so we've had actually had an opportunity to have a few discussions with mr. Douglas in the

2:51:54past so we appreciate the support that he has shown us in our work I think all the things that

2:52:01mr. Douglas has mentioned are things that we are actually looking forward to

2:52:06doing more formally I think in the past we've done things and it hasn't been as formal as

2:52:11we would have liked but given the the budget discussions that we had last year and the

2:52:18commitment of this council to to the hundred re budgeting that's certainly something that we

2:52:25would like to take to take back with us and make something a little more formal on all the things

2:52:30that mr. Douglas had said so I think in short I think we're in full agreement thank you um

2:52:38counselor boosted help please thank you and through you madam chair nice to see you David

2:52:45I just have a question about G can I'm less familiar with G can you mentioned the community

2:52:50climate survey I'm not as familiar with the community climate survey just very briefly

2:52:55can you tell me what the objective of of the survey was and kind of briefly what the results were

2:53:03okay thank you through you madam chair the the central objective of the survey was just to

2:53:13get a reading as to where wealth residents were at in this issue of the climate crisis

2:53:22what do you know about it how do you feel about it on a scale of one to five what's your response to

2:53:29you know a variety of questions very simple one largely a pulse taking exercise

2:53:36the response was good the response was not statistically significant and you you'll recall

2:53:42some of those parameters in our previous lives so it can be taken as representative of the

2:53:50respondents and and the majority of the respondents expressed grave concerns about the issue of

2:53:58climate grave concerns about the lack of direction as to what we do and how we do it and how we do

2:54:04it together and these sort of things so that was the the response I suppose you might be said to

2:54:11have have confirmed what we might have intuitively expected I think concerns out there

2:54:20yes thank you and and through you madam chair my second question was

2:54:25you talked about street adaptations and I seem to recall somewhere in my brain reading about

2:54:31street climate change collective kind of efforts and the reason I raise this is not too long ago

2:54:37we talked about a tree canopies and mitigating you know heat areas and so I'm curious does G

2:54:45can or any of the other organizations have plans conversations green drinks around street adaptations

2:54:56good question thank you it would be it would be the sort of thing that would come up I mean maybe we

2:55:03would work through the folks in 10c the the neighborhood support coalition

2:55:12that might be the group you might work through but it might be something that happens organically

2:55:18in a particular neighborhood where a street gets together and they say what can we do about tree

2:55:24planting as you say the the the the the canopy we know that the city is well behind its target

2:55:31its earlier target in the question of the tree can canopy and if my recall is correct

2:55:36the the target has now been moved out to 2070 I think to reach the 40 percent canopy coverage

2:55:44so that might be an example where a group of people informally get together have a barbecue

2:55:50talk it up and say okay we're going to try and plant 50 new trees on our street the question is

2:55:57how do we do it who wants the who wants the public right away where is the city's land start and end

2:56:03and then there will be cognizant of the recent bylaw that you addressed in city council here about

2:56:09the private trees so what's the latest and greatest there but so we might we might facilitate with

2:56:18others that type of discussion and that type of initiative in some respects it's analogous to

2:56:23the community gardens we see in two rivers and now up in the st. George's park area and a number of

2:56:29other areas where all of a sudden local folks are growing local food and as I say it's no way it's

2:56:36organic but with city colleagues and others we might find a way to spark the discussion

2:56:43and encourage those types of initiatives thank you very much I think I kind of tainted your response

2:56:49I was looking more for the concrete kind of street adaptations and actions in homes and

2:56:54roofing and other things but it's a question I'll ask staff as well thank you thank you I'll have

2:57:02Karan then alt and then I'd like to get the recommendations on the floor Karan please

2:57:08Karen it's great to have this stuff again Karan I'd like to interrupt you for a moment if I can

2:57:16could you turn off your camera we can't hear your audio hear me now yes okay thank you

2:57:32thank you madam chair thank you doctor like us I know you have a long history of climate

2:57:40action activism in the community and I'm looking way way back there's gel 12 environmental leadership

2:57:48there was community energy climbing exercises we did we had our energy wells there's climate

2:57:59action at the youth level there's so many entities from the past and the present and

2:58:05potentially the future and so my question is there isn't one organization doing all of this work

2:58:16and so what I'm worried about is that we're back to where we were 20 years ago where there's a whole

2:58:23bunch of groups doing doing multiple amazing things but there isn't coordination and whether

2:58:31that's a factor of funding or whether that's a factor of leadership or whether that's a factor of

2:58:38that the climate file the climate action file is just too large we need people working on

2:58:44reducing you know residential building on the lips we need people working on active transportation

2:58:50people working on on forestry and urban planning that there's just too many files and folders

2:58:57climate action portfolio to have one singular coordinating effort just wondering if you can

2:59:05wrap that all up in a three decade long ribbon for me nicely put it is a dog's breakfast

2:59:14so that's that's well said and you're right that's the thing about the climate crisis it touches on

2:59:20everything homelessness and uneven access to wealth there are undoubtedly gender cultural

2:59:28dimensions age dimensions so you're right it bumps against everything and no one community

2:59:38organization can take the whole thing under its its belt and it likely shouldn't do it that would

2:59:45be I think quite unhealthy the distinction I would make between let's say somebody's an organization

2:59:51like GCAN wealth climate action network let's say as against opyrg our colleagues in opyrg is

2:59:57that they are looking at quite a number of other things as well issues of social justice distribution

3:00:04gig like involved wealth are very much concerned about what they might describe as the democratic

3:00:11deficit in our community voter turnout political participation and other issues and not surprisingly

3:00:20some aspects of the climate crisis and the challenges you know end up on their portfolio

3:00:27and I could continue but you're you're right there's a small number of organizations that don't own

3:00:34file never will never should but we have purposefully taken the climate crisis and the issues of

3:00:42mitigation and adaptation as our centerpiece so we're not going to talk directly about water

3:00:49as such we're not going to re-engage on the river systems discourse which is another 10 to 15

3:00:56years we're not going to talk about relevant matters like residential densities and the

3:01:02changing profile of this urban community that has a direct impact on sustainability on energy

