Drive-thru applications prompt discussion on climate change
Minneapolis did it. Maybe St. John’s can, too, suggests St. John’s Coun. Maggie Burton.
She said she “would be fully supportive of banning all new drive-thrus in the city effective whenever we can,” similar to a decision made in the city of Minneapolis in the United States in August.
That city council passed an ordinance that no longer allows the building of new drive-thrus for banks, restaurants and other businesses.
At the regular Monday council meeting, Burton asked city staff to review drive-thrus in the city and tell councillors “what a modernized recommendation might look like” based on what other jurisdictions are doing.
The suggestion arose when council voted narrowly to approve a new coffee shop drivethru near Polina Road, east of the Avalon Mall access at 46 Kenmount Rd., as well as a bank with a drive-thru in the same location.
Councillors Burton and Hope Jamieson, and Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’leary, opposed the proposed developments.
Councillors Sandy Hickman, Debbie Hanlon and Sandy Collins, and Mayor Danny Breen, voted in favour of the applications.
Councillors Dave Lane, Deanne Stapleton, Jamie Korab and Ian Froude were absent.
“Little decisions, like whether or not a drive-thru is allowed, in the grand scheme of things you’re not going to make a big difference on our greenhouse gas emissions, but they certainly add up when you have a million tiny decisions that lead to more emissions, more emissions, more emissions,” Burton said after the meeting.
She said the science is clear that people need to take drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonize “every single sector as fast as possible in order to get the best-case scenario of the warming and global heating that we are going to experience between now and 2030, 2050. So, to meet the (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) targets, we need to act now and act drastically.”
Breen said council added regulations for drive-thrus a few years ago concerning distances from residential zones, sound barriers and idling. However, he said it “doesn’t hurt to have another look,” as Burton suggested.
“If you want to look at the impacts in terms of idling and that, that’s really an important issue and one that we can look at what’s happening across Canada and see what council wants to do with it in the long term,” Breen said.
“But these drive-thrus are utilized by a lot of people, and it’s a choice of the public to be utilizing them,” he said.