{"id":130403,"date":"2025-09-09T04:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130403\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T04:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:45:11","slug":"motion-introduced-to-rescind-calgarys-climate-emergency-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130403\/","title":{"rendered":"Motion introduced to rescind Calgary\u2019s climate emergency declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Declaring a climate emergency became one of the first policy pieces of Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek\u2019s term, and one she is defending nearly four years later after a motion was introduced Monday to scrap it.<\/p>\n

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The motion from Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong, Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean and Ward 1o Coun. Andre Chabot passed a technical review at Monday\u2019s executive committee meeting, and will now go on to council next week for a debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeclaring the climate declaration was a political stunt and I think what\u2019s happening is I\u2019m calling it out,\u201d Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp told reporters Monday.<\/p>\n

While also calling for the climate emergency declaration to be rescinded, the motion also directs administration to \u201cconduct a comprehensive value for money audit \u201cof all city climate-related spending, including funds tied to the emergency declaration.<\/p>\n

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The councillors point to the city\u2019s climate and environment department\u2019s budget of $26 million in 2025, as well as $22 million in one-time operating programs and $22.7 million in capital spending.<\/p>\n

The motion also notes an additional $214.6 million in climate related spending planned across city departments next year.<\/p>\n

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A city spokesperson confirmed the figures to Global News, and clarified next year\u2019s budget includes $165 million to pay for Calgary\u2019s electric bus fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of measurable outcomes, is it making a difference?\u00a0 Are there things that could be, should be done or not be done and discontinued? That\u2019s basically what we\u2019re asking for,\u201d said Wong.<\/p>\n

Calgary city council approved declaring a climate emergency in November 2021, which promised to make action against climate change a strategic priority for the city.<\/p>\n

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It also committed to a net-zero target by 2050, and directed city departments to work on reducing emissions.<\/p>\n

Gondek defended the climate emergency by pointing to strengthen the city\u2019s climate department, and use it to show companies planning to Calgary, as well film productions, that the city takes climate seriously.<\/p>\n

The mayor, who is seeking re-election, also discussed wildfire smoke blanketing the city and recent hail storms as examples of climate change impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you have to do is look around at what\u2019s happening with the weather, and the devastation we\u2019re seeing in our city and around the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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The original climate emergency declaration was applauded by climate advocates, who are now critical of the motion to repeal it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis motion goes against reality,\u201d said Rob Tremblay with the Calgary Climate Hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe councillors in question, they can pass a motion that says the sky is green and the earth is flat \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t make either of those things true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from McLean, each of the authors of the motion voted in favour of the climate emergency declaration back in 2021, which had some defending their change of heart when asked by reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was predicated on the fact that we were going to get a whole bunch of federal funds, which hasn\u2019t materialized,\u201d said Chabot.<\/p>\n

He added accessing federal funds is now irrelevant after Bill 18, which prohibits municipalities in Alberta from directly receiving funding from Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Sharp told reporters she felt regrets voting in favour of the declaration after challenging the use of the word \u2019emergency.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved forward with it and so be it,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have voted for it and I think it\u2019s okay to admit the missteps you might\u2019ve taken in the last four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gondek accused the councillors behind the motion of \u201cpoliticking,\u201d as they are all running for re-election under the Communities First party banner in the upcoming election with Sharp running for mayor.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhatever is populist and can stir the pot and get you some news headlines is the way some people choose to go,\u201d Gondek said. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you if that\u2019s actually their intent but it sure seems like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharp refuted that claim.<\/p>\n

The motion will be debated at a city council meeting next week, and if it\u2019s approved, the results of an audit into climate spending would be made public during budget deliberations in November.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declaring a climate emergency became one of the first policy pieces of Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek\u2019s term, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,71388,48,71387,295,714,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-130403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary-city-council","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-climate-emergency-declaration","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}