Planet Haliburton

A lot has happened, since we last spoke with Dianne Saxe: internationally, nationally and right here in Ontario.

The more variable weather that comes with a warming climate increases that likelihood of winter freeze/thaw events and the risk that melting snow and rain on roads will turn into ice.

Dianne Saxe, The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, issued her 2018 Greenhouse Gas Progress Report, entitled “Climate Action in Ontario: What’s Next?” in late September.

While greenhouse gas concentrations rise to unprecedented levels, climate scientists are becoming more and more vocal about the urgent need for action to avoid triggering runaway climate disruption.

On the September 24th episode of Planet Haliburton we examine the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly aspects of the septic inspection programs being rolled out across the county.

The June 7th Ontario Provincial election not only put Doug Ford in the Premier’s Office, it also put the first Green Party MPP in Ontario’s history in the Legislative Assembly.

With 40 percent of Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from the construction, heating and cooling of the buildings we live and work in, decreasing the energy budgets of our built infrastructure seems like a no-brainer.

40 percent of GHG emissions in Ontario are generated by the construction, operation, and maintenance of our buildings.

Lyme Disease has been diagnosed in Haliburton County and the risk it poses to human health will only increase as the climate warms and tick populations grow.

With Doug Ford’s election as Ontario’s new Premier on June 7th, public policy on climate change has been thrown into disarray. While Ford claims to be a carbon tax denier and not a climate change denier, the first official act of his new cabinet was to kill the previous government’s entire cap and trade system for putting both limits and a price on carbon pollution.

While the dust is just beginning to settle from Doug Ford’s election as Ontario Premier on June 7th, it’s clear that the new Conservative government is moving quickly to dismantle the previous government’s “cap and trade” system for putting a price on carbon pollution.

The proposed purchase of the Kinder Morgan pipeline (AKA Trans Mountain) by the Federal Government, turns Canadians into potential shareholders in a project that compromises Canada’s international greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments. But what about the economics of extracting and shipping tar sands bitumen to tidewater and foreign markets? 

With the Trudeau government’s recent nationalization of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project, the confrontation between pro and anti pipeline forces in B.C. and across the country has been taken to a whole new level.

With the County of Haliburton taking the first tentative steps toward the creation of a Local Climate Change Action Plan for the Haliburton Highlands, the experience of other small rural municipalities can provide some helpful suggestions for making the effort as successful as possible.

In an era of climate change, ever-escalating levels of consumption, increasing single-use products and packaging and the proliferation of plastic waste, there’s a group in Muskoka, our neighbour immediately to the west, calling for a “Reusable Revolution”.

British Columbia and Alberta fighting over pipelines, coastlines and the future of our climate; Ontario Progressive Conservatives throwing out carbon taxes along with their former leader, Patrick Brown; Doug Ford, Jason Kenney, and Andrew Scheer promising an all out war on Justin Trudeau’s Federal Carbon Tax after the next Ontario, Alberta, and Federal Elections.

Haliburton County Council is taking the first tentative steps toward producing a plan to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions in Haliburton as well as building our capacity to deal with consequences of global warming and climate change, such as increased incidence of extreme weather, flood damage and insect-borne disease like Lyme’s Disease.

On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we are joined by recently elected County Warden Suzanne Partridge to get her take on the key environmental issues facing the County. We cover a lot of territory from climate change mitigation and adaptation to healthy shorelines and septic systems to the field spreading of septage.

The most recent audit of Ontario’s climate change policies and progress, entitled “Ontario’s Climate Act: From Plans to Progress”, was issued by on January 30, 2018. To discuss the good, the bad and the just plain ugly findings contained in her 284-page report, we’re joined for a feature interview by Dianne Saxe, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner.