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Ottawa Citizen

City of Ottawa four years behind in releasing greenhouse gas emissions reports

Article content In a July 29 email statement to the Ottawa Citizen, Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard, who is chair of the city's Environment and Climate Change committee, said he would also like to see the updates of the emissions figures and has been asking city staff to provide them. Article content 'I understand they went back to ensure consistency with how they collected the data and that these should be released soon,' Menard said. 'I have been steadfast in requesting this information.' Article content Coun. Marty Carr, who represents Alta Vista ward, said the reports would be tabled with the committee sometime this fall, ideally before budget discussions. She said the committee would be conducting a 'high-level overview' of advancements on climate change-related projects. Article content Carr, who is also vice-chair of the Environment and Climate Change committee, said the department responsible for climate change-related reports and initiatives had been reorganized after dealing with 'temporary resources.' Article content Article content Nichole Hoover-Bienasz, the city's director of Climate Change and Resiliency, said the delay in releasing updated greenhouse gas inventories since 2021 was due to a 'comprehensive third-party review of the 2020 data to ensure accuracy and alignment with best practices. Article content 'Dillon Consulting Ltd. was engaged to review the methodology and calculate the 2021 and 2022 inventories,' she said in a July 30 email. 'City staff are now finalizing the 2023 and 2024 inventories based on these recommendations.' Article content Hoover-Bienasz also said that Ottawa's community emissions had been trending back to pre-pandemic levels due to 'resumed in-person activities.' The 2020 emissions inventory report found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced emissions, with a 30-per-cent drop in gasoline use between 2019 and 2020. Article content 'The city continues to advance work to address emissions through the implementation of Climate Change Master Plan, including key priorities such as the Energy Evolution Strategy and Climate Resiliency Strategy,' she said. Article content Article content Carr said these reports would also be crucial for making budget and financial decisions from an 'environmental point of view. Article content 'That'll be really important for us to be able to measure to see what's actually happening because we obviously set a lot of targets that we've not been able to see if we've met at all,' Carr said. 'We know of steps that the city has been in different initiatives that they put forward, but we haven't been able to have staff see that, to be able to analyze the data and come to conclusions.