On May 28, 2019, Greater Sudbury council unanimously voted to declare a climate emergency and set a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with the support of an unprecedented 300+ community members in attendance, and more than 2,000 petitioners from every part of Greater Sudbury.
An independent Oracle survey the same year found that nearly 8/10 residents supported council’s declaration of a climate emergency and the goal of net zero by 2050. Greater Sudbury was united behind the need for urgent climate action.
The evening the declaration was made, there was an electric feeling of hope, determination and community in city hall. Community members of all ages packed council chambers and overflowed into the foyer. Young parents pushed strollers closer to watch council act for their children.
A group of seniors arranged a special bus from their care home to be there. Many members of council spoke powerfully about the urgency of the climate crisis and the duty of community leaders to act for the safety of current and future generations.
For a very long time afterwards, people regularly stopped to talk to me about this day with great joy. People still talk to me about it. But now they most often speak of heartbreak or even betrayal, that the promise of urgent action is not being fulfilled, while the urgent need for action has only grown.
Where are we really at, five years later?
In 2020, council approved a Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP) with a roadmap to achieve net zero by 2050, and interim science-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets: the first two being a 25-per-cent reduction in GHG emissions by 2025, and a 55-per-cent reduction by 2030.
In 2021, council approved a climate lens, so that a short reference to relevance to the CEEP is included at the start of every staff report. In 2023, Council adopted a Community Climate Adaptation Plan. Climate Action is included as a strategic priority in Greater Sudbury’s 2019-2027 strategic plan. Greater Sudbury’s new Climate Action Resource Team brings existing senior staff together several times a year to discuss implementation of the city’s climate actions.
Those are some of Greater Sudbury’s important commitments and guiding documents on climate action. They are crucial steps forward. But how are we doing on implementation?
After a delay of three years, in February staff presented the Climate Action Report to council. That report contains a long list of completed and planned actions relevant to climate, all of which should be celebrated.
However, as stated in the staff report, “while numerous improvements to municipal buildings and operations have been made, overall, the City is not yet on track for reaching net zero by 2050.” Also glaringly missing from that report is any clear action plan to achieve our 2025 and 2030 emission reduction targets. There is no real short-term implementation plan with a list of necessary actions, allocated responsibility, resources required or timeline.
In the 2022 municipal election, nine of the 13 current members of council pledged “to actively champion clear, resourced action plans to meet the short-term targets of 25-per-cent greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2025, and 55-per-cent reductions by 2030.”
The year 2025 is right around the corner and 2030 is coming up fast. However, to date, no motion has been put forward to direct staff to prepare these plans, as they did this month in regards to the Future-Ready Development Services calls for action, asking for a report with an implementation plan and schedule to come back to Council in September.
Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian has famously said, “the truth about a city's aspirations isn't found in its vision. It's found in its budget.” Simply put, what gets resourced, gets done. Council has supported some very positive projects. For example, in the 2022 municipal budget, council voted in favour of business cases for the next stage of the Paris Notre Dame bikeway, an urban forest master plan, moving forward on electrifying transit, converting park lighting to LED, and annual cleaning of catch basins in the Ramsey Lake watershed.
However, five years after declaring a climate emergency, our city does not have a single staff person solely dedicated to climate action. Our city does not have a dedicated budget to implement our Community Energy and Emissions Plan or Community Climate Adaptation Plan. Our city has not put in place highly effective tools such as a carbon budget, or financing solutions for climate action.
Our city has not adopted high impact policies like eliminating parking minimums or local green building standards. Our city has not undertaken larger stand-alone climate action projects. Our city has not led community-wide actions.
Several key short-term CEEP actions have not yet started. We lack capacity for effective action, and it shows.
In the past five years, our council has approved new staff positions in other areas. For example, in the 2024-2025 municipal budget, funding was approved for 26 additional police staff, and nine additional emergency services personnel.
However, council has not yet approved any additional staff for climate action.
Experience from other communities has shown that a senior climate staff position responsible for overseeing climate action enables the city to take the next step from taking ad-hoc climate actions to effectively implementing their Community Energy and Emissions and Climate Adaptation Plans. However, after initially approving such a position (posted in fall 2023), during deliberations for the 2024 municipal budget, council deferred a decision on funding the Climate Resilience Officer until 2025.
In the 2024-2025 budget documents, city staff identify climate change as a corporate risk, stating that the corporation, or the city as a whole, may be insufficiently resilient to respond to environmental shocks, and the corporation may be unprepared for the effects of climate change. The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of action.
Every person in a leadership position at this time has a moral duty to act to cut carbon emissions for a safe climate for current and future generations, and to make our community climate resilient to protect people, homes, infrastructure and nature from climate impacts.
On May 28, 2019, council committed to do what was needed and made a heart-felt commitment that when the time came, they would make the difficult but necessary choices to put climate action in the budget and get it done.
Greater Sudbury has taken some important climate actions since declaring a climate emergency in 2019. However, Greater Sudbury will not meet its commitments to do what is necessary for a safe climate and a climate resilient community without greater leadership and dedicated resources.
Greater Sudbury knows how to be a leader. We are a leader in regreening, and we can be a leader in being a climate ready community. We can be a community that acts on the climate crisis and the housing crisis together, while improving equity and quality of life. That’s the thing about climate action: it makes our community a better place to live. Let’s get to it. As news of extreme weather and wildfires grow, it is in acting together that we will build hope and a better community for all.
Naomi Grant is the chair of the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury.
