Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MUSKOKA – On Monday, December 21, the darkest day of 2020, Muskoka District Council brought light, hope, and the best Christmas present ever to the people of Muskoka, unanimously passing A New Leaf: Muskoka’s Climate Strategy to address the Climate Crisis, with a goal of ensuring a safe, just and healthy future.

“This strategy names the Climate Crisis as an emergency, requiring immediate action,” said Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) spokesperson, Melinda Zytaruk, in support of the proposal. “It brings strong policy leadership and firm targets which put climate action at the fore-front of all decision-making.”

She stated that A New Leaf also provides for strong partnership between the community and the District, and praised the work of Kevin Boyle, Climate Initiatives Coordinator and his team.

Zytaruk urged the District to make immediate policy changes in 2021 requiring decarbonization of all new builds in Muskoka and retro-fitting of existing buildings, conversion of the District fleet to electric with provision of District-wide charging infrastructure, and finally promotion of low-carbon leisure activities through the development of active infrastructure for walking, biking, hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing etc.

“Listening to the recent delegations from CAM has prompted us to consider the opportunity to bring forward a more comprehensive, collaborative strategy for your consideration,” Christy Doyle, Director of Environmental & Watershed Programs, told Council. She pointed out that doing anything meaningful requires an all-hands-on-deck approach.

A New Leaf, includes the District government’s plan to reduce its own carbon footprint, the MCCAP. It also embraces as a guiding framework the strong Climate Emergency resolution brought to the Council by CAM:  a greater than 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, reaching zero by 2050, development of a Community Climate Action Plan (CAP), with input from a diverse, representative Community Working Group, which will regularly review and update the CAP.

Councillor Nancy Alcock, urged all councillors to sign up individually on the CAM website to take the 50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge to demonstrate leadership on climate to their constituents.

The District now joins countries, municipalities, businesses and individual citizens around the world in raising its ambition to address the Climate Crisis ahead of the 2021 COP26 international climate conference. Some countries have revised their decarbonization goals upwards, noting that 50% by 2030 is now considered insufficient to keep the heating below the 1.5C degrees over pre-industrial levels.

[See a PDF of the presentation to council here and the report to committee which includes a copy of A New Leaf: Muskoka’s Climate Strategy here.]

CAM is an inclusive, non-partisan group of citizens concerned about climate change in Muskoka.

climateactionmuskoka.org  climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MUSKOKA – Climate Action Muskoka’s (CAM) ambitious Climate Emergency resolution is on its way back to Muskoka District Council as part of the District’s A New Leaf: Muskoka’s Climate Strategy after the report received unanimous support from the District Community and Planning Services committee (CPSC) at its meeting Thursday.

“This is a bold climate framework for Muskoka with timelines, goals and broad community input. It acknowledges the important role both the District of Muskoka and the community must play together to address the mounting climate crisis,” said Sue McKenzie, co-founder of CAM after the meeting. 

The report, developed by Kevin Boyle, the District’s Climate Change Initiatives Co-ordinator, Christy Doyle, Director of Environmental and Watershed Programs, and the MCCAP Steering committee includes the detailed Muskoka Corporate Climate Action Plan (MCCAP).

Committee chair, councillor Nancy Alcock, suggested that staff needs to hold Council’s feet to the fire to ensure the strategy is implemented.

“This isn’t us holding Council’s feet to the fire,” responded Boyle. “This is everybody holding everybody’s feet to the fire. This is a co-ordinated effort that crosses all departments in the District. This is Council holding staff’s feet to the fire, community groups holding staff and Council’s feet to the fire. It’s the Watershed Council and Climate Action Muskoka. It’s a unified approach that means we move these actions forward.”

Councillors expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of taking the climate strategy back to their area municipal councils.

“!’m so amazed to see how quickly this morphed from a plan into a strategy,” said councillor Mike Peppard. “I very much look forward to seeing how this can go to the area municipalities and how we can work with this plan instead of reinventing the wheel.”

A New Leaf: Muskoka’s Climate Strategy will come before Muskoka District Council on Monday, December 21 for a final vote.

CAM invites citizens, groups and businesses to join its community-wide project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030.  Sign up to take the 50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge. https://www.climateactionmuskoka.org/

Climate Action Muskoka is an inclusive, non-partisan group of citizens concerned about climate change in Muskoka who believe in working together to inspire individuals, groups, and every level of government to make the dramatic changes needed to meet this historic climate challenge.

