Environment

With respect to the environment, we should do whatever we can whenever we can, within our means. The solutions should always be results based and financially responsible. I would like to see town facilities transitioning older town buildings with energy-efficient lighting, and smart energy management systems to cut carbon emissions. Another idea I would like to see gather momentum is the town moving to take steps to preserve more of our precious farmland and protect the local rivers and streams from commercial and urban runoff. Lastly, I would also advocate for the town to partner with the county to expand the public organic/recycling methodology as well as planting more trees.

I'm particularly interested in local food production. I've previously suggested exploring incentives or small grants to help residents establish backyard greenhouses and grow more of their own food (in a previous post, not at the council table for Greys for Green). I'd like to expand on that idea, along with increasing our support for community gardens and food forests, and supporting more farmers' markets throughout New Tecumseth. Buying and growing food locally supports our farmers, reduces transportation and strengthens food security at the same time and who doesn't want farm fresh eggs!

I also want to see meaningful progress toward the Town's goal of increasing our urban tree canopy and protecting our mature trees wherever reasonably possible.

Carbon neutrality is a difficult topic in that we have to balance that against job losses, etc. Industries have to comply with carbon regulations and any new industry will have to do the same.

Can we add more chargers to public spaces? That may help, but not if EV are out of reach of many would be buyers.

From a vehicle perspective, more affordable EV will have a positive impact. Expansion of transit between our communities may also help reduce the number of gas vehicles.

I am not certain I have specific measures and prefer not to throw a wide net over ambiguous solutions.

An easy way to lower our carbon footprint is to make it safer to walk or ride a bicycle. Having useful public transportation will go a long way to cutting emissions.

Protecting waterways and establishing more outdoor recreation opportunities can contribute to long-term well-being and environmental respect.

Over the next four years I'd push for practical steps: keep development gentle instead of tall towers, protect our water and power supply by saying no to projects we can't support like data centres, and make traffic lights respond to actual traffic so cars aren't sitting idle at empty intersections. I'd also push for a real transit system connecting our towns — fewer cars on the road means less traffic and cleaner air, and it helps people get to work without needing a car.

First, New Tecunseth can target heating emissions by enacting stricter Green Building Standards for new developments and retrofitting existing structures. Also implementing a Clean Energy Improvement plan allows property owners to fund energy-efficiency upgrades such as high-efficiency heat pumps and solar panels through low-interest loans tied directly to their property tax bills.

Second, New Tecumseth should transition its corporate and transit fleets away from fossil fuels. Electrifying municipal vehicles, while installing a network of public EV charging stations.

Third, reducing landfill waste is critical to stopping methane emissions. Expanding green bin organic collection and upgrading local landfills with methane gas capture systems can turn harmful emissions into usable green energy.

Finally, New Tecumseth must protect and expand their natural infrastructure. By leveraging funding from sources like the FCM Green Municipal Fund, we can expand our urban tree canopies which we have successfully started to do after being successful in getting a FCM grant. We should pass zoning laws that permanently safeguard wetlands and forests.

By combining green building regulations, fleet electrification, waste diversion, and natural asset management, I believe New Tecumseth can successfully pave a realistic, self-sustaining path to net zero emissions.

Thank you for your question.

I would love to see more solar panels on our buildings for one. I'd also love to see a recycling program that works and lets go a step further and put into our town permits that you must use recyclable materials in your events. Also continue the rain barrel program and investigate other similar opportunities.

For me, environmental sustainability is about practical choices that make sense for our community and our taxpayers.

Over the next four years, I’d like to see more trees planted, our mature trees and green spaces protected, and new neighbourhoods designed with better walking and cycling connections.

I’d also like the Town to continue looking for ways to reduce energy use and waste in our buildings, vehicles and day-to-day operations. I’m a big believer in supporting local, recycling, reusing and refurbishing whenever we can.

We can keep moving toward our environmental goals without making life more expensive for residents. I think there are many common-sense changes that are good for both the environment and the taxpayer.

We have to take a practical approach towards being carbon neutral. I don’t believe we should be spending tax payers money just to reach a target.

If there are environmental initiatives to help the tax payers save money, then I will support it. But I am not going to support expensive projects simply because it checks a box.

Initially I was in favor of the idea. I would personally love to see chickens take care of my garden pests. However looking at the bigger picture of biosecurity the risk is very high. Any sort of avian risk could have a catastrophic impact on our food security and stability. This is an area where we would have to carefully examine the risks with experts beforehand.

I'm not opposed to backyard chickens. Food isn't getting any cheaper, and we need to think of ways to help residents reduce their costs.

Every term of Council Ive sat on backyard chickens has come in front of us. Ive supported it every time and think it can work here in New Tec. Id probably suggest a pilot project first to give us the opportunity to work out any issues that may arise but overall I absolutely support this idea!

I believe when this came to a vote this term the concern of poultry farms and avian flu were brought up. I'd gladly look at this again and explore other regions and how they've dealt with it.

I am cautious about data centres as I do not fully understand the impact they can have on a community. I would need to see the details of any proposal before supporting one in New Tecumseth.

We need to attract new investment and diversify our employment base, and data centres could potentially be part of that. But I don't believe we should give up valuable employment lands or water capacity simply because a development represents a large investment.

I would want to understand how many permanent local jobs would actually be created, what the economic benefit to New Tecumseth would be, and what demands the facility would place on electricity, water and wastewater infrastructure. Noise, heat, environmental impacts, location and compatibility with surrounding properties would also need to be considered.

If a data centre brings meaningful investment, jobs and assessment growth without placing an unreasonable burden on our infrastructure, environment or residents, then I would consider it. If the costs and impacts outweigh the local benefits, I would not support it.

Data centers are becoming an area of contention for many communities. We have a number of issues to consider. We also have to differentiate between "large A.I. computational data centers and stand alone data centers used to amalgamate information. Each will use large volumes of electricity, but they use water differently. Here is a good link: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption

Many jurisdictions, rightly or wrongly, consider the creation of Data centers as "near existential importance", citing that loosing ground to China, which is quickly building out their data center infrastructure, may weaken the ability to counteract A.I. supported interests (industry, technology, military). This is more of an American-centric idea as it seems to be difficult to find information which is Canadian-centric. Unfortunately, the bandwagon will fill up quickly if other jurisdictions adapt such concerns. There is still much opacity regarding how A.I works.

In the Ohio model, municipal laws were essentially rewritten to favor data center construction. In the Ohio model, laws were written to encourage "public-private" partnerships, essentially allowing Data Centre corporations (the owners) to use public pension dollars to fund construction. The question: "If the data center looses money, will those public funds be returned to the pension fund?" has not been answered. I am not suggesting that a Canadian center would try to use similar financing models as American centers, but the move towards using public fund as "an investment pool" in data centers which will be controlled by a handful of corporations is concerning.

This is an excerpt "Public concern spiked globally and locally following statements from financial executives (including BlackRock's CEO) indicating that ordinary citizens' long-term retirement accounts and public pensions would serve as the foundational capital to build out the massive power infrastructure required for AI data centers. [1] (Citation-Yahoo finance)

The centers also use a considerable amount of water, raising concerns about rising water supply costs for the public, available, pollution. However, most systems are closed-loop so the concern over water usage is still questionable. Over the last decade (or more), there have been increasing concerns over the privatization of water supplies, with interested parties citing the "need to protect and conserve water supplies". The concern is that once water supplies are privatized and managed, public rights to water will deteriorate, as a corporation lawful obligation is to the shareholder. THIS IS AN OPINION, but you can research "Ohio data centers", "privatization of water supplies".

If the water usage is a critical issue, to mitigate water needs, it would be economical for data center interests to consider building water desalinization plants on each of the coasts (U.S. in this example). Much of the Middle east draws its water from desalinization plants. This is unlikely as corporate interests will always feed off of the closest and easiest to reach food source.

In short, no. I would consider a data center mostly beneficial due to the employment it will bring, but if we are already struggling with infrastructure costs and water supply, how would it even be possible?

I do love progress, but value the environment more. Until the environmental challenges related to water use and other effects, It is difficult to support the idea at the moment.

The supply restrictions of the necessary hardware make it very unlikely that we need to worry about one anytime soon. However that presents us with an opportunity to pivot into a growth industry. Can we find talent to go high tech?

I agree — we don't have the water or electrical grid resources to support data centres in New Tecumseth.

They are a bad idea as they use lots of water (which we don't have) and give very little back to the community.

I really don't think this is a possibility here due to our water situation. If the water situation was solved then we would also need to create an energy source here for them rather than pull off the grid. Solar farms (do we have the space?), wind mills (do we have the space?).