{"id":25120,"date":"2019-10-31T14:43:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T18:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25120"},"modified":"2019-11-08T11:58:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T16:58:18","slug":"council-declares-climate-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-declares-climate-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"Council declares “climate emergency”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora has declared a \u201cclimate emergency\u201d in a bid to\ncreate a concrete action plan to address issues at a local level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council voted unanimously to declare a \u201cclimate\nemergency\u201d following a motion from Councillor Rachel Gilliland, following the\nlead of more than 450 communities across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intent of the motion is to \u201cdeepen\u201d Aurora\u2019s\ncommitment to protecting ecosystems, reducing carbon footprints and spearheading\nother initiatives to protect the community from the impacts of climate change\nwhile, at the same time, ensuring issues related to climate change are fully\nconsidered in each item that hits the Council table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gilliland\u2019s motion goes on to task municipal\nstaff with creating a Climate Action Plan, reflective of a similar plan\nforthcoming from the Region of York, allowing the Town to \u201cfocus on reducing\nemissions and adaptation at the community level,\u201d and look for opportunities\nfor economic growth related to the low-carbon economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to her motion at last week\u2019s Council meeting,\nCouncillor Gilliland said when she was first elected she pursued the issue of a\nClimate Action Plan, only to find the report stagnating pending staff resources\nthat are now in place. Now, she said, was the time for action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a victory in the right direction,\u201d she said. \u201cIn\nno way am I suggesting our staff is not taking initiatives; rather, this motion\nis designed to keep the impact of climate change at the top of our inbox. The\npurpose of this declaration is to allow informed decision-making at the Council\ntable that includes weighing in the carbon impact, among other considerations,\nin its decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such possible initiatives, she added, could include\nrequiring more trees to be planted, the automatic inclusion of bike lanes in\nnew projects, a strengthened tree replacement policy for all of Aurora, and\nadditional sections in Council reports dedicated to environmental\nconsiderations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlooding, extreme heat, high winds, ice storms and\nprotecting our clean drinking water are all risks the residents of the Town,\nthe Region, the Province and globally abroad are all concerned about,\u201d she\nconcluded. \u201cWhat kind of world are we leaving our children, our grandchildren,\nif we choose not to stand up, to declare and take action, to do something now\nand heighten our awareness by keeping climate abatement and mitigation top of\nmind. We all need to do our part to remedy this crisis we face and I truly hope\nAurora Council will join me along with the other 462 municipalities in this\ndeclaration and choose to deepen our commitment to protecting our ecosystems\nand protecting our community from the impacts of climate change we face now and\nfor the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First out of the gate to support the motion was\nCouncillor Sandra Humfryes, who said the actions outlined in the motion were\n\u201cabsolutely important\u201d to the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStaff has done a lot of great things moving forward and\nthis is just a matter of taking a look at every initiative and making sure\nwe\u2019re doing the right things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Harold Kim: \u201cAnything that is about\ncarbon-neutral strategies and saving our planet is well worthwhile. I don\u2019t\nwant [this motion] to be a merely symbolic gesture. This is about naming,\nframing and deepening our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and\n<\/p>\n\n\n

[hopefully this]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

will lead to an Action Plan. When staff comes back with some\nkind of report, it needs to be a Call to Action.\u201d\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas agreed, stating that while this could be\n\u201cconstrued largely as a symbolic motion\u201d, Aurora\u2019s commitment is clear. In\naddressing the motion, the Mayor outlined a number of initiatives that have\nbeen going on in the background at Town Hall including the Town\u2019s Corporate\nEnvironmental Action Plan (CEAP) and its support of the David Suzuki\nFoundation\u2019s Blue Dot Movement, a national campaign to advance the legal\nrecognition of every Canadian\u2019s right to a healthy environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat Aurora needs is a plan to include a climate lens in\nour decision-making,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cWhen it comes to addressing the\nimpacts of climate change, we need workable solutions now, but we need an\nintegrated approach and we need collaborative solutions for an effective\noutcome. Climate change doesn\u2019t end at Aurora\u2019s borders. In fact, it knows no\nborders. A Regional Climate Change Action Plan will identify overarching\nprinciples, objectives and information to guide the work York Region and others\nundertake to address climate change, to address mitigation and adaptation from\na corporate and community perspective. Adopting a region-wide approach to\nmitigating the impacts of climate change on our communities is how we can work\ntogether to get things done. I will be supporting this motion on the floor as\nit affords this Council the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to\nprotecting the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also supporting the motion was Councillor Wendy Gaertner,\nbut her support came with conditions. Following on the comments made by\nCouncillor Harold Kim, Councillor Gaertner was also keen to stress that the\nmotion\u2019s approval be much more than a symbolic gesture. Rather, she saw the\nactions outlined in the motion and wanted to make sure enough resources were in\nplace to bring them to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we are really going to take this seriously and\ndeclare a climate emergency, we need to have the funding for it. We just can\u2019t\nsay, okay, we\u2019re going to be a municipality that declares a climate emergency\nwithout identifying funding sources and mechanisms so that we can act upon the\nresults. Council is going to approve many studies for the 2020 budget year that\nwill have environmental focus or implications. The studies are good, but we\nneed to have the money to enforce those.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doug Nadorozny, CAO for the Town of Aurora, said staff will reflect on the motion now that it has passed and provide a series of recommendations in future reports. Such reports, he said, would remind Council of previous actions they have supported, offering alternatives \u2013 and some of these alternatives might come with increased costs and Council will have to budget accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora has declared a \u201cclimate emergency\u201d in a bid to create a concrete action plan to address issues at a local level. Council voted unanimously to declare a \u201cclimate emergency\u201d following a motion from Councillor Rachel Gilliland, following the lead of more than 450 communities across the country. The intent of the motion is to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6xa","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 14:35:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}