Targets adopted for climate change action
Notes from this week’s St. Catharines city council meeting...
Targets adopted for climate change action
Greenhouse gas emission reduction targets were adopted by St. Catharines city councillors Monday.
Setting a target is a requirement for joining the Compact of Mayors Program, which council voted to join in Nov. 2015. The program aims to help cities address climate change from a local level.
City staff recommended a series of per capita emission targets that match Ontario targets.
“We definitely have to be part of the solution. Upper levels of governments can’t do this by themselves,” said St. Catharines manager of environmental services Mark Green.
In Ontario, the average per capita emissions in 1990 was 17.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which was down to 12.6 in 2013.
The targets for Ontario and St. Catharines are 9.7 tonnes by 2020, 6.9 tonnes by 2030 and 1.8 tonnes by 2050.
Green said it’s a communitybased target, not just for the city corporation, and it’s voluntary and symbolic as it’s nonbinding.
The city also undertook a climate change risk assessment, another requirement under the Compact of Mayors Program.
Green said top perceived risks for St. Catharines include heat waves, especially impacting vulnerable populations; flooding both basement and service; storm water impacts like pollution and algae; extreme winter conditions such as blizzards and freezing rain that impact road and transportation systems; and severe wind storms that cause property damage and impact transportation.
“There’s no new climate risks but climate change is exacerbating current risks and making them more severe,” Green said.
Green said St. Catharines was one of first municipalities in Canada to participate in the Compact of Mayors program.
The next step for the city is to create a climate action plan to meet the targets and a climate adaptation plan to address the risks and reduce their impact on residents of St. Catharines. There’s no funding for climate change in the 2018 draft budget but Green said federal and provincial grants are coming out in 2018 which the city should apply to receive.
Dollars requested for preventing domestic violence
St. Catharines city council is calling on the federal and provincial governments to increase funding to violence against women shelters to support gender-based violence prevention programs.
Canadians spend $7.4 billion annually to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence.
But council heard research shows violence prevention programs are highly effective in preventing domestic violence and violence against women.
“The conversation needs to extend from just helping victims of gender-based violence to include prevention of domestic and gender-based violence,” said Jennifer Wallace, board president of Gillian’s Place in St. Catharines, which has provided emergency shelter and support services to 40,000 women and children since 1977.
Wallace said the agency is grateful for the financial support it’s received from the Ontario government for shelter, legal and housing services but the government hasn’t made funding prevention programs that are critical to change a priority.
She was speaking to council on behalf of Gillian’s Place in support of the motion by Coun. Sandie Bellows calling on more government support to develop and implement gender-based violence prevention programs. The motion was passed unanimously.
The motion said half of all Canadian women experience physical or sexual violence by the age of 16. Every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
In St. Catharines, at least seven women and children have lost their lives in domestic violence cases since 2014.
Call for traffic calming off Geneva
The city will work to implement traffic calming measures on side streets off Geneva which may become busier when the region brings in new traffic rules.
The region plans to prohibit lefthand turns from Geneva Street onto Carlton and Dunlop Streets subject to a final report that will go to regional council in January.
The busy intersection is by Fairview Mall and includes a QEW underpass.
St. George’s Coun. Sal Sorrento said the residents on Wood and Linden streets are concerned about the impact of increased traffic on their streets as people make left-turns there because they can’t turn onto Carlton or Dunlop.
He asked that the city’s transportation and environmental services department implement traffic calming measures, if needed, and pedestrian safety measures on Wood and Linden streets when the region brings in left-turn lane bans. His motion was supported by council.
The city will also notify and work with residents on the streets to ensure proper measures are taken to reduce any potential increases in traffic.
City gearing up for 2018 election
St. George’s Coun. Mike Britton will be allowed to continue to hold monthly ward meetings in a city facility during election season.
City council adopted a policy Monday dealing with the use of corporate resources for election purposes.
A report to council said the use of city resources for an election or reelection campaign would be in violation of the municipal elections act. That includes St. Catharines facilities, equipment, supplies, services, staff or other resources.
Britton said he’s held ward meetings every month for the last two years at St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatics Centre to talk about city issues and events and asked if he’ll still be allowed to do that.
City clerk Bonnie Nistico-Dunk said the expectation is that he continues to do his job as a councillor, but can’t campaign or hand out literature there.
Meanwhile, council wants to clamp down on election advertising at the Meridian Centre.
St. Andrew’s Coun. Matt Harris said the municipally-owned arena was used for advertising during the last election and wanted to know if there was something in place so that doesn’t happen again. He also asked about bus stop signage.
City solicitor Heather Salter said in some situations, the city’s third parties have control over advertising assets. There is no provision in the agreement with Meridian Centre manager SMG that controls the content of advertising.
Salter said the city has good relationships with third parties that have advertising rights and can work with them, but they can’t unilaterally change legal agreements.
Council added an amendment from Harris to notify companies that manage municipally-owned assets that the city doesn’t want them used for election campaigns.
Door open for pier money
There’s good news on the Port Dalhousie Piers front.
Mayor Walter Sendzik told council Monday that St. Catharines Member of Parliament Chris Bittle indicated the parliamentary standing committee on finance has recommended an increase to the small craft harbour budget, which the piers fall under.
The committee, which completed cross-country budget consultations, further recommended support to the divestiture program that the city has indicated it wants to participate in.
“(Bittle) has been successful in getting it through to the standing committee on finance and hopefully that means there will be funds forthcoming,” Sendzik said.
In October, city council voted to kickstart negotiations to take ownership of the Port Dalhousie piers from the federal government as long as the government fixed them first.
The move is an effort to try to get the piers repaired sooner than later, as the federal government no longer has any use for them. The estimated cost to repair the piers is $28 million to $33 million.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed sections of the popular piers in April 2015 for structural and safety issues.