Regional bickering delays climate action

Colwood risking green service: critic
Option to back out of emission bylaw could delay CRD plan: Sierra Club

Bill Cleverley, Times Colonist, Sunday, June 29, 2008

Colwood's demand for an "opt-out" clause in a proposed Capital Regional District climate action plan is short-sighted and threatens to seriously delay a needed new service, says the Sierra Club Victoria chairman Dean Murdock.

The plan, which establishes a new regional monitoring service that will track greenhouse gas emissions, was agreed to by the CRD board in February. The bylaw establishing the new service, with its $200,000 annual budget, needs unanimous consent of all 13 municipalities in the CRD.
Colwood agreed to the bylaw, but only if it has a provision allowing the municipality to opt out in two years if it is not satisfied. The municipality's share would be about $3,500 for this year and $7,000 for a full year.

"I'm disappointed it's going to delay action, yet again. We've been waiting quite a long time for this bylaw to come into force," Murdock said. "It could be the end of the year before we see it implemented, and that's really disappointing."

The service includes hiring of a full-time climate action co-ordinator, half-time research and administrative support and air quality monitoring. CRD environment committee members agreed this week to send the bylaw back to all 13 municipal councils to get their approval to add the opt-out provision.

Colwood Coun. Dave Saunders said the position of his council was clear that a five-year commitment was too long. "Certainly we do support this project and we said that quite clearly," Saunders said. "All we simply want is a two-year opt-out clause. I don't think it's unreasonable."
Saunders said his council believes a review after two years is warranted.

"I think in any new service [a review] is warranted. It's also a possibility there are better ways for the City of Colwood to use that money. And we would like that ability to be able to opt out."
Colwood's position surprised some committee members, who said the opt-out clause was essentially redundant because if the municipality was unhappy with the service in two years it could simply stop funding it.

CRD general manager of environmental services Dwayne Kalynchuk said although the opt-out clause is unusual, he doesn't believe it would present any problems for the new service's operations. "Certainly if a member, after a two-year review, chose to opt out I would hope there's enough benefit shown in those two years that the other members would say, 'We'll fill the void and cover that part,'" Kalynchuk said.

Kalynchuk said there's no question that the program would have undergone a rigorous review in two years regardless. Saanich Coun. Judy Brownoff said provincial regulations will require municipalities to report on greenhouse gas reduction and energy use and that monitoring will be done on behalf of member municipalities by the new service.

"You won't have to invest staff times to try to create this in municipalities. That will be part of this service and I think that's going to be a significant one," Brownoff said.