Calgary ends its climate emergency declaration

Calgary council voted to scrap Calgary's climate emergency declaration Wednesday.

Nearly five years after it was first passed by a previous council, a slate of mostly new city councillors and mayor have voted to scrap Calgary’s climate emergency declaration.

The policy was passed in 2021 as one of the first items of business by then-Mayor Jyoti Gondek and her new council colleagues.

A vote on Wednesday evening immediately rescinded the climate emergency declaration.

“We have a climate action plan that existed before the declaration, which has done a lot of good work in flood mitigation and a lot of real actionable items. Whereas a symbolic gesture has done absolutely nothing for us,” said Coun. Landon Johnston, who introduced the motion to end the declaration.

The climate emergency declaration was adopted to help Calgary work towards its goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

The guiding policy meant all city departments were required to “identify, invest in and accelerate ideas such as high-priority emissions reduction, climate risk reduction opportunities,” the city’s information website stated.

Although the climate emergency declaration has now ended, Calgary’s overall climate strategy will continue to operate as normal. That strategy includes programs supporting solar panel projects, energy efficient home incentive programs and pedestrian pathway expansion plans.

“Typically the word emergency means you will do everything possible to eliminate the emergency, including an unlimited budget,” said Coun. Andre Chabot, who brought forth another motion arising to have the city explore creating an online hub for a climate-related spending and funding within the city.

“(The emergency declaration) stirs fear in people’s minds that it essentially is giving council carte blanche to spend whatever it takes to achieve those net-zero targets as soon as possible. And that’s not what our climate action plan is all about,” Chabot said.

Wednesday’s vote to immediately end the declaration was 10-5, with Couns. DJ Kelly, Nathaniel Schmidt, Myke Atkinson, Raj Dhaliwal and Andrew Yule voting against.