Selkirk passes 'absolutely critical' bylaw to better track, reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The City of Selkirk has passed a new bylaw to help it track and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

It's the kind of direct action to fight climate change that the Manitoba city's chief administrative officer Duane Nicol says is "absolutely critical" for governments to take right now.

"We take a look around the world [and see] what we're addressing," Nicol said, pointing to the ongoing floods in British Columbia and water rationing amid droughts in parts of Manitoba this summer as results of a changing climate.

"This is probably the most pressing issue of our time."

The city's greenhouse gas accountability bylaw got its final council reading and was enacted on Monday.

The bylaw means the city has to track and report on corporate and community emissions using internationally recognized standards.

It also set specific reduction targets and established funding to make sure the city actually has the resources it needs to meet those goals, Nicol said.

And it mandates the city to consider the climate change impacts of every decision it makes moving forward.

"So we're making sure that we're considering the GHG emission impact and the resiliency impact of all the decisions that council makes, as well as the administration," Nicol told CBC's Radio Noon host Shannah-Lee Vidal.

He said while the city has already been recording and tracking its corporate reduction targets for five years, the bylaw means those efforts are now public and transparent.

"This is a tool that we can use to demonstrate to citizens, 'Here's actually where we're [taking] action. Here's the measuring stick,'" Nicol said.

The latest update comes in addition to other work around climate change the city has been doing.

This fall, Selkirk submitted annual community-wide emissions data from the past three years to the Carbon Disclosure Project for the first time, the city said in a news release.

And it began reporting emissions from municipal operations in the spring.

The city also plans to finish retrofitting its water treatment plant with geothermal power next year, and is in the process of replacing gas vehicles in its fleet with electric or hybrid ones.

The new bylaw wasn't just the idea of a few people in government, Nicol said.

It addresses the kind of things that people in Selkirk have been asking for.

In the city's community strategic plan, residents identified environmental stewardship as a particularly valuable pillar and asked for help in making better environmental choices.

"When we talk to citizens, we talk about quality of life. People want to walk. They want to live in a community that has trees," he said.

"We're creating opportunities for people to be healthy and happy…. That's why we're here. That's the job of the city."