3:01:10use on the walkable neighborhoods and other things but most certainly directly a direct impact

3:01:16on how we respond to the climate crisis we bump against these but we'll try and keep as our focus

3:01:22the question of community-based mitigation and community-based adaptation

3:01:31having said that there's always an ongoing conversation in the community about do we need

3:01:36an apex organization do we need a sort of a hub that pulls all of these pieces together and that

3:01:43conversation comes and goes and it's a balance between expending scarce energies on constituting

3:01:50you know the apex organization as against getting on with the work at hand which itself is overwhelming

3:02:01thank you um Councillor Caron does that answer your question you still have a floor

3:02:07great okay and next up and lastly is Councillor Allt over to you thank you very much chair

3:02:13clonson through you to mr. Douglas mr. Douglas I appreciate your comments about the enthusiasm

3:02:20of the community but regrettably and I'll ask more complicated questions to staff but on the same vein

3:02:27I'm somewhat cynical of our capacity to actually meet these aspirational goals so I have a simple

3:02:33question for you when I look at the charts that are presented have we missed our 2030 aspirational goals

3:02:41I in a way I can come through I can't answer that I give you my my guesstimate uh my my my

3:02:53personal guesstimate not speaking from my colleagues in G can or other colleagues

3:02:58is that no I think we are way behind where we should be quite significantly behind where we

3:03:05should be in emissions uh reduction and in other facets of this of this challenge uh

3:03:15mentioned was made of the Paris Agreement you know 10 years old plus and and other commitments and

3:03:22Canada as a whole local government or municipal Canada as a whole and ourselves in particular

3:03:28in my view uh are moving very very very slowly we're slow learners and as one of our previous

3:03:39activist community colleagues used to say we're awaiting the kick in the head before we get the

3:03:46message that's rather putting it rather bluntly but that's my view we have more than a more than

3:03:55enough work to do quickly thank you very much hopefully that will not lead to a permanent concussion

3:04:06thank you councillor art and thank you mr. douglas for your delegation um so it's back to us now

3:04:12we have two recommendations can I have a mover and a seconder I see downer and um uh dollar

3:04:20and I will go to questions to staff on the presentation I'll start a list Bucitil downer alt

3:04:28Koran Galler thank you um this question is for uh through you madam chair uh through uh to mr

3:04:37Ho Yan just about the presentation I really like the sector-based approach I think that is a logical

3:04:43way uh to organize this and I you know I take to heart the sphere of influence as well and I

3:04:50I asked this a long time ago to the mayor but I'm going to ask it to staff um for me it's a low hanging

3:04:57fruit it's the broader public sector which you've kind of put in with institutions institutions

3:05:04and companies industry and so my question is uh we already have deep relationships with a

3:05:10broader public sector and I'm thinking of university college school boards and hospitals

3:05:15around things like purchasing and all those kinds of conversations um and to what councillor

3:05:22Koran and I believe mr uh douglas also said what is missing for me is the who leads who convenes

3:05:29who plans who holds you know accountable who is the one that holds up the report card and I'm not

3:05:36suggesting for the big slice of that cake all the layers but even just for the broader public

3:05:42sector where we have common public interests and values as a starting point so can you explain

3:05:49to me the sector-based approach and where the broader public sector fits into that and is there

3:05:56an opportunity through the systems that already exist for leadership you know convening planning

3:06:04holding accountable and that report my background is 16 years in the upper grand district school

3:06:10board is the school board and through education we have our own accountability it feels to me

3:06:16that the broader public sector has had conversations is there a way to you know roll up the impact

3:06:24just even for the public sector in this approach sorry for the long question um to you chair uh

3:06:33to the councillor um I'm just going to clarify on that on the graph so the data there are some

3:06:40constraints as to how how we receive the data as it comes from the utilities so that was the

3:06:46reason why in terms of institutional and commercial being grouping grouped that is why the resolution

3:06:53of that data that said though um understanding that the broader public service uh does is a big

3:07:01contributor to that that piece of the pie um and that's what we did and that's what we continue to

3:07:08do so back in november through our local stock take we actually broke those two groups up more on

3:07:15the industrial side as as as an event to meet and talk and speak kind of industrial speak

3:07:22look at particular projects in the nature of work that they do similarly with the institutional

3:07:26commercial it was more focused on those institutional um partners so we had folks like

3:07:32connoisseur college university of guelph we had the upper grand district school board and we had the

3:07:38wellington catholic school board uh we invited uh guelph general hospital and others to also

3:07:43participate the county was also there as well um aside from that formal event there's ongoing

3:07:51conversations that we have as well so i regularly meet with dilip and the team at upper grand district

3:07:56school board and really talk about how we lack of a better word share battle scars in terms of what

3:08:04what we're doing with projects bringing it down to kind of that ground floor level um there are

3:08:09things that we can share in a real in a real way you know we're dealing with air handling units in

3:08:16our facilities they are also as well and so that's where that sector-based approach also really

3:08:23helps because and and and also the team that we have with the energy and climate change team

3:08:29is that we're talking shop and we're talking from experience and doing projects and we can

3:08:36provide those parallels to those say if it is in in the institutional sector

3:08:42so i hope that that helps councillor i'm going to infer then therefore the the response to my

3:08:51question through you madam chair is who leads convenes plans holds accountable is it you and

3:08:57your team and the city that leads convenes and pulls together i'm just speaking about broader

3:09:02public sector not you know in its entirety is it you and your team because as i said there are

3:09:09you know everyone does um uh utility audits all sorts of things you know it is is that your team

3:09:16that's doing it for the broader public sector through you chair to councillor busattel um there

3:09:24are elements that we are convening we are committed to having that local stock take every year um and

3:09:31to that point too every year we're putting up what we're terming as our report card that community-wide

3:09:37emissions and the sectors and saying how are we moving the needle folks and let's get all around

3:09:43together and come up with opportunities to do this and action to do it um there are there are

3:09:51more informal interactions as well so the other day i was at wellington catholic school boards

3:09:56more on the programming side of it but they're looking at their sustainability plan so there's

3:10:00a real sharing of information and seeing about how we're approaching the different tactics and

