What are other Ontario communities doing?

Burlington’s City Council unanimously passed a motion(External link) to declare a climate emergency in April, 2019.

An action item from the declaration was that Council and staff immediately increase the priority of the fight against climate change and apply a climate lens to the plans and actions of the City of Burlington (including the Council strategic workplan and future budgets).

Burlington had previously a Community Energy Plan(External link) that was established in January 2014, with five goals:

• Create leading edge community engagement in energy initiatives (conservation, generation and security) in order to enhance the implementation effectiveness and support sustained quality of life in Burlington.
• Improve the energy efficiency of buildings in Burlington in ways that contribute to Burlington’s overall economic competitiveness.
• Increase sustainable local energy generation in Burlington and enhance supply security in ways that support Burlington’s economic competitiveness.
• Optimize integrated community energy systems and efficiency opportunities through land use planning.
• Increase transportation efficiency.

Burlington established a greenhouse gas reduction target to reduce the community’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 27 percent from 2014 levels by 2030.

The City of Guelph has not declared a climate emergency, however it is mitigating climate change through a community energy plan, along with a number of actions and goals to become a net zero carbon community by 2050.

Guelph was the first municipality in Canada to establish a community energy plan with its Community Energy Initiative(External link) in 2007, with three goals:

• Use less energy in 25 years than in 2005
• Consume less energy per capita than comparable Canadian cities
• Produce less greenhouse gas per capita than the current global average

In May 2018, Guelph’s City Council approved the Our Energy Guelph task force’s recommendations for Guelph to become a net zero carbon community by 2050, as well as a further target for 100 percent renewable energy use in City operations by 2050.

Our Energy Guelph has also recommended the following actions in their Community Energy Initiative Update (2018)(External link) in order of priority:

• Retrofit homes pre-1980
• Retrofit industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) buildings
• Stricter codes on new build
• Photovoltaic (solar PV) net metering
• Electrify transit
• Heat pumps
• Retrofit homes 1980-2017
• Large PV
• Active transportation
• Energy storage
• Electrify fleets (including the municipal fleet)
• Expand transit
• District energy
• Solar hot water
• Wind energy
• Renewable natural gas
• Electrify personal vehicles
• Ride share programs
• Car free zones
• Autonomous vehicles

On September 11, 2019, Halton Regional Council unanimously approved a motion(External link) declaring a climate emergency.

Staff are working towards submitting a report to Regional Council(External link) in the spring of 2020 that includes:

• proposed short- and long-term climate change goals for the organization;
• an outline of how Halton will work towards achieving the remaining four milestones of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Partners for Climate Protection(external link)(External link) program;
• an outline of opportunities to manage growth and development to address climate considerations through an update to the Regional Official Plan;
• the development of corporate sustainability and climate change policies for Regional infrastructure and operations;
• the identification of related performance metrics, timelines for achieving major milestones and a strategy to report on progress; and
• partnering with the Local Municipalities and community organizations working to engage residents and inform community action on climate change.

The local councils for the City of Burlington, Town of Halton Hills, Town of Milton and Town of Oakville all declared climate emergencies in 2019 as well.

City of Hamilton unanimously adopted a motion declare a climate emergency in March, 2019.

A multi-departmental Corporate Climate Change Task Force of City of Hamilton staff has been created investigate additional actions to be taken to achieve net zero carbon emissions before 2050

On March 5, 2019, the City of Kingston(External link) became the first Ontario municipality to declare that climate change is an emergency that requires an urgency and strategic response.

Departments of the City of Kingston and Utilities Kingston are doing many things that directly and indirectly reduce GHG emissions.

• Electric Vehicle Strategy(External link): switching from gas and diesel to clean electric vehicles and providing public charging stations.
• Investment in public transit(External link): increasing transit ridership through improved routes, services and programs.
• Energy from waste(External link): managing organic waste to prevent methane and examining potential for Kingston to generate clean bio-gas energy from organic wastes.
• Greener buildings(External link): retrofitting existing buildings and creating new buildings to a higher environmental standard.
• Active transportation(External link): making it easier to go car-free with bike friendly infrastructure, walkable streets, and community bike-sharing.
• Compact urban form(External link): avoiding sprawl and car dependency through urban density, transit oriented development and infill.

Oxford County has established an ambitious goal to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 as outlined in its 100% Renewable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan(External link).