Sue McKenzie for CAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MUSKOKA – On Monday October 19, 2020, the District Council of Muskoka unanimously passed a watered-down Climate Emergency Declaration.  The resolution passed was not the same resolution put forward by Climate Action Muskoka (CAM).

Although Melinda Zytaruk made an extensive presentation to Council on behalf of CAM, the resolution finally voted on was a weakened, rewritten motion put up to replace the stronger CAM resolution, despite the fact that many councillors had previously declared they were unwilling to pass a resolution that was meaningless.

“It constitutes a mere token declaration with no ‘teeth’, no goals, no community input, no plan, in short, nothing to hold the District of Muskoka to addressing the mounting climate crisis,” said Sue McKenzie, co-founder of CAM after the meeting.  

“Declaring there is a climate emergency with no commitments attached is like saying the earth is round or photosynthesis happens,” Zytaruk added.

The motion to pass the CAM Resolution received strong support from a number of councillors. Mover of the motion Councillor Peppard spoke of the need to have firm targets and seconder Councillor Alcock urged the council to see the merit in viewing all decision-making through a climate lens. Councillor Glover said he intended to take a similar resolution to Lake of Bays Council.

“I think it’s extremely important that we recognize that the climate situation actually IS an emergency because of the scale of challenge in front of us,” said Councillor Koetzier. He spoke ardently of the need to take real action now pointing out that the Township of Georgian Bay declared a climate emergency early in 2020.

Others applauded the collaborative work done by CAM with District staff, the Muskoka Watershed Council and councillors to develop the resolution. Chair John Klink recognized the work done to achieve widespread community endorsement.

McKenzie pointed out that the CAM resolution was shelved along with its action items:  to develop a Community Action Plan (CAP); to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030, reaching zero by 2050; to support a diverse Community Working Group to provide input and review to the CAP; to collaborate with other parties to develop standards and protocols in line with climate mitigation.

“The bottom line is that the councillors who did NOT support a Climate Emergency resolution with real goals and actions built in, procedurally out-manouevred those councillors who wanted to see the District take real action,” according to McKenzie.

“Of course, our CAM members are profoundly disappointed after working collaboratively for a year to bring a strong resolution to Council,” McKenzie declared. “The District has missed this opportunity to move forward with the community and has placed the responsibility for developing their corporate and community Climate Action plans back in the hands of their staff.  It is our hope the staff will include the substantial action items we have been discussing with them.”

CAM will continue working with and in the community to educate and encourage citizens, businesses and groups to take up the challenge of addressing the climate crisis and the need to take urgent action.

Last week CAM launched it new project 50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge where individuals and households can pledge to reduce their carbon footprint 8% a year to reach the goal of a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. https://www.climateactionmuskoka.org/

Climate Action Muskoka is an inclusive, non-partisan group of citizens concerned about climate change in Muskoka who believe in working together to inspire individuals, groups, and every level of government to make the dramatic changes needed to meet this historic climate challenge.

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Sue McKenzie for CAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020

MUSKOKA – Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) will be presenting its Climate Emergency Declaration resolution to Muskoka District Council Monday, October 19 at 3 pm. CAM member Melinda Zytaruk will delegate digitally on behalf of CAM to the Council, after which a vote to declare a Climate Emergency will take place.

“The community first called for the District to declare a Climate Emergency last September during the Global Climate strike” says Sue McKenzie. “This declaration is vital to setting Muskoka on a speedy decarbonization of our community to help keep global heating to 1.5C.”

Endorsements of the resolution have come in from community leaders, businesses, groups and individuals. CAM invites everyone to visit its website this week to view the list of endorsements and to add your name, business or group here: https://www.climateactionmuskoka.org/endorsements-declaration-of-climate-emergency/

CAM is also launching its 50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge this weekend inviting the Muskoka community to match the same reduction of greenhouse gas goals being asked of the District of Muskoka. You can read about that and join the challenge on the website climateactionmuskoka.org.

CAM is an inclusive, non-partisan group of citizens concerned about climate change in Muskoka.

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Sue McKenzie for Climate Action Muskoka

647 884-1531