David Chernushenko urges city of Ottawa to boost emissions targets, match province

The chair of Ottawa's environment committee wants the city to align its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the more aggressive ones set by the Ontario government.

Coun. David Chernushenko would also like to see the committee he chairs renamed the "environment and climate protection committee" to better reflect his personal aim of keeping global temperatures steady.

Those proposals are laid out in a draft motion Chernushenko plans to present at the committee's next meeting, in February 2016. By then the outcome of the high-profile UN climate talks taking place in Paris that begin Nov. 30 will be known.

Chernushenko wants to see world leaders set bold targets there.

"That's the signal that everybody else needs, that at the very highest level of government they're serious and we need to do our part to put into practices the commitments that they're making," he said.

'Baby steps'

The city of Ottawa updated its air quality and climate change management plan in the spring of 2014, but Chernushenko called the targets set out in the document "baby steps."

His draft motion suggests the city aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, as Ontario has set out to acheive. The motion will need to be debated and approved first by the committee, then by city council.

Earlier this week, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the Union of Quebec Municipalities signed an agreement to work together on climate change, and to promote the role cities can play in crafting environmentally progressive policies on transit, storm water systems and other infrastructure.