3:10:06getting uh working with our communities and engaging and engaging the the patrons for for um

3:10:13for our buildings and our services so again that local stock take is intended to be that convening

3:10:21for at that broader scale but it can't just stop there it has to happen through the daily work that

3:10:27we're doing as well and that's where those interactions are happening and that sharing of

3:10:32skills and experiences thank you i appreciate that and you know my former professor would

3:10:39appreciate the economies of scale that if you're working with universities college school boards

3:10:44hospitals there are you know staff students patrons that come through those institutions and if you

3:10:51can have that culture change kind of permeate and those conversations that would be great

3:10:56just one final question and i asked it to the delegation to the delegate is about street

3:11:01adaptations and i thought i read somewhere in a report maybe it wasn't a city report about

3:11:08municipal effort to work with streets around behavior changes changes to home kind of improvements

3:11:17and things like that um does that exist in the city not so much the tree planting that was i kind of

3:11:22took him off tangent a bit but it has that is that part of the plan at all at more the residential

3:11:28street kind of area uh through you chair to councillor busotel the intersection of climate

3:11:39change mitigation and climate change adaptation are very complex so through some of our existing

3:11:47programs like the gulf greener homes program um you know we look at heat pumps and we look at how

3:11:52they're so energy efficient they get us off of fossil fuels um they're fantastic in terms of reducing

3:11:58emissions the benefit of the the the shared benefit on the adaptation side though is it provides

3:12:04households with not only a secondary source of heat and a cleaner source of heat but it also

3:12:09provides those those households that may have not had cooling in their houses and it functions as an

3:12:16adaptation measure uh and a very strong one given that heat heat um heat waves are are big big risk

3:12:23within our our adaptation file so elements like that are brought in similarly with the insulation

3:12:30similarly with those those that's where those cross sections are so um historically like i i

3:12:36are focused with the energy and climate change team is looking at that more that mitigation side

3:12:40moving towards our targets and how reducing emissions but we're not overlooking you know the

3:12:46benefits that we provide and and that we need to adapt since climate change is here um and so then

3:12:52looking at broader measures to expand that out um similarly say through programs like the gulf greener

3:12:59homes you know outside of the city of gulf there are movements to look beyond just mitigation and

3:13:05and seeing about things about you know are there measures that can be included so these are some

3:13:11of the things that we're always looking at and and seeing if we can expand uh programs accordingly

3:13:17thank you thank you downer please thank you through you madam chair yes thanks for bringing

3:13:26this report forward i too like the the sector approach reminds me of the initial community

3:13:32energy plan which was was very much sector back when um one of the this presentation sort of

3:13:41brought me back to a tour we did with the gulf junction railway with um was it pdi yeah out on

3:13:50wood lawn and we sort of went there and we thought well you know they wanted to tell us about what

3:13:56they were doing but most of what they told us was about how they were working on greenhouse gas

3:14:02emission reductions and it was so impressive they were spending a million dollars a building to put

3:14:09on solar they were uh changing up their fleet to become much more energy efficient they were just

3:14:16all over it and that's what their presentation was and they had all the stats about their reductions

3:14:21and everything and we were all kind of blown away sitting there that that they were doing this on

3:14:26their own initiative there was no you know um nobody pushed them to do this and there was james

3:14:32gudrum's not here tonight but he was there was a take up of doing some kind of a mentoring program

3:14:39with other industries in the city and james was going to follow up on that and has that ever happened

3:14:45or is that something that we could look at with possibly the chamber of commerce involved and and

3:14:52and taking industries like that that are in the forefront of doing this uh to

3:15:02to to do those kind of mentoring programs within the city uh through chair to councillor downer

3:15:14rick at pdi is fantastic it just happened to see you know we're all impressed a real champion

3:15:21actually um and and and i mean that in every way so he presented uh shared his information at our

3:15:29local stock take in november and and these are the things that i'm saying about a few things

3:15:37we have to understand with this sector-based approach that not all sectors are created equal

3:15:44and even within the sectors they aren't so as you're saying that through say a mentorship program

3:15:48you know there is a journey that that companies have to take and and whatnot so we'll we'll take

3:15:53that back and we'll have to talk with um mr gudrum about that and and whatnot but it really

3:16:00speaks to that kind of that knowledge sharing um that's really the intention of that stock take

3:16:06and then also the seeing is believing you know they're not going to listen businesses are not

3:16:10going to listen to john q public servant they're going to listen to their industry partners

3:16:17and their competitors and that's the intention of that it's those textured communications that

3:16:22we're having in that engagement with these different sectors to get people to motivate each other and

3:16:28have have community members support community yes it would be good to he was quite interested in

3:16:34this mentorship program on on that it would be great to see that sort of move forward um

3:16:40something like that and rick was very interested as well at the time the other question i would have

3:16:45is around the waste part of um action so to reduce material waste and property sort waste

3:16:54now that we've sort of lost control of i'll call it the blue box program you know because that's our

3:16:59the blue waste um is that going to be more difficult for us to control and manage or to collect data from

3:17:13um through the through the chair to council downer so um i think whenever anything um is not

3:17:19within our control it is a little bit harder um to to manage that um we are um and as you can imagine

3:17:27we are in constant contact though um with our other municipalities and with those who now have

3:17:32taken over that um that business so we can get data from them there are other areas though that are

3:17:39our solid waste team is very active in whether it be food waste um textiles um things like that

3:17:46that they are still very much involved with um so that is how we keep keep plugged into that and

3:17:53all those um all those activities across the city whether it be through solid waste um things that

3:17:59we might be doing through engineering or planning or which tree tree planting was mentioned earlier

3:18:05so through our forestry partners um there's an opportunity now to try and um and coordinate

3:18:13all that and convene the community to make sure that those activities are are properly connected

3:18:19within the city thanks that's helpful but so with whether being out of our sort of more out of our

3:18:27control and hopefully we'll be able to collect data and eventually like sort of there there's nothing

3:18:32stopping the city though from still promoting that kind of sorting like you know um you know not

3:18:40okay that doesn't mean we just sort on that doesn't mean we just deal with garbage and and and um

