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Environment committee approves fee increase

Environment committee approves fee increase

Delegates demand figures on greenhouse gas emissions, tree canopy and number of heat-related deaths

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The city’s Environment and Climate Change Committee approved a proposed budget that includes fee and rate increases for a wide range of services, including curbside trash pickup, potable water, wastewater, stormwater and forestry.

Ottawa residents would see a number of fee increases over the next year, including for trash pickup. The city has introduced measures to extend the life of the Trail Road landfill as it builds a new landfill, including moving to a flat rate to cover solid waste services, which were previously funded in partly by property taxes and partly by royalties.

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In 2024, the fee is $145 per year for residential households and $91 per unit for multi-residential buildings. In 2025, this amount would increase to $243 for a single-family household and to $167 per dwelling in a multi-residential building. However, because less of the money would come from each household’s property taxes, the net effect would be about a 7 percent increase.

Meanwhile, annual stormwater user fees would increase by 12 percent across the board, from $209.91 to $235.10 for a single-family or semi-detached urban or rural household and from $104.96 to $117.56 for a townhouse or an urban or rural apartment.

Tariffs for using drinking water would increase by 2 percent. There would also be increased fees for some services, from inspecting new water pipes to installing water meters.

But the bulk of the challenges posed by delegations addressing the committee Tuesday were not about fees. Instead, speakers called on the city to better track climate change data such as greenhouse gas emissions, tree canopies and the number of heat-related deaths.

Angela Keller-Herzog, executive director of Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES Ottawa), said 2025 is the last year of the city’s climate change master plan, but the latest update has had will take place in April 2023, and during this term. the municipal council has not received an emissions inventory.

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“I think the situation is not good and we do not have enough information to approve or not approve this budget. We’re basically in the dark — and when I say ‘we,’ I mean the council as well as the public,” she said.

In a report published last June, municipal auditor Nathalie Gougeon declared the city is behind on its climate change goals and priorities. The city is committed to fighting climate change, but it cannot capture some metrics in a meaningful way, the report notes.

Ken Johnson, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Ottawa, said that while the city has targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from businesses and communities, the latest data received was based on 2020 figures.

“The latest greenhouse gas data was released three years ago and is now four years old,” he said. “Where are we progressing? Which sector needs to be improved? We don’t know because we have no idea.

Johnson also wanted up-to-date data on the city’s tree cover, both in rural and urban areas. In 2019, the city set a canopy coverage goal of 40%. An aerial survey was conducted in 2022, but that data won’t be processed until next year, said Johnson, who recommended an annual tree cover survey.

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“I’ve heard that we lose 1,000 acres of trees every year, but that’s hearsay and anecdote, not very helpful,” he said.

The city also needs to collect data on heat-related deaths, Johnson said.

“We know that heat kills, especially vulnerable people. I would venture to guess that the biggest and most urgent resilience investment and budget allocation we need to make is on cooling apartments and homes that don’t have air conditioning. Fortunately, heat pumps can both heat and cool.

William van Geest, interim executive director of Ecology Ottawa, was among the speakers urging the city to step up its efforts to plant more trees.

“Trees are one of our best defenses against climate change, whether for mitigation or resilience, and the return on investment is almost unbeatable,” he said.

Paul Tulloch, a data scientist who studies the mitigation of methane emissions around the world, said Ottawa has invested in its green bin program to divert organic matter from landfills. It’s a big step forward, but the program is underutilized.

“We studied countries like Germany and Japan, where diversion of organic products is almost part of their culture. We need to address a cultural change, not just material and investment costs,” he said. “I recommend at least one action plan to accelerate the use of green bins.”

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Capital District Council. Shawn Menard, chair of the committee, said many questions about the data should be answered in the coming months, including an emissions inventory and updates on the climate change master plan and tree canopy. the city.

“You’re absolutely right,” Menard told Johnson. “We’ve seen the shrinking canopy in our city, and it’s certainly alarming and it’s a problem that we’re working to mitigate, not just by replanting, but by keeping more trees. »

The proposed 2025 budget includes $6 million for climate change initiatives. But beyond that budget line item, the impact of climate change is spread across many of the city’s projects, said Debbie Stewart, the city’s executive director of strategic initiatives.

In the proposed budget, capital projects worth $375 million were assessed as having a “moderate or major” impact on the city’s climate goal, including $306 million to replace buses 40 feet by a new fleet of zero-emission buses.

Standing committees will meet in the coming weeks to examine the draft budget. The city council will consider the final budget on December 11.

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