Mayor Christian says climate action plan shows promise with UBCM recognition

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops was recognized for its Community Climate Action Plan at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Convention this week.

Introduced in 2021, it includes a residential tax levy that will generate an estimated $24 million over 10 years, which will allow the city to address climate change.

Mayor Ken Christian says it’s great to be recognized and while the plan is costly, he believes taxpayers are for it.

“We’re hearing generally positive things from the public. Of course, there are people concerned with taxation, but hear me on this point — if you don’t address climate change, the taxation will be much higher to repair the damage.”

By 2050, Kamloops will attempt to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent.

The City’s plan includes more electric vehicles, waste composting programs and reducing emissions in city buildings.

“It’s a very ambitious plan but it’s achievable. When it comes to buildings, it’s going to be providing opportunities and supporting residents and commercial business owners and conducting deep retrofits and preparing themselves to shift to lower carbon fuel to heat their buildings for space and water,” says Glen Cheetham, City Sustainability Services Supervisor.

Cheetham says transportation has a major impact on emissions and the climate plan addresses it.

“Transportation is our single biggest source of emissions in our community. That’s everything from promoting electric vehicles, supporting the adoption through development of charging infrastructure. This is probably most important to expand our active transportation so more Kamloops residents can get around our city in a sustainable way,” Cheetham adds.

Both Cheetham and Christian added that being recognized at UBCM is validation for implementing the initiatives.

“It’s one thing to have a plan, very important, but it’s really important that there’s resources dedicated to implement the actions and realize the goals of the plan,” Cheetham adds.

“There was a wide public consultation on the community action plan and I think that’s why it was recognized for an Award of Excellence by UBCM and now the Climate Action Levy, I think, is a mechanism within the plan — so I think that is the best practice as well,” Christian says.

Christian says enlarging the fund for city climate projects is a good start — however, that will be the responsibility of the incoming council.

“The challenge going forward will be the capacity for the City to design and build a particularly big move. Now at least we have the funding in place to do that once the tax fund builds. Quite frankly, this is urgent and we have seen the consequences of climate change and we need to act now.”