3:18:48and um compost we're still going to be advocates and along and educational on the blue box

3:18:56part of it are we not um through the chair that's exactly what we would be doing so while we don't

3:19:01actually perform um the collections that doesn't mean to say that we wouldn't be actively involved

3:19:07in trying to make sure that everybody's doing what they can to sort properly through the but that

3:19:12reduces the waste that goes to waste as well so for us that's a saving yeah 100 percent yeah

3:19:19through you chaired a councillor down and I just I would like also add a bit of clarification as well

3:19:25um in the background or uh document it goes through how we've conducted our inventory for the greenhouse

3:19:31gas emissions not to get into too much detail it does look at scope one and scope two emissions

3:19:38and that being what we're burning on site using natural gas also what we're using for electricity

3:19:44scope three is very complex and that's when we're starting to get through kind of life cycle impacts

3:19:49so we're looking at you know the amount of energy it takes an amount of emissions that it generates

3:19:54to extract resources make things and then send it over to say gulf households and then the waste

3:20:02side of it as well transporting it and dealing with that so those aren't necessarily in those

3:20:08bar graphs to some degree there are some elements of it but not fully so I just wanted to make that

3:20:14clarification that bar that five percent ish bar where it's talking about waste and waste water

3:20:21um those are fugitive emissions from that so with our Eastview landfill um there's work that's

3:20:27being done to constantly to manage that upkeep of that landfill so that it's not um just spewing

3:20:34out gases and that would be a lot more harmful to the atmosphere so there's a lot of good work that

3:20:39has to be happening there and a lot of investment to to maintain and upkeep that and then similarly

3:20:45you know as we're still taking on the organic waste and and whatnot too but broadly speaking at

3:20:50an overall society perspective that's what we're saying the key focus areas is is you know we do

3:20:56have to look at our consumption it's still a problem it's not going to go away regardless if it's

3:21:00you know hitting those that that inventory directly um it's still causing emissions somewhere

3:21:08right and so that's that's why it was included in there okay great thank you thank you

3:21:14all please thank you very much chair fawson uh through you to the staff um uh just to caveat

3:21:23first of all i i truly do appreciate all of the efforts of staff on this front i i really think

3:21:29that it's a task that's worthy of some of the greek god sisyphus or uh pamethius in some sense as

3:21:35although pramesh brought us fire um i'm trying not to be despairing on this but when i look at the

3:21:42bar graphs it shows me that we clearly miss our 2030 targets uh without extreme action and there's

3:21:51a number of points that i want to ask on this but first of all on that broad question it strikes

3:21:59me that it's clear we're me we're missing 2030 am i correct or have i misinterpreted the graphs

3:22:11through chair class and to councillor Allt um many hands make late work right and there is an

3:22:24opportunity and that's why we need focus the 2030 targets are there if we hit 62 percent

3:22:35if we hit 10 percent it's better than nothing so i think the take home with the with this is

3:22:42we've got to get our butts in gear and we really have to move towards this and not be frozen by

3:22:48whether or not we're going to make it past the line or not we just got to finish this run here

3:22:53and so we have to reduce emissions and we have to work together and again focusing on that

3:23:00i do like i i dodged that question

3:23:04well in a way you did but i appreciate your camera on that as well i but i do think it is

3:23:08incredibly important for the public to hear precisely what you said that uh there is a

3:23:16significant difference between zero and 100 percent and that we are going to meet something

3:23:21at some point uh but then it gets down to the detail made reference to 500 000 tons of greenhouse

3:23:29gases when i did that i came up when i divided that by the number of people in wealth and that

3:23:33includes kids and university students i came up with approximately each person in wealth produces

3:23:39over three tons of greenhouse gas per year so the important question is how would i know how i end

3:23:49up producing or consuming three tons of gases and what can i do to to alleviate that i mean i bought

3:23:56a heat pump um you know i've got an electric car um i don't use public transit as much as i should

3:24:02but my purchasing is an aspect of it how do we deal with that in a fashion that motivates 150 000

3:24:10people to recognize that three tons of greenhouse gas is a lot of gas that we are all responsible for

3:24:22through chair to councillor Allt to that point you know and it's fantastic to hear that you've

3:24:29put through so many measures uh and and you know are reducing your personal footprint

3:24:35but we've seen it through through the delegate you know the work that g-can is doing the work

3:24:41that others are doing as well uh other other NGOs the fact that we're talking about this the

3:24:48fact that we're bringing institutional commercial industrial together to discuss this it's how do

3:24:52we help get those other 149 999 people to kind of do the same thing and so that's where we really

3:25:02need to to take it that further step in i know it again it is it is daunting um i lose a lot of

3:25:10sleep over it um but again we can't we can't stop having these conversations and that that's the

3:25:16intention of this is this is that stepping stone to be able to help those that are kind of that that

3:25:25sitting on the fence position and not sure about how to do it this now allows wherever you are

3:25:31whatever sector you're from to understand hey this means that you know if we've got workers maybe

3:25:37we should think about how they can use different ways to get to work or we can think about you

3:25:42know gaining ideas about how we're going to optimize our business or if it's if it's students how do

3:25:47we you know how do we help them reduce their ways play a role right so all of those those aspects of

3:25:54it um the priority actions are the things if we just said greenhouse gas emissions and reducing

3:26:01that 500 000 tons these are some of the things that we can do and these are the ones that are going

3:26:06to be the big reductions to get us there um i'm sorry i'm asking you the hard question and my

3:26:14cat has decided to weigh in on this uh but i think that this is really important uh when we're

3:26:21dealing with those actions one of the actions of course is getting involved with with the

3:26:25the uh guave creamer homes i think it's a great initiative and you'd make mention that there are

3:26:30hundreds of homes that uh that have bought into this and i think that's great true but when i started

3:26:35the factor this in by councillor Goller's 40 000 i'm looking at in the city of guave whether it's ggh

3:26:42or whether it's something else we're looking at a 600 million dollar investment in the community

3:26:49just for retrofitting houses and putting in heating systems that are greener is that a

3:26:55correct number or have i missed it even by a factor of 100 or something because i think i've got the

