Climate Change Reserve Funding was introduced as part of Hamilton’s Climate Action Strategy in 2022. Photo Credit: iStock.
The City of Hamilton is continuing to spend significant funds on various climate change initiatives after Council declared a “climate change emergency” in March 2019.
Most recently, a report indicates proposed allocations for over $2.5 million of Climate Change Reserve Funding.
Those funds include $150,000 for electric vehicle charging locations and necessary electrical upgrades.
Another $200,000 will go towards “Climate Resilience Measures” for the Macassa Lodge Long-Term Care Home B Wing Expansion including for Air Source Heat Pump Technology, enthalpy wheel health recovery to reduce ventilation energy consumption, and in order to ensure a high-performance building envelope with increased wall and roof insulation.
Next, $225,000 will support the installation of a heat reclaim recovery system in the Riverdale and Huntington Park indoor pools.
An additional $150,000 will fund a study to assess the feasibility of providing in-suite air conditioning at CityHousing Hamilton rental buildings.
The city also plans to retrofit their fleet of 59 ambulances with solar panels to power temperature control within the vehicles, rather than from fuel, at a cost of $250,000.
Another $120,000 will be used to purchase an all-electric Bucher CityCat VR50e zero emissions street sweeper.
Finally, $403,000 will enable the purchase of one electric bike lane sweeping vehicle and one electric bike lane inspection vehicle and charging infrastructure for the vehicles.
The remaining $1 million will go towards various other projects.
The Climate Change Reserve Funding was introduced as part of Hamilton’s Climate Action Strategy which came before Council in 2022.
Among measures introduced was the establishment of a Climate Change Office within the Planning and Economic Development Department in order to lead the city’s Climate Action Strategy.
A Director of Climate Change Initiatives position within the Climate Change Office was created, with an estimated annual cost of $215,000 inclusive of salary and non-salary costs for that one full-time position.
That position was given to activist Lynda Lukasik in December 2022, less than two months after her failed Councillor campaign in the city’s Ward 5 (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek).
Lukasik came in second place receiving 1,598 votes (16.44 per cent).
Matt Francis won the ward with 4,239 votes (43.61 per cent).
Lukasik was formerly a somewhat controversial activist who was the head of Environment Hamilton and previously took the city to court.
She also campaigned strongly against the urban boundary expansion.
Additional full-time positions have since been added to the Climate Change Office and there are now five full-time staff members.
The Climate Change Office has a goal of achieving a “net zero city” by 2050.
Their work is reportedly guided by “climate justice principles.”
The office’s 2024 annual update states, “Climate justice recognizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change on frontline communities (Indigenous Peoples, low-income, marginalized, racialized communities.)”
The Climate Change Office is also responsible for the city’s new controversial Green Building Standards which are a set of both “voluntary and mandatory measures for new development.”
Builders have indicated that those measures could be taken to court and that they add more costs to housing.
Richard Lyall, the President of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario, which represents most of the residential builders in the province, previously lamented that developers, builders, and consumers are already “facing crippling taxes, fees, and development charges that add as much as 31 per cent to the cost of a new home.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
