By a narrow four to three margin, City of Powell River Council has endorsed the call for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.
At the July 21 council meeting, councillors were presented a recommendation to endorse the call to urge the province to support the initiative for a treaty, and to affirm its ongoing commitment to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and greenhouse gas reduction targets as called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In moving the recommendation, councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said committee of the whole had received a good presentation from Calvin Beauchesne, a proponent for the treaty, on July 5.
“This is important to bring this forward and to reach out to the higher levels of government, and also show our endorsement at this level,” said Leishman. “We are on the frontline and things we do are rippling across not only the province, but also, the country. All of the climate action work we are doing has been recognized across Canada. It’s important at the local level to not feel like we are a small, little island in the stream. We are part of the bigger picture.
“Anything we can do to endorse moving away from fossil fuels is the only thing that is going to sustain this planet for life.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she thinks it’s important that the province and the country live up to commitments toward agreements.
“We can’t be leaders internationally if we don’t live up to the agreements that we have,” added Elliott. “At the municipal level, it’s always supportive for us to move forward on initiatives to meet our obligations when governments set up their funding and systems in a planned way to meet targets.
“At our level, we’ll continue to try to eliminate fossil fuels from our operations. It would be great if governments were organized and had a plan for meeting those targets because I don’t see it yet.”
Councillor George Doubt said the recommendation contains action that the community can responsibly do.
“I support this resolution,” said Doubt. “It is different from the one that was proposed, but it goes a long way toward what the city wants to accomplish, and follows our environmental goals.”
Councillor Jim Palm said climate change is real, and he doesn’t mind writing letters to the premier and the MLA, but when the proposal says to continue phasing out fossil fuels entirely in the city, he had some difficulties.
“I know what fossil fuels have done to provide the standard of living people enjoy,” said Palm. “But by banning fossil fuels completely, I don’t know what future that holds for the world, so I can’t vote for this.”
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said one of the pillars of the treaty she has a problem with is stopping all new oil and gas extraction.
“We all drive cars, and I don’t think stopping is the answer,” said Hathaway. “Phase out terminology might be better.”
Doubt said the motion did not include everything asked for in Beauchesne’s report and that “continue to work towards phasing out fossil fuels in the City of Powell River” was one of the recommended actions, but that language was not included in the motion before council.
Leishman said the document states the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty is a global campaign calling for fossil fuel phase-out and a timely transition to renewable energy to address the global climate crisis.
“It’s a phasing out and a just transition,” said Leishman.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he was concerned because there is thermal coal used for heating and to create energy, and there was also coal used in metallurgy for making steel. He wonders how that relates.
Formosa also said he was not happy with United States president Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States.
Voting in favour of the motion were councillors Leishman, Doubt, Rob Southcott and Elliott, and opposed were councillors Hathaway and Palm, and mayor Formosa.
