Whereas emissions from Ontario’s electricity grid have nearly quadrupled since 2017, and are forecasted to double again by 2030; and,
Whereas in 2019, the Township of King declared a climate emergency; and
Whereas in 2020, the Township of King passed a motion for the phase out of natural gas electricity plants; and
Whereas it is a policy in the Official Plan of the Township of King to promote energy systems and alternative energy systems, where feasible, in accordance with provincial and federal requirements; and
Whereas Ontario leverages its clean electricity advantage to attract new jobs to the province and gas plants threaten that competitive advantage; and
Whereas the Ontario government has launched a large competitive energy procurement to secure more energy resources from five (5) possible technologies including natural gas;
Now therefore be it resolved that:
- The Council for the Township of King opposes any new power generation proposal involving increased burning of fossil fuels, including natural gas in our Township, and strongly supports that in the above mentioned procurement it is a requirement of an energy project developer to secure a support resolution from a host municipality for a project.
- The Council for the Township of King requests the Province to immediately invest in programs to deliver energy efficiency, affordable energy, local non-emitting generation, and demand management and conservation to meet the capacity and energy needs in the alternative to what would have been fulfilled by expansion of electricity production through burning of fossil fuels.
- The Council for the Township of King request the Government of Canada enact the strongest possible Canada Energy Regulations (CER) to assist in decarbonization, and that specifically the Township of King opposes:
- Any consideration to extend the End of Prescribed Life (EoPL) provisions beyond 20 years as this has the greatest impact on the goal of this regulation; and
- Allowing the use of offsets to enable units to exceed their annual emissions limits; and
- Weakening the underlying performance standard of 30 tonnes of emissions per Gigawatt hour of electricity produced.
- That a copy of this resolution be sent to the Independent Electricity System Operator, Hon. Minister Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Electricity and MPP for King Vaughan, Hon. Minister Stephen Giuilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Hon. Anna Roberts, MP for King Vaughan, the Regional Municipality of York Region; and all York Region Municipalities.