By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]
Local residents continue to press the District of Invermere on environmental matters, with the latest concerns centering around the use of renewable energy.
During the district’s council meeting last week, on Tuesday, May 10, council received two letters on the topic, both asking the district to transition to using 100 per cent renewable energy in homes, buildings, transportation and other infrastructure.
The first one was a joint letter from Columbi-YEA (the Columbia Youth Environmental Action Group) and the David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) Climate Change Club, and the second was from East Kootenay environmental group Wildsight.
The Columbi-YEA-DTSS Climate Change club letter urged the district to have the transition to renewable energy completed by 2050 at the latest.
Both letters pointed out that plenty of other municipal governments in the Kootenay region (a total of at least 10), including nearby Golden, have already made such commitments.
Columbi-YEA and the DTSS Climate Change club noted that there will be challenges in the transition, but that the technology enabling it already exists, that the provincial government has allocated $76 million for local government climate change projects, and that other Kootenay communities now have “roadmaps” on how best to achieve the transition.
“This goal is feasible. Our actions, combined with those of other Kootenay governments, would make an impact. The collective transition would significantly lower emissions, and our region would also serve as an inspiration for other rural areas across the country,” read the Columbi-YEA-DTSS Climate Change Club letter, adding that “it’s the just thing to do.”
The groups concluded their letter by asking that the district put the proposals contained in the letter on its next council meeting agenda.
In discussing the letters, Invermere Councillor Kayja Becker outlined that the district is still looking for somebody to fill its environmental planner position.
Councillor Greg Anderson agreed the district needs some specific goals and targets (“something substantial,” he said) to work toward, in terms of renewable energy and climate change, and that setting those would be a good task for the environmental planner, once somebody is in the role.
Later on, at the end of the meeting, Invermere Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Young explained that the district had previously prepared a draft advertisement for the environmental planner position, but that the district had then refined it based on input from Columbi-YEA.
“They raised some points that were quite constructive,” said Young.
The district has so far received a number of applications and is in the process of reviewing them, he explained, adding he didn’t know for certain when the district would fill the position.
