As environment committee approves fee increases, delegates want timely climate change data

The city’s environment and climate change committee has approved a draft budget that includes increases in fees and rates for a wide range of services, including curbside garbage pickup, drinking water, wastewater, stormwater and forestry.

Ottawa residents would see a number of fee increases in the the next year, including garbage pickup. The city has introduced measures to extend the life of the Trail Road landfill site as it faces building a new landfill, including switching to a flat fee to cover solid waste services, which had previously been funded partly though property taxes and partly through fees. 

In 2024, the fee is $145 per year for residential households and $91 per unit for multi-residential buildings. In 2025, that would increase to $243 for a single-family household and $167 per unit in a multi-residential building. However, because less of the money would be coming from each household’s property taxes, the net effect would be about a seven per cent increase. 

Meanwhile, annual stormwater user fees would increase by 12 per cent across the board, from $209.91 to $235.10 for an urban or rural single-family or semi-detached household and from $104.96 to $117.56 for an urban or rural townhouse or apartment.

User fees for drinking water would increase by two per cent. There would also be increased fees for some services, from inspecting new water mains to installing water meters.

But the bulk of the challenges from delegations addressing the committee Tuesday weren’t about fees. Instead, speakers asked the city to do a better job of tracking climate change data such as greenhouse gas emissions, the tree canopy and the number of heat-related deaths.

Angela Keller-Herzog, the executive director of Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES Ottawa), said 2025 is the last year of the city’s Climate Change Master Plan, but the last time there was an update was in April 2023, and in this term city council has not received an emissions inventory.

“I think the situation is not good, and we basically don’t have enough information to approve or not approve this budget. We’re basically in the dark — and when I say ‘we’ I mean council as well as the public,” she said.

In a report released last June, city auditor Nathalie Gougeon said the city is behind on its climate change targets and priorities. The city has committed to climate change outcomes, but it can’t capture some metrics in a meaningful way, noted the report.

Ken Johnson, an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of Ottawa, said although the city has targets to reduce corporate and community greenhouse gas emissions, the last data received was based on 2020 numbers.

“The latest greenhouse gas data were reported three years ago and are now four years old,” he said. “Where are we making progress? Which sector needs improvement? We don’t know because we don’t have any idea.”

Johnson also wanted up-to-date data about forest cover in the city, both in rural and urban areas. In 2019, the city set a target for 40 per cent canopy cover. There was an aerial survey done in 2022, but that data will not be processed until next year, said Johnson, who recommended an annual tree cover survey.

“I have heard that we’re losing 1,000 acres of trees every year, but that’s hearsay and anecdotal, not very useful,” he said.

The city also needs to collect data on heat-related deaths, said Johnson.

“We know that heat kills, especially vulnerable persons. I would venture to guess that the most important and urgent resiliency investment and budget allocation we need to make is in the cooling of apartments and houses that do not have air conditioning. Fortunately, heat pumps can do both heating and cooling.”

William van Geest, interim executive director of Ecology Ottawa, was among the speakers urging the city to ramp up efforts to plant more trees.

“Trees are one of our best defences against climate change, whether for mitigation or resilience, and the return on investment is almost unbeatable,” he said.

Paul Tulloch, a data scientist who studies methane mitigation across the world, said Ottawa had invested in its green bin program to divert organic matter from landfills. That’s a great step forward, but the program is under-utilized.

“We’ve looked at countries like Germany and Japan, where organic diversion is almost part of their culture. There’s a culture change that needs to be addressed, not just hardware and capital costs,” he said. “I recommend, at least, an action plan to look at accelerating green bin usage.”

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard, the chair of the committee, said many of the data questions are due to be answered in the coming months, including an emissions inventory and updates on the climate change master plan and city’s tree canopy.

“You’re absolutely right,” Menard told Johnson. “We’ve seen this shrinking canopy in our city, and it’s certainly alarming and something we’re working to mitigate, not just through replanting, but keeping more trees.”

The 2025 draft budget includes $6 million for climate change initiatives. But aside from that budget line, the climate change impact is spread over numerous city projects, said Debbie Stewart, the city’s general manager of strategic initiatives.

In the draft budget, capital projects worth $375 million were rated as having a “moderate or major” impact on the city’s climate goal, including $306 million to replace 40-foot buses with a new fleet of zero-emission buses.

Standing committees are meeting in the coming weeks to consider the draft budget. City council will consider the final budget on Dec. 11.