On Wednesday evening, MRC Pontiac held a public consultation on its climate plan, offering the public an opportunity to weigh in on the county’s efforts to identify and reduce excess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Hosted by MRC environment manager Kari Richardson, the consultation was held both in-person and via zoom, with around five members of the public participating, including media.
“Through the whole process, there was consultation with municipal employees, with the public, through surveys and workshops,” Richardson said. “There was a lot of effort to make sure that there was a collaborative input, not just in MRC Pontiac but across the other MRCs.”
The plan includes analysis from the MRC’s greenhouse gas inventory, which showed that transportation was the number one contributor, as well as waste management and municipal buildings
Richardson’s presentation on the report notes that MRC Pontiac residents emit GHG equivalent to around 7.2 tonnes of CO2, compared to the provincial average of 9 tonnes.
Mitigation efforts are focused around eight orientations identified in the plan: sustainable mobility and transport, buildings and energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy resilience, waste management and the circular economy, civil security and risk adaptation, local food systems and community resilience, land use planning and green infrastructure, as well as governance and sustainable finance.
From these eight orientation categories, the plan identifies 19 objectives, with 54 “concrete measures” to achieve them, with different priorities allocated to each one.
For example, in the transport orientation, one of the objectives is to reduce dependence on automobiles, with the top priority measure being “strengthening rural and interterritorial public transit”.
To reduce transportation emissions, the MRC is aiming to have 15 per cent of road vehicles and five per cent of offroad vehicles use non-petroleum energy by 2035. The MRC is also aiming to reduce building energy use by 20 per cent over that same time period, and reduce fossil fuel use in buildings by 50 per cent. It is also aiming to reduce waste going to landfill by 25 per cent by 2035.
Richardson said that the MRC has received $1,068,877 from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs’ municipal climate transition fund, known under the French acronym ATCL, to implement these mitigation efforts. She said that the MRC had been fortunate to already have its climate plan in the works prior to the ATCL funding being announced, thanks to FRR funding, a separate envelope from the ministry for regional development.
“The warden’s table, and specifically MRC des Collines who kind of spearheaded this project, had the foresight to use FRR funding, to use the regional funding to start the climate plan,” she explained. “So we had already signed contracts and were working with FRR money, and then the government announced this ATCL program. The MRC has already received a million dollars for updating the climate plan, but also to realize actions. We’re lucky we still have the whole envelope, other MRCs would have had to use that to develop their plan, to do their greenhouse gas emissions studies, to do their risk analysis, to create their plan. We haven’t touched it yet.”
The ATCL funding can cover up to 80 per cent of a project, with at least five per cent coming from a municipality or MRC.
A copy of the plan is available on the MRC’s website, however, the majority of the documents are in French only. Questions and comments for the final draft of the plan can be sent to k.richardson@mrcpontiac.qc.ca and will be accepted until May 22.
Richardson said that the MRC is aiming to have the final draft tabled at the June council of mayors meeting, and subsequently sent to the ministry for approval.
