Grey County is reaching out to neighbouring municipalities and counties to gauge interest in climate change initiatives after receiving an update.
Council county approved reaching out after hearing from Manager of Climate Change Initiatives Rebecca Danard on four climate change projects staff have been working on during a meeting on April 11.
The Tri-County Green Development Standards project is in collaboration between the counties of Grey, Dufferin and Wellington to create principles to guide sustainable development and establish criteria for various development projects.
A report from Danard says, “striking the right balance between setting mandatory standards which will require enforcement and creating voluntary standards and policies that encourage more sustainable and energy efficient development is key to the project’s success.”
The experimental acres project is in collaboration with Grey Agricultural Services to provide farmers support to test out new practices in an effort to improve soil health and increase the amount of carbon captured on farms. As part of the project, farmers are financially supported up to $3,000 to assist with projects like cover cropping, rotational grazing systems, vertical farming, and more.
Grey county joined the pilot last year and applications were being accepting throughout the month of February. Seven farmers were selected to participate in the project.
“Grey Agricultural Services is currently in the process of having initial meetings with each participant to confirming the details of the pilot project, selecting test site location, and finalizing agreements with each farmer. Once finalized, participants will start their project. Over the season, the Grey Agricultural Services Program Coordinator will conduct meetings and farm visits periodically to monitor the pilot and conduct soil tests,” says Danard’s report.
The Ontario Resource Centre for Climate Adaptation community outreach and engagement program is designed to support engagement with community groups and partners on creating and implementing a Community Climate Adaptation Plan.
“Developing a Climate Adaptation Plan is one of the key next steps identified in Going Green in Grey. ‘Going Green in Grey,’ focuses on climate mitigation – reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon to slow the progress of climate change,” says the report from Danard.
The plan will also outline how the community will respond to the impacts of climate change, which could include climate models, risk and vulnerability assessments, and actions the county could take to reduce the impacts of the changing climate. Staff anticipate the plan will be completed late next year or early 2026.
The last initiative is the Green Economy Hub, which stems from Green Economy Canada who works with community partners to launch and grow these hubs. The hubs are a model for engaging with local businesses on tackling climate actions and implementing sustainability in their operations.
“While each Green Economy Hub is adapted to meet the needs of the local community, all hubs follow the same four core approaches: community-led, business-focused, revenue generating, and target driven. The hub is usually operated by a local environmental non-profit and provides services for a fee to the local businesses who choose to participate in the hub,” says Danard in the report.
Discussions about creating a local hub have been ongoing since 2021 and the Town of the Blue Mountains plans on hosting a sustainability summit for local businesses on April 25, where Green Economy Canada will gauge interest from businesses in the community.
Warden Brian Milne says he is supportive of the four actions the county is undertaking to reduce and minimize its impact on the climate.
“They take in a broad selection of different initiatives that in the long term, should move us closer to our objective of having less impact on the environment,” says Milne. “I think it is important to try and make the community aware of what is possible and what the impacts of whatever we do are.”
He says he is hopeful neighbouring counties and municipalities will join in on these climate initiatives.