Where's Saanich's Climate Action Plan?

Saanich climate plan evades public, critic says
Erin Cardone, Saanich News, May 2, 2008

A year after Oak Bay council approved a citizen-led advisory group on climate change, Dean Murdock is still perplexed as to why Saanich hasn’t followed suit.

Murdock, a Saanich resident and co-chair of the Sierra Club Victoria Group, says it’s time for Saanich to get on board with providing opportunity for the public to weigh in on solutions to climate change.

“When you juxtapose the two municipalities (Oak Bay and Saanich), it’s really quite shocking,” Murdock said, referring to public input.

Oak Bay’s climate change task force, set in motion in February 2007, includes the municipality’s mayor, a couple of councillors and five to six members of the public interested in the environmental issue. “What happened in Oak Bay is they recognized that (climate change) is an issue that affects everyone, so what they’ve done is gotten everyone engaged.”

Mayor Frank Leonard says the community provides input on sustainability in other ways. Members of the public sit on the Planning, Transportation and Economic Development Committee and the Environmental Advisory Committee, both of which affect how Saanich develops its green initiatives.

“We’re ahead of Oak Bay, anyway,” Leonard said, referring to Saanich’s carbon neutral plan, which came into effect in December.

Murdock recognizes Saanich is generally ahead of the pack when it comes to working positively for the environment. He’s confident that any climate change documentation that comes out of Saanich will be “a good product,” but that product should include some voices from the community.