3:27:01right number uh through you chair to councillor Allt um to give perspective i'm you know the guave

3:27:13creamer homes right now has over 700 people that are that are in the program so yes it is a drop in

3:27:20the bucket um this also speaks to i guess the other discussion and we said to dinner speaking

3:27:28points this doesn't belong with one entity uh this is a community thing that everybody has to do and

3:27:34really the spirit of the the call to climate action and and thank you for all of that for all

3:27:39those statements all those comments all of the the admissions that it goes well beyond the city to

3:27:45deal with this it's it's a huge huge issue what doesn't fill me full of enthusiasm is that 3.3

3:27:52tons of greenhouse gases that we somehow need to relieve each individual in guave of i appreciate

3:28:01absolutely everything you and those who are engaged in this are doing uh and it doesn't

3:28:07matter whether it's in the city of guave or it's opyrge or mr. douglas anybody that's engaged in

3:28:11this action um is doing the tough work and thank you very very much thank you uh next is goller and

3:28:19then we have uh merigoth three oh excuse me um i'd like to correct myself uh it's actually

3:28:26ron then goller then merigoth three so my apologies thanks i think i written i happened to wait

3:28:36to the end um so i have a combination of comments and questions and um mr. hoyan you were you said

3:28:44it's okay for you to evade a question so it's okay for you to evade some of these as well

3:28:48because i'll tie you right up front that some of my questions and comments

3:28:51predate the time that you were here um but those of us who work here um in 2007 when we had our

3:29:00first award-winning first of its kind community energy plan was 18 years ago so i thought in

3:29:06preparation for the meeting today i would i would guess off the last 18 years and we've had some

3:29:12pretty incredible again award-winning initiatives where we were leaders in all of north america

3:29:19um we our cep led to our district energy um and i know for some of you that's a that's

3:29:26that's a bad word but it's not um i shouldn't be um which morphed into our community energy

3:29:33initiative which morphed into our our energy wealth action plan and i look at those talking

3:29:39and just feel good really really like bold measurable uh actionable um not ideas but but

3:29:48statements of of fact and and we really haven't gotten very far on them so again not commentary

3:29:56are you or or the staff work here because many many of those a lot of circumstances have changed

3:30:01in the in the meantime but to quote you it's time to get our button gear it's time to go back to

3:30:08those plans pick out the boldest and most measurable and impactful actions and get them started

3:30:14because the crisis is only getting worse and as again quoting you now is the time so when i look

3:30:21at what you have in the report that residential buildings are about 20 percent you add the ic

3:30:27and i sector it's up to 65 percent of our locally generated greenhouse gas emissions are buildings

3:30:33and we just voted two weeks ago to put massive 24 story buildings in our downtown quad and i

3:30:44mentioned at the time and i'm going to mention it here again but one of the boldest most impactful

3:30:48things we can do is make sure that every single one of those buildings is attached to and getting

3:30:55its energy from a combined heat and power or distributed energy district energy thermal energy

3:31:01system no matter what you call it one you know low carbon energy system that's all integrated

3:31:10and yet i don't i don't see anything in the presentation today that talks about de and

3:31:17again i don't want to use that word because it locally it means something completely different

3:31:22than what it is working working profitably in other municipalities so a combined heat and power plant

3:31:29for all of the new infrastructure that we're building downtown i don't see that and that is

3:31:34in your in your slide where you talk about what's what we have the ability what limited or no control

3:31:41i can't remember what slide that was so series of influence and one of the things that that you put

3:31:45in your presentation was of limited and no control was generation and distribution well combined

3:31:52heat and power is generation and distribution that we can control and then the second is that

3:32:00we can't control building codes but we can control green development standards which we are working

3:32:05on right now and from from what i understand that that a combined heat and power system could

3:32:13save 18 to 50 percent in building emissions and green development standards can save between 25

3:32:22and 50 percent in emissions just some of the brief reports that i've read why isn't that in this

3:32:30climate action presentation through chair to councillor Caron um so the the priority climate

3:32:43actions that are listed within the call to the community called the climate action they are

3:32:53practical measures that can be accomplished within wealth we have more than 40 000 households

3:33:03it's a matter of us coming together and doing it similarly you know moving vehicles to more

3:33:13sustainable modes of transportation that's 60 000 vehicles we have 100 000 vehicles more than

3:33:20that are registered in the city of guelph these are practical things that can be done and not

3:33:26necessarily borne by the city itself but there are market factors that play into this there

3:33:33are technology factors and not and i and i don't use the term technology in in terms of a shiny

3:33:38silvery thing like the the the tech is there i i i own two eves and so the intention of the actions

3:33:47that were listed there are things that can be done within within reason and back to councillor

3:33:55alt's point and the reason why i evaded that question is is it is in the realm of possibility

3:34:01and and so these measures were chosen from that fragment pragmatic lens as things that can be done

3:34:12um in terms of the past reports you know the the community energy initiative are in wealth those

3:34:21were remarkable bodies of work that have fed into things like this again you know there was mention

3:34:29of those like heat pumps and looking at renewable energy and those things are there

3:34:33and so there were there were elements that were definitely and this is a building on that we're

3:34:38not looking to um to blow up and forget the past we're looking to build upon and through through

3:34:47the called the community climate action um and so i just i i i i that so these these again those

3:34:57are the measures that have been chosen and and kind of put out there so that again bringing it in

3:35:02that realm of possibility and then again sharing that all hands on deck approach okay and i

3:35:09appreciate that i i do i i know that today's presentation is the community called action

3:35:16and that's really the operative word is community and by putting it out into the community these are

3:35:23our requests we through education and through incentivization we are asking the community

3:35:31to help us meet our goals i guess what i'm getting at is that there are other ways that we can

3:35:41move the community along and that's through the one thing that we do have power in and that is

3:35:46regulatory policy again like community development standards like changes to

3:35:55plans of subdivision that limit what types of heating and cooling systems get developed

3:36:03like building combined human power capacity and thermal energy plant but so there are

3:36:09policy and regulatory decisions that we as a city can do to help the community help us

3:36:16so when do we get to that if it's not here today it's not in the community call to action

