The Town of Innisfil is reaffirming its commitment to being a sustainable community.
At its Oct. 9 meeting, council adopted an Integrated Sustainability Master Plan (ISMP), which will act as a strategic blueprint for the town to help mitigate and build resistance to climate change while improving its operational sustainability and enhancing its environmental stewardship.
The town had previously declared a climate emergency in 2022. The direction to create the ISMP was given to staff a year earlier.
“A large part of sustainability is the readiness to face climate change impacts and develop a proper understanding of the actual risks from climate change in Innisfil,” Niharika Bandaru, town sustainability catalyst, told councillors at the Sept. 25 meeting, where the item was first discussed.
During her presentation at that meeting, she outlined the historical data and future projections that had been studied in developing the plan, and how they could impact the municipality:
- Average annual temperatures will increase by 30 per cent by 2050
- Average annual precipitation, especially in the spring, will increase by 10 per cent by 2050
- The intensity of 1-in-2 and 1-in-100-year storms are expected to increase by 18 per cent, and so are days with heavy rain
- The frost-free season will decrease 16 per cent by 2050
- Open water days for Lake Simcoe are projected to increase 18 per cent by 2100, thereby decreasing lake ice
- Air quality is expected to decrease, and pollen and moulds will increase
Economically, the brunt of climate change will be borne by the municipalities in Ontario, Bandaru told councillors, as their costs could be four times those of the province, being on the front lines for climate impacts and responsible for replacement and refurbishment of capital infrastructure.
As well, if no action is taken, the town could be on the hook for more than $3 million in carbon tax costs by the end of the decade.
“Investment into sustainability and climate action in the present is expected to result in long-term cost savings for Innisfil from reduced energy/utility costs, carbon tax payments, insurance payments and damages to infrastructure, assets and service levels from climate impacts,” the staff report on the ISMP stated.
Through the ISMP, the town hopes to build a sustainable, climate-resilient and low-carbon community. Between 2024 and 2030, the town will use the ISMP to focus on climate mitigation strategies, climate adoption measures and operational sustainability and environmental stewardship.
Six objectives were set out by the document:
- Reductions in corporate emissions and energy use
- Adapt to the impacts of climate change
- Support and enhance place-making
- Enhance natural assets and resources
- Support sustainable economic prosperity
- Reductions in corporate waste
The ISMP also provides council — current and future — with a roadmap spanning the next 25 years, calling for an eventual reduction in corporate emissions by 66 per cent by 2050.
The plan has no specific budget attached to it. Councillors were told that about $174,000 in funding has already been committed through previous budget processes for associated projects. Director of Planning and Growth Andria Leigh indicated a further $100,000 will be included for consideration during the 2025-2026 budget process.
In the short- and medium-term outlook, new expenditures from the ISMP recommendations are expected to cost less than $2.5 million for the town. Over a longer planning cycle, the numbers would reach $3 million to $5 million.
Coun. Alex Waters was thrilled to see the document before council at the Sept. 25 meeting. But with tongue planted firmly in cheek, he noted the community presence — or lack thereof — at town hall for the discussion.
“The word didn’t get out, so I would like to allow people to read the report and then also to see the recommendation I’ve added to this,” Water said at the Sept. 25 meeting.
Waters’ recommendation was to have a sustainability advisory committee struck to bring the community into the ISMP in a fulsome way that can maximize the impact the plan could have on adapting to climate change.
“What we’ve got here for corporate is part of the solution, but the big piece is what we can do with the community and I think that’s going to require a huge task in terms of community involvement,” Waters said.
A staff member would be required to be part of the committee, but Waters’ vision is to have that person act as a conduit between the desires of the community and the ability of council to act, not to be provided with decision-making power.
He noted the Town of Collingwood had already been through the process of an ISMP and added a similar committee. What that municipality found was that corporate emissions made up less than two per cent of all emissions in the community.
A community-based strategy is “where the real meat and potatoes are for carbon reduction,” Waters said when the item came back before council at the Oct. 9 meeting.
He also noted that after requesting to have the item deferred for additional community feedback, none was received.
The ISMP was adopted unanimously. Staff will be back before council in January with a draft terms of reference for the new committee.
