ABSTRACT

Twenty years ago in 2004 Cochrane’s Town Council at that time voted to become a member of the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program, a program administered by the Canadian subsidiary of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI-Canada) together with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), two organizations which have been a major driving force behind the adoption of climate action plans across Canada.

Cochrane is among 25 Alberta municipalities listed as being members of the PCP program. The intent of the presentation as a delegation to Town Council, “Cochrane’s Participation in the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) Program – Serving Local or Global Priorities?”, on February 18, 2025 was to make the current Town Council aware of the town’s participation in the program and request that one of the Councillors makes a motion to withdraw Cochrane from its participation in the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) Program, thereby focusing on locally-driven priorities and not be driven by global initiatives driven by entities beyond our town.

A video of the presentation to Council is available here from 2:25 to 13:18 minutes.

FULL BLOG

Twenty years ago in 2004 Cochrane’s Town Council at that time voted to become a member of the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program.  This program, consisting of a five-step milestone framework that guides the municipality to take action against climate change by reducing emissions in their municipality, was launched 30 years ago in 1994 as a joint initiative of the Canadian subsidiary of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI-Canada), or Local Governments for Sustainability-Canada, together with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The PCP program is administered by these two organizations which have been a driving force behind the adoption of climate action plans across Canada.

Cochrane is among 25 Alberta municipalities listed as being members of the PCP program. It is doubtful that the current Town Council is even aware that the Town of Cochrane is a part of the PCP program. The intent of my presentation as a delegation to Town Council, “Cochrane’s Participation in the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) Program – Serving Local or Global Priorities?”, on February 18, 2025 was to make the current Town Council aware of the town’s participation in the program and request that one of the Councillors makes a motion to withdraw Cochrane from its participation in the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) Program, thereby focusing on locally-driven priorities and not be driven by global initiatives driven by entities beyond our town. To the Council Report for my presentation I had appended KICLEi’s report, Alberta Municipalities: Re-evaluation of Climate Action Plans and FCM-ICLEI Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) Program Participation” which gave a more detailed argument for the town to exit the PDP program.

A video of my presentation to Council is available here from 2:25 to 13:18 minutes. Only 5 of the 7 members of Council were present, with Councillors Susan Flowers and Morgan Nagel being absent. Interesting that YouTube chose to add the following explanation to that YouTube post:
Two of the councillors offered comments, Councillor Patrick Wilson and Councillor Fedeyko. Councillor Wilson asked to hear from Administration as to what Cochrane’s current status with respect to the PCP program. Mr. Drew Hyndman, Executive Director, Development & Infrastructure Services, confirmed that he was the one from Administration one who had informed me that the town is not active as participants, nor has not dedicated resources committed towards this effort, reconfirmed that “we are currently not active” in the PCP program. While I had suggested that Mr. LaFleche while he worked for the town was responsible for the program, he advised that the application which Mr. LaFleche worked on was not associated with the PCP program.

Councillor Wilson then asked if a councillor were to make the motion to withdraw from the PCP program as I had requested, was there something to withdraw from, even though the PCPC Secretariat had advised me in 2023 that the town was “indeed a PCP Member and has achieved Milestone 3”. Mr. Hyndman said the Administration could explore that and report back to Council. Councillor Wilson indicated that what I had revealed does “bother (him) a lot” just as there had been references to “climate change” in the Municipal Development Plan, which received second reading on December 9, 2024 and caused him not to vote for it. He also agreed that international mandates should not override local priorities, “hitting it right on the head…outside of the municipal context”. If there is something to withdraw from, he indicated that he would be willing to make such a motion.

The only other councillor to comment was Councillor Marni Fedeyko. She acknowledged that she didn’t even know that Cochrane was a member, as I had expected for the entire Council, and wondered why Cochrane was not the web site, saying she didn’t understand why Cochrane was a partner to begin with and remained a partner. One presumes the Town Council in 2004 was convinced that it was something worth supporting as they likely received pressure from the Federation of Canadian municipalities, an administer of the program, to do join. The fact of the matter is that PCP Secretariat still considers Cochrane to be a member and obviously the town has not made a formal application to withdraw.

I made reference to the study to possibly electrify the COLT buses that was initiated by Devin LaFleche, the E-scooter program initiated in 2021 with a goal of “limiting carbon emissions”, and the four EV charging stations installed across from The Station in 2020 at town expense and at the behest of Mayor Genung, all of which would be aligned with the objectives of the PCP program. Councillor Fedeyko referred to this activity as “some of this stuff being environmentally-advanced whether we agree with it or we don’t”, but that it’s a trend that we see. Not clear as to what information Councillor Fedeyko was seeking in order to make a decision.