Qualicum Beach Coun. Anne Skipsey wants to know what would be required for the town to declare a climate emergency.
Council will again listen to a delegation from Kwalikum Secondary’s ‘Fridays for the Future’ group at its regular meeting on May 18. Due to a technical glitch in March, the group was not able to make their presentation.
The KSS students, who raise the issue of climate crisis every Friday, will request the town declare a climate emergency, commit to creating an updated climate emergency action plan, and to endorse the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that aims to end all new exploration and production of coal, oil and gas.
In anticipation of their delegation Skipsey made a motion that council unanimously endorsed, that staff be directed to outline actions that could lead to the town declaring climate emergency.
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“What would those words look like?” Skipsey asked. “How could we do that and make it meaningful? I reached out to the school district and they declared a climate emergency. And they’ve been very active. They’ve had a climate action task force that meets regularly.”
Skipsey feels the town can derive some good ideas from the school district on addressing issues concerning greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental matters of concern.
Coun. Scott Harrison said although legally the town can only do so much, he feels they can still broadly discuss what actions the town may introduce to address climate crisis. He said Skipsey’s motion make sense.
“It might be good to get feedback on different things and looking at what impacts are, how long it would take to implement stuff like that,” said Harrison.