3:36:22and you can tell that there's some impatience in my voice but when do we get to the big stuff

3:36:30like the really big stuff like building those 24 story downtown

3:36:385000 person densities using combined heat that's the big stuff really going to make the difference

3:36:52through the big stuff from damn chair to council cron yeah one of the bold actions that will be

3:37:01coming to council later this year it's a workshop on council workshop on June 17th and it's combines

3:37:09a number of initiatives but primarily it's about the future ready action plan about transit

3:37:16and the bold decision around the gulf transit fleet services facility that unlocks a number of

3:37:21initiatives um growth of transit the electrification of transit and how do we operationalize not only

3:37:31growth given that we're out of space but also having that infrastructure to charge those electric

3:37:37buses so there's a lot of I'd say when I heard the the term bold action I think that really comes

3:37:45to my mind in terms of bold action that the city can take that really enables the community to

3:37:52work towards these climate change goals through the electrification of our largest as a city our

3:38:00largest fleet vehicle that contributes the most greenhouse gases in in operating like one of the

3:38:07statistics that really sticks with me is that every transit bus

3:38:12contribute or consumes about 30 000 liters in a year of diesel so just that metric alone I think

3:38:19everybody can picture what 100 liters is going into a tank roughly and so when you multiply that by

3:38:28you know to get to to get to 30 000 that's it's uh it's quite remarkable per bus per year yeah so

3:38:36and I appreciate that that's that's a corporate action um and I won't I won't be labor that maybe

3:38:43I can have some conversations with staff because again residential buildings I see in our buildings

3:38:50those those are really the big bang for a buck and and I wonder whether I wonder whether after 18 years

3:38:59we need a new and updated community energy whether that policy work is something that

3:39:06that needs to be redone as we we were we were leaders 18 years ago and I want us to stay leaders

3:39:13and and all of all of those corporate actions all of those those things are contributing

3:39:19but we're not going to be at net zero by the 2040 or 2050

3:39:24um and again I appreciate and I don't want to I don't want to make it sound like that kind of

3:39:30work is low hanging fruit but we're running out of the low hanging fruit um and and don't get me wrong

3:39:36that low hanging fruit is is delicious and it's it's working um but it's time to move up to the

3:39:43middle level orchard and the top level orchard and I don't know how to get there I guess you know

3:39:50you're my frustration at at planning meetings that led light bulbs and low flush toilets just

3:39:56it that just doesn't have it anymore um so is another cep the way to go I just don't know how

3:40:04to get to this really this next step so I was hoping that today we would be talking about that and

3:40:11if this is the wrong place and I need to take it somewhere else I'd appreciate your guidance um

3:40:22thank you Councillor Caron I think is that something perhaps that you could take away

3:40:26and work with on staff as we approach our oh sorry excuse me um yeah through thank you yeah through

3:40:33the chair to Councillor Caron I think what we're what's before you here with the the background

3:40:38or document and the community called the climate action document that really is the plan forward

3:40:43it's really it's recognizing that it's not one individual it's every individual every

3:40:51organization everybody needs to do more and you know the documents have a lot of detail

3:41:00ones less detailed the others very much detailed with lots of links and resources in terms of

3:41:05what can be done what needs to be done and so really we're we're calling this out now for the

3:41:14community that this is the stuff that needs to happen in the community to make the progress

3:41:19that's needed to to reduce the greenhouse emissions across the board uh from individual

3:41:24behavior to business operations and a lot of this has been mentioned before but the local

3:41:30stock take event bringing those organizations together learning from each other that's all part

3:41:36of the you know if I if I won't going to use the word plan that is the plan um that's what's

3:41:44been developed here um okay thanks I'm sure I'll uh maybe develop a series of questions and and

3:41:54between now and the next meeting perhaps in a minute okay thank you Councillor Caron I'm

3:42:00going to move on to Councillor Goller now please um thank you and through your chair to to staff

3:42:06first of all thank you so much for this report um I I really appreciate all the work that you've done

3:42:12and and I really appreciate hearing that you're already doing a lot of the things that the delegate

3:42:16was requesting um I just wanted to touch base on what Councillor Caron was asking just in plain

3:42:23language does the municipality have any way to compel developers to build beyond the building code

3:42:28and can we require them to build to the standards um through the through the chair to Councillor Goller

3:42:34at this point we do not um I think you've heard that at every planning meeting um um I channel

3:42:40Councillor Caron when I'm talking to the developers because um we try to encourage them to um look at

3:42:47climate change and look at the things that they can do I will let you know though that you know

3:42:51there is a lot of work happening I don't want to take away from the work that we've done um I I I

3:42:57everybody when they say for the 18 years we've been working on this but we have done a lot of work

3:43:01so I don't want to take away from the work that this council has approved and that staff have

3:43:05have managed to do um we are working on green building design standards we're working on those

3:43:10right now you're going to be seeing those and a draft probably by the end of the year um so

3:43:16I think that's exciting for us um and we continue to advocate with our with our developers to um

3:43:24build as um as energy friendly as as they can I I think the challenge is is that the developers

3:43:31have a bit of the same challenge that we have is that they don't have the the luxury of looking

3:43:36through their budgets and their performers with one lens neither do we um so when we um come to

3:43:42budget we have to take everything into account and I think uh the commitment that this council has

3:43:48has shown particularly last year when uh we were having a difficult budget discussion and this

3:43:53council approved getting um some of that 100 RE budget back in we're able to do some of this

3:43:58work now going back out to the community so um but I hear the frustration but I do want to make

3:44:05sure that uh we do celebrate the wins that we have you see the graphs that are in the report

3:44:10uh they are going down even though our our our population is going up so we are making progress

3:44:16and we've just got to continue to keep doing that thank you for that I I appreciate that um I

3:44:22if if I could I wanted to go over the actions that we're going to be approving today uh the first

3:44:27one the collecting emissions data I really appreciate that that is very clear to me

3:44:32I I wanted to get a little more information about the partnering with community groups

3:44:36Mr. Douglas asked for the city to become a convener I would just want it to be clear because I

