Climate emergency: Windsor can do better

Residents and environmental experts were on hand to adopt this proposal, thanks to which Windsor joined forces with more than 400 municipalities across Canada who had previously taken the lead.

Two years later, experts believe the city could do better. Such is the case with Anneke Smit. She is Professor of Law at the University of Windsor and Director of the Windsor Cities Law Center.

In an interview with CBC, she explained that Windsor has to be more proactive in some changes, act faster, and be a leader.

sometimes […] We wait for other municipalities to do the important things first and then follow upShe said.

« One of the things we see in other municipalities is where climate experts are positioned in terms of decision-making power. I have always liked that our climate-responsible staff are primarily located at the water treatment plant, several kilometers from City Hall. »

Smit believes that putting her environmental experts away from the seat of power sends a message about the priority the city places over climate in decision-making processes.

But she says significant progress has been made in the past two years.

especially martyrdom The fact that at the moment, when the city council is sitting with a report from their management, there is a section in the report in question that talks about climate risks, climate considerations.

on the right track

Anneke Smit also notes that significant structural work has been done at the municipal level since the emergency was declared, although there are still many things to be done.

Climate risk analyzes are now being produced, work is underway on parks, and partnerships are being established with the City of Detroit, she notes.

Laurie Newton wants to encourage residents to use environmentally friendly transportation.

Photo: CBC/Derek Spalding

Laurie Newton also notes progress. she is a manager Windsor Essex bike and founder bike kitchen, a non-profit bicycle shop in Windsor.

She notes that since the climate emergency was declared, decisions have been made in particular to facilitate the safe use of bicycles in Windsor.

One of the great achievements in terms of cycling infrastructure in Windsor is Windsor Drive Project Which was done about two years ago. This made it easier to use the bike to get to work in some places, she explained.

« But we know the most important thing we can do is encourage people to use public transportation and be active, and be active as they go through the city. Other than that, we don’t see much. »

Ms. Newton would like more lighting and maintenance work on the runway along the Detroit River, which she believes is in heavy use.

Women in particular may be concerned about being there after sunset and sunset too early for now., as you say.

share of cities

Anneke Smit leads a group of students and a research team that works with 90 medium-sized municipalities across the country to compare applicable policies.

She explains that her students have concluded that Windsor falls under the category of cities moving in the right direction, but there is still room for improvement.

Progress that is critical and which must be intervened as quickly as possible, at the municipal level in particular, according to Alain Normand, consultant on emergency measures.

Large municipalities and municipalities with a larger population can pay people full time, work on emergency measures, do risk assessments and all that, but small municipalities do not have these people. I mean there, he explains.

« Is Windsor ready? up to a certain point. I know people who work in Windsor on emergency procedures. They do their best, but then again, the budgets are not necessarily the highest. There are all kinds of restrictions. »

He is of the view that cities, especially those that are not among the largest, must find the means to invest in prevention measures.

We have contingency, planning and prevention plans that leave much to be desired, especially at the level of small municipalities, he explains.

Alain Normand believes that cities, even small ones, would benefit from anticipating the damage caused by climate change.

Image source: Alain Normand

For him, these investments will ultimately be life-saving, because the work to be done after disasters is very expensive.

There are calculations that have been made that specify that for every dollar we put into prevention, we save between $10 and $100 in response to recovery and then., Determines.