HAMILTON CITY COUNCIL STAYS THE GREEN ECONOMY COURSE

On Thursday August 11, Hamilton City Council declared “its continuing support for the development of the Green Economy as a set of effective economic development strategies that achieve complimentary environmental and energy benefits while creating jobs and healthy communities.”

This was part of a resolution presented by Blue Green Canada. It recognized the under-reported but significant achievements of the city in encouraging good green job creation through brownfield restoration, support for LEED construction, and targeting green manufacturers to locate in Hamilton.

Hamilton also walks the talk through environmentally-friendly practices. For example, the city’s composting centre harvests the methane coming off its compost and uses it to heat municipal buildings. There are several co-generation operations throughout Hamilton. The municipally-owned electricity distributor has spun off a division actively placing commercial solar cells over the city.  We introduced the resolution because we wanted to encourage the city to continue on this path.

And the good news is that it passed, in an 8-6 vote.

Why was it so close? The second half of the resolution asked the candidates to make the green economy a central part of their campaign in the upcoming provincial election,and to make clear what they will do to help build a green economy; in effect, to see how they line up with the city’s achievements.

Several councillors wanted nothing to do with the provincial election. They were worried “some skilled political operative” would use the resolution for purposes they would oppose. They opposed the entire motion. When other councillors deleted the references to the election, they still opposed it.

We will keep working to win over these folks. There are many ways to build a green economy and everyone should find their place in this effort.