3:44:41didn't see that that language specifically in the report but are we actually going to have

3:44:45that convener role and is there like uh city staff you know time allocated to doing that

3:44:52convening for those groups um through the chair to council galler so um as as part of your discussions

3:45:03last year um with the with 100 RE budget one of the things that we um needed that budget for was

3:45:10to get an additional resource to help with some of that convening and so yes that's what we will

3:45:15be doing we've had that in the past and I think Mr. Douglas mentioned the community plan um so we've

3:45:21had that in the past in in various ways I'm hoping as we go forward with this with this resource and

3:45:26with this budget will be more organized um than perhaps what we've been in the past but um certainly

3:45:32that's a focus for us as we go forward perfect thank you so much I really appreciate that the

3:45:38next target is the enabling the household efficiency upgrades everything that I've read

3:45:44makes sense to me I love the targets that we have specific numbers of vehicles and homes

3:45:48what I struggle with every you know when I've gone and campaigned on my elections most people

3:45:56are busy with their day-to-day lives and they're not aware of what the city is doing um and I've

3:46:01been part of Wellington water watchers I was with Transition Guelph and it's it's all great having

3:46:07conversations but it's almost like it's a section of the community that talks to itself how can we

3:46:13support to to get out to the rest of the city of Guelph that may not be aware and and may not see

3:46:21that they have a personal responsibility to take those actions so so how you know what is our role

3:46:28to actually get to the rest of Guelph um so they're aware that you know we're asking them to play a

3:46:34role to meet these goals through you chair to councillor Goller um exactly we have to get the

3:46:42word out uh and and that is as part of us convening is bringing people into under the tent as well

3:46:52so I'm just going to say this there there's some really good work by some other groups

3:46:55where they are looking at what they call the five candidates and and you know there's we always talk

3:47:02about the extremes you know you have the deniers you have the the militant uh tree huggers but

3:47:07there's always the middle and we're always forgetting about that so that's part of this work in terms of

3:47:12you know as we have the resources as we're convening groups as we're hearing from them

3:47:16then we can develop strategies as to how we get more people to come in and then and then have the

3:47:21resources to to to kind of pull them in as well so that's the intention okay and and I I would assume

3:47:29that the annual reports would tell us what we're doing uh well are there specific tangible things

3:47:35that we'll get to every household like are we including information on tax bills or are we

3:47:39doing other things to make sure that every wealth resident is aware of this call to action

3:47:47do you chair the councillor Goller not yet um but I mean we are picking up tactics that we're already

3:47:53doing with the gulf greener homes program so you know working with say electro and their energy

3:47:58bills and then putting in um kind of sleeve inserts as well for promoting that so we would be looking at

3:48:05similar measures to to get the word out with this and then as well you know word of mouth is always key

3:48:10so it's a mutual benefit in my opinion you know all every conversation that I have with David Douglas

3:48:16I learn a lot from him he works his networks and he can help spread as well through the g-can

3:48:21g-can networks and their their membership so through those efforts as well things like that

3:48:27okay okay thank you I I really appreciate that and and I think there was also it was a tool asked

3:48:31about working with the school so I look forward to that information I know that uh when when uh as a

3:48:36society we transition to recycling it really did take a generational approach for that to happen

3:48:42I wanted to thank you for the work that you have been doing with our institutional commercial

3:48:46partners that is fantastic and the work with the youth climate leaders I look forward to

3:48:53seeing more of that on that specific the youth climate leaders I believe that that came to us

3:48:58as a grant that mayor got through was able to secure for the city part of the request for

3:49:03budget what will it be to provide future funding for projects like that I'm just trying to understand

3:49:09which of these will you know are we asking for the city to step up and start funding on an ongoing

3:49:15basis um so through the through the chairs of council gov so I think um I don't think we're

3:49:23prepared to answer that just yet but I think I think you're right as part of as as we go through

3:49:28the process as we start to learn more and get more ideas about where the this what the city can do

3:49:33versus what the community can do that will that will inform the future future budget asks so

3:49:40we'd want to take that away and make sure that we're very solid in our ass and that it's going to

3:49:45make the impact that we wanted to before we before we come to council so I won't forget though don't

3:49:52worry thank you thank you so much and and the last question that I have through your chair with

3:49:58regards to using policy to to guide climate action are we going to see start seeing on our reports

3:50:05the section that talks about climate action I'm just trying to understand how that policy will

3:50:11play itself out on our day to day every time we get a master plan or every time we are approving

3:50:15something through the chair to council gov so I think we do try and weave that in I think you're

3:50:23right though I think perhaps that's something we can take back maybe it's just a separate section

3:50:27on the report but if you if you could allow us to take that back and take a look at it then we

3:50:31could come on to on a later thank you for that and the last part of that much of this is outside

3:50:37of our control as you mentioned we cannot direct how industry operates that's at the federal level

3:50:42we cannot direct how homes are built that's the provincial level but you know is is there some

3:50:50advocacy on what other levels of government need to do to achieve this goal because I feel that a

3:50:55lot of this is talking around it without saying the province of Ontario needs to do this and this

3:51:01to help us meet the goals is there a place for that or as a municipality are we do we actually

3:51:07not have a role to say and it then falls to the community to go and advocate to the other levels

3:51:12of government through the chair to council gov so we work very closely with our intergovernmental

3:51:20staff so if there any times there are opportunities to advocate for something that is important to us

3:51:25and that would include climate change we're all in you can I think you can appreciate the fact that

3:51:32we are very active in trying to get grants that help us with some of our climate change goals but

3:51:39we also look to the community I think it's the strength in numbers so the you know we always

3:51:44try to for instance the developers for instance if if there's an opportunity with with the community

3:51:52or our developers to go and advocate to to the province or to the federal government

3:51:59or something that we both want that was an opportunity that we would actually take so

3:52:03we'll look at that a little bit more closely but we already do a lot of advocacy in that regard it's

3:52:09usually tied into other things though and I would point out you know our ISIP grants for instance

3:52:14those are very much tied into some of our climate change goals thank you so much I'm really looking

3:52:20forward to supporting this now and at the end of the month and to seeing those reports come on an

