Maggie Braun of the ‘KICLEI’ group speaks at the City of Kawartha Lakes council meeting.
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
KAWARTHA LAKES — Grassroots opponents of a global climate-control program that has wormed its way into hundreds of Canadian municipalities urged local politicians in the City of Kawartha Lakes to pull out of the controversial program and save millions of dollars for true local priorities.
The program is spearheaded by the UN-affiliated International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, or ICLEI. The organized opponents call their movement ‘KICLEI’ — as they hope to give the boot to the initiative endorsed by the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. More than 500 of the Federation’s 3,600 member municipalities have voluntarily signed onto the so-called Partners for Climate Protection program, committing themselves to ‘net zero’ emissions cuts and related plans to theoretically control the weather.
The City of Kawartha Lakes is among 159 Ontario signatories, out of 444 municipalities in the province.
KICLEI founder Maggie Braun said that joining the program was assumed to be free when the city signed up in 2018. However, hitting the program’s milestone targets typically costs a Canadian municipality between $7 million and $192 million in administration and capital expenses, Braun, a Peterborough-area resident and a graduate of Fleming College’s Ecosystem Management program, told city council on Nov. 26.
Program milestones include “extensive data collection to establish the emission baseline; setting reduction targets; developing and adopting the climate action plan; and ongoing monitoring and progress reporting.”
The cost of complying diverts “funds from other essential municipal services and (existing) local environmental programs” like maintaining green spaces, traditional waste management and recycling, she said. Instead, local tax dollars are redirected into “costly global initiatives like renewable energy projects, EV infrastructure, upgrading the municipal fleet, retrofitting buildings, smart-city technology to monitor and track all this data, and developing concepts like 15-minute cities.” She called on the council to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of staying in the program.
Braun also took aim at “flawed assumptions” underlying the program, including an “over-emphasis on man made CO2 as the primary driver behind climate change.”
A couple of the KICLEI presenters suggested more practical, locally focused alternatives for those concerned about carbon in the environment.
Local farmer Angel Godsoe noted that 5,000 acres of rotationally grazed farmland could offset the city’s annual CO2 emissions. Godsoe, a former Green Party candidate, suggested setting up a 500-acre pilot project in partnership with Sir Sandford Fleming College.
Gene Balfour proposed a Voluntary Climate Change Group that would privately raise funds to assist property and business owners with energy efficiency projects. “Individuals could choose whether or not to donate to this group, rather than being taxed to fund government programs aimed at addressing the ‘climate change crisis theory’ through taxation and regulation,” he said.
City council made no immediate decision, but KICLEI has scored some past successes. In June, the Southwestern Ontario City of Thorold withdrew from the Partners for Climate Protection program after a presentation by the group. Last year, Braun also persuaded rural Douro-Dummer Township in Peterborough County to oppose that region’s official plan because of its references to climate change and the county’s support for the program.
