Canadian town first to pledge net-zero emissions by 2030
An aerial look of Halton Hills, Ont. Photo provided by the Town of Halton Hills
By Cloe Logan
A Christmas holiday in 2011 saw days without power in Halton Hills, Ont., caused by brutal ice storms. Jane Fogal, one of the town’s city councillors, marks that time as a turning point. Extreme weather events have become more common in the town ever since.
Fogal says changing weather has taken a toll on her area’s mixed wood forest — knocked down by wind, destroyed by pine beetles, and replaced with saplings. When she bikes around town, the trees are a constant reminder of how quickly climate change is transforming her own world and places farther afield. It convinced her that as a politician, she needed to act — and fast.
So she brought forward a historic piece of municipal legislation — achieve net-zero emissions by 2030. It’s a wildly ambitious goal for a medium-sized town a stone’s throw from Toronto on the province’s iconic Bruce Trail. Fogal says climate change allows no time for dithering.
“If you were in a car speeding towards a concrete wall that was 50 feet away, would you adopt a plan that would stop your car at ... 70 feet? Or would you make a more ambitious plan to stop at 49 feet?” said Fogal.
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