Oxford County’s plans also include interim targets to reduce the community’s greenhouse gas emissions by three percent from 2015 levels by 2020, 25 percent by 2030, and 69 percent by 2050.

Actions identified include:

• Change human behaviour
• Retrofit existing built- environment
• Upgrade infrastructures and support efficient technologies
• Increase renewable electricity
• Tackle the built environment (heating/cooling)
• Tackle the mobility and transport challenge
• Modernize the grid and other infrastructure
• Introduce innovative and alternative financing mechanisms
• New mechanisms to internalize externalities
• Establish stable, long-term (financial) support schemes
• Ensure accountability and transparency
• Promote inclusive communication and outreach
• Empower a decentralized and diversified energy transition
• Safeguard a socially just transition
• Generate and disseminate specific knowledge
• Make knowledge and data accessible
• Promote capacity building and training

City council voted unanimously to pass a motion declaring a climate emergency in Sudbury. in May, 2019.

In November of 2019, city staff released their Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP)(External link) and a strategy to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

The CEEP uses energy, emissions, land-use, and financial modelling to determine the community-wide efforts required to meet a 2050 net-zero emissions target. The Plan also describes the efforts required to meet an 80% of 2016 emissions levels reduction target by 2050 for comparison.The CEEP employs three key concepts in determining its recommended actions:

1. The Reduce-Improve-Switch paradigm (reduce energy use, improve efficiency,and switch to low-carbon energy sources);
2. Community energy planning prioritization; and
3. Infrastructure, mechanical, and energy systems turnover.

Learn more about Sudbury's CEEP.

The Region of Waterloo recently released its Community Energy Investments Strategy(External link) in February 2018. This builds upon the existing stakeholder-led Climate Action Waterloo Region(External link) plan. The purpose of the strategy is to improve and sustain Waterloo Region’s economic competitiveness and quality of life through the coordination of targeted energy investments.

The strategy, if implemented fully, is estimated to achieve 39 percent reduction in use of imported electricity generation and fuel by the year 2041 and about 50 percent reduction in GHG emissions from 2014 levels.

Goals included within their strategy include:

• Promote construction of high performance and energy self-sufficient buildings.
• increase energy efficiency of existing buildings.
• Increase the use of onsite renewable energy in buildings.
• Empower energy users to utilize consumption data for smart energy management.
• Optimize use of local resources for energy generation.
• Assess and support opportunities to develop distributed and integrated energy systems
• Investigate energy storage options (technologies and scenarios/scale) and support their use where feasible.
• Increase reliance on active transportation and transit.
• Increase electrification of local transportation.
• Increase use of clean low carbon fuels.
• Raise energy literacy within the community regarding the need to evolve how we locally manage our energy.
• Proactively integrate energy considerations into ongoing land development and local infrastructure planning processes.
• Build on Waterloo Region’s competitive advantage and capacity for delivering research, innovation, technology and support services for the energy sector as well as economic sectors with high energy demands

Windsor's City Councillors unanimously agreed in November of 2019 to declare a climate change emergency.

The City of Windsor had previously released its Community Energy Plan(External link) in July 2017. The plan identifies ways to support Windsor’s local economy by increasing competitiveness, creating jobs in the energy sector, and serves as a business retention strategy. The CEP also identifies ways to improve energy efficiency, improve energy security, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while contributing to the overall quality of life of the Windsor community.

Actions included within their plan include:

• Create a deep retrofit program for existing homes
• Enforce compliance with the Ontario Building Code for new residential development.
• Integrate energy performance labelling for homes and buildings.
• Create a net zero neighbourhood as an opportunity for transformative change at the neighbourhood scale.
• Create a deep retrofit program for existing businesses and public buildings.
• Enforce compliance with the Ontario Building Code for new commercial and institutional development.
• Continually increase industrial energy efficiency.
• Reinforce a Windsor network and mentorship program for transfer of best practices (in the industrial sector).
• Encourage a modal shift towards public transit.
• Develop and implement an active transportation master plan.
• Foster the adoption of electric vehicles.
• Continue to advance smart energy systems by integrating into the land use planning process.
• Designate and plan district energy areas.
• Create a Gordie Howe International Bridge low-energy economic development area.
• Encourage the installation of solar arrays.
• Develop an education and communication campaign to support the CEP.

The plan has established goals to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions per person by 40 per cent by 2041 from 2014 levels.