Climate concerns - defining Mississauga’s role
NRU
May 25, 2016
By Leah Wong
The City of Mississauga realizes it needs a climate change plan in place in advance of funding announcements from the federal and provincial governments so it can move forward quickly on fundable projects.
Ontario municipalities are expected to continue to play a large role in addressing climate change. One change emerging from the coordinated review of the province’s land use planning policies is to require municipalities to include climate change policies in their official plans.
Mississauga has taken steps to address climate change at the municipal level for years. Mayor Bonnie Crombie told committee that while the city has done a lot of work to address climate change, more needs to be done.
“When you outline the serious impacts and costs [of extreme storms]-whether its business interruptions or economic impacts to our community-they are very serious and very significant,” she said.
Last week Mississauga community energy specialist Julius Lindsay told general issues committee the Peel Region climate change strategy shows what the city should be preparing for in the future. It shows the likely impacts of climate change up to 2100-warmer winters with more precipitation, longer growing seasons, more heat waves and greater frequency of extreme rainfall.
Lindsay said the political landscape in regards to climate change has shift ed. In addition to increased funding on its way-the feds are dedicating $2.9-billion for the next five years, while the province has slated $1.9-billion for 2016-the senior levels of government have set or confirmed greenhouse gas reduction targets and will release climate change action plans later this year.
Ward 7 councillor Nando Iannicca told committee that the increased frequency of 50- and 100-year storms shows that there is a new normal when it comes to extreme weather events.
“We have to do business differently and we have to embrace this because this is the new normal,” said Iannicca. “We have to figure out what we are doing wrong and take advantages of the opportunity that we have.”
Actions made by Mississauga have already reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Lindsay said that the city’s streetlight LED conversion program reduced the city’s carbon emissions by 1,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2014 and 2015-the equivalent of taking 200 cars off the road.
This program has also reduced the city’s operating costs. While the city’s emission reduction and flooding mitigation efforts have been successful, buy-in from local residents is required if the city is to be successful in reducing the effects of climate change.
Ward 2 councillor Karen Ras told committee that one of the city’s challenges is convincing residents that they too can play a role in reducing the impacts of climate change. She said many residents don’t see how making small changes will make a difference.
Ras has experienced this in her ward, where the city, region and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority have worked together on a Sustainable Neighbourhood Retrofi t Action Plan for the Burnhamthorpe community. While the program has encouraged residents to take action to mitigate flooding by disconnecting down spouts or adding rain barrels to their properties, Ras said many residents have trouble understanding how their one action will make a different.
“We need to be able to show and illustrate to individuals that their one little change can make a huge difference,” said Ras.
She said that collecting data demonstrating how much water residents can divert from municipal infrastructure through mitigation eff orts is one way to show residents the difference relatively small actions can make. While residents may not see the impact themselves, municipal staff can help to make the message clear.