3:52:24annual basis thank you thank you chair thank you councillor Goller um mayor got three well thank

3:52:30you chair and through you and some of some of my questions have been asked already so I appreciate

3:52:34my colleagues doing that um but I just wanted to pick up a little bit more where councillor Goller

3:52:39left off in regards to the communications and education point of this so um what I'm hearing

3:52:47is that there is some convening going on great and I'm hearing that there's some really great

3:52:52discussions especially around the ICI sector and stuff like that then and sharing great

3:53:00is it too far for me to ask that those types of things be elevated to a meeting schedule

3:53:08where they are video recorded and then archived so that other people in the community can

3:53:17watch that and learn from rick from pdi um learn from the others that are sharing their struggles

3:53:26or sharing their successes and so that we have we start a database of archived meetings where

3:53:37it can be sent out through the chamber network or through these other community networks where

3:53:41people can start to watch and listen and learn instead of only being with certain groups where

3:53:47they can only come and sort of hear what's kind of going on uh I'll stop there with my first question

3:53:59through you chair to the mayor um yeah I mean we we would explore that definitely um we would

3:54:06just want to ensure that you know that the dynamics in the room you know it's a safe space and and

3:54:11things are flowing but yes definitely at the root of it is this how do we share this knowledge and

3:54:15how do we amplify that definitely okay that's great thank you I think that would be wonderful if it

3:54:21can work I think that'd be wonderful to do that um and then the next piece is just on the on the

3:54:27awareness side of things so uh you know when I read the the report and I saw like the the kind of the

3:54:34the flyer if I could call it that or the brochure about it like I thought it was really well done

3:54:40as sort of a state of affairs when it comes to what is is happening in the city and then sort of

3:54:46where we need to go um it's about getting it out there more than you know this room and a little

3:54:55bit of media thank you to our media partners that might that might push it out but like other than

3:55:01that it's it's my fears it's not kind of going to go anywhere and I appreciate the word of mouth

3:55:07and all that like I think that I won't discount that but I'm just wondering like is there

3:55:14internal budgets that would allow for a tax uh the tax bill that same brochure going to every

3:55:23single household can we print off 5 000 of these brochures and put 500 of them in each of our library

3:55:34branches can we have them available to all of the outside community groups where they can be given

3:55:42500 each and they can spread spread it out so I'm just wondering if there's an an opportunity for us

3:55:50to to really start to actually spread this information out more than just sort of

3:55:57within the confines of sort of city hall and government speak and that it can get out to the

3:56:02community a bit more is any of that planned through the through the chair to uh Mr. Mayor um

3:56:12absolutely I think one of the things that you've heard in the past is that we do a lot of great

3:56:17work but we haven't necessarily been really great at communicating it out so I think that's something

3:56:24that we want to take to heart that is partly why you see those those attachments in the report

3:56:30that's a starting point for us to tell the community where we're at and what we'd like to

3:56:34do and some resources on how to get them we worked with our communications partners on those and

3:56:41they're fabulous so we need to be able to do more of that going forward as each of our initiatives

3:56:46hit in terms of do we have budget the hundred re budget will help with some of that but that

3:56:51is something that we'll have to take into account as we go forward as we come up looking at our

3:56:57future budget asks all right thank you and then my last question and if it's a takeaway that's fine

3:57:03is is there any role or can the city have a role in bulk purchasing or bulk incentives

3:57:17so I'll this I'll pick the the heat pumps as an example

3:57:21can we be a can we be a leader in doing a group purchase for x amount of households in the city

3:57:33of Guelph look let's say we had an open call to the community that said hey for all the members

3:57:42in the community that are looking to replace their their their furnaces and you can get heat pumps

3:57:48let us know if you're going to be doing that and let's say you get 600 households that say yeah

3:57:54we're we're actually thinking about doing that could we take a leadership role to do like a bulk

3:58:01buying purchase and install deal with an installer and a provider for that where the community

3:58:12actually saves a little bit of money but but because we're taking a leadership role and

3:58:18sort of advertising the bulk buying option we're getting more uptake on that and we're trying to

3:58:24meet then you know under the sector the residential goals even more I'll leave leave the question at

3:58:30that is there a role that the city could play in in in bulk purchasing and organizing those types

3:58:36of options for people through the chair to to the mayor that's a really interesting concept

3:58:42something that we can take away to some initial thoughts that come to my mind

3:58:47from a logistics perspective is not every house is the same size and so you have different

3:58:54sizes of equipment um there's a lot of risk that the city would be taking on and then how

3:59:01do we cover off some of the legality so we might be saving money on the equipment from the bulk

3:59:06purchase but we might be you know the little savings might be spent on legal contracts with the

3:59:13with the houses and managing then warranties or installation deficiencies that type of thing so

3:59:21it's an interesting concept though you know I appreciate that sort of how do how do we save

3:59:27the community some money we just have to think through some of those logistics

3:59:31all right thanks for taking it away I mean it is I try to be an ideas guy

3:59:37uh so maybe it's a pilot like maybe it's 50 and you trial it and and get learnings from it you know

3:59:47I just I think there's an opportunity I really think there's an opportunity there and

3:59:53anyways I'll leave you as the experts uh to it those are my three questions thank you madam chair

4:00:00thank you margathri that's all I had for questions just looking at my council colleagues here

4:00:08if there's nothing else I just will say one thing and then I would like to call the vote

4:00:14and it's just what just one comment that I heard from Brian which is we can't stop having these

4:00:22conversations so this is an important you know step in our continued leadership in climate action

4:00:29and no we are not perfect and and yes there is a lot of work to do to meet our goals but that

4:00:34doesn't mean we stop um and so I'd like us to continue these conversations in in in a in a

4:00:41hard and constructive way um and with that I would like to call the vote on the two recommendations

4:00:48clerks can I put them up or do I want me to read them okay so the first recommendation is that

4:01:01council receive the community the guals community call to action report and the second that council

4:01:07approved staff actions to support the community in taking collective climate action as described in

4:01:12guals community call to climate action are there any one is anyone opposed I see no one um so that

4:01:23motion those two recommendations pass unanimously