ABSTRACT

On March 18, 2024, Ms. Josipa Petrunić, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), attended the town’s Committee of the Whole meeting to provide a summary of this consulting firm’s technical report related to the $103,800 study, jointly funded by the Town of Cochrane and the Government of Canada, to electrify Cochrane’s COLT bus fleet. Thankfully, the Town of Cochrane was brought back to reality deciding not to proceed with electrifying its bus fleet, ‘for now’.

As someone wedded to Justin Trudeau’s net carbon zero by 2050 ideological agenda and financially benefiting from it through the federal government’s Zero Emission Transit Fund, it comes as no surprise that during the course of her presentation to town council that she proudly identified the mission of her organization, CUTRIC as “basically to get rid of cars and advance public transit”, a comment that she followed up with a little chuckle.

Not a word in response to that comment emanated from Council that night. To determine if that perspective “to get rid of cars” and “get people out of cars”, was shared by members of our Town Council an email, “Where Do You Stand?”, was sent to our town councillors on April 2, 2024. After waiting patiently for two weeks, I received my ‘answer’ back, which was no answer. However, as the saying goes, silence is consent and one can thereby conclude that our Council members agree with Ms. Petrunić’s perspective, that is, “basically to get rid of cars and advance public transit” to supposedly meet Justin Trudeau’s net carbon zero agenda.

FULL BLOG

The $103,800 study to electrify Cochrane’s COLT bus fleet, jointly funded by the Town of Cochrane, carrying $20,760 of the cost and the Government of Canada carrying the remainder of the cost through its Zero Emission Transit Fund, was carried out by the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), a consulting firm endorsed by the Trudeau government.

The study, spearheaded by Devin LaFleche, the town’s Sustainability and Transit Coordinator, whose mandate included a responsibility to “implement greenhouse gas emission-reducing projects”, had its beginnings in September 2022. Ms. Josipa Petrunić, President and CEO of CUTRIC, attended the town’s Committee of the Whole meeting on March 18, 2024 to provide a summary of CUTRIC’s technical report, a report deemed confidential by CUTRIC (see April 9, 2024 update in a previous blog post) and therefore unavailable to the taxpayers who helped pay for the study.

Thankfully, the Town of Cochrane was brought back to reality, deciding not to proceed with electrifying its bus fleet ‘for now‘. That decision was somewhat surprising given the perspective of Ms. Petrunić, the President and CEO of CUTRIC, the consulting firm hired to conduct the study. For example, in the June 1, 2023 press release for the study, she declared, “decarbonizing public transit isn’t just a choice, it’s a necessity”, not surprising for a devotee to Justin Trudeau’s net carbon zero by 2050 ideological agenda and financially benefiting from it. During her presentation to Cochrane’s Town Council on March 18, 2024, she declared that “one way to decarbonize is the primary way to get people out of cars”. She concluded her presentation declaring that the mission of her organization, CUTRIC, ‘proudly recognized as the Government of Canada’s Zero Emission Transit Fund National Planning Service’ and retained to do consulting for the federal government, is “basically to get rid of cars and advance public transit”. She followed up the latter statement with a chuckle.

One presumes her viewpoint is shared by Cochrane’s unelected Administration, which appears to be wedded to Justin Trudeau’s net carbon zero by 2050 ideological agenda. That may well be the case for Cochrane’s elected Town Council. For example, in May 2023 I sent an email to our Town Council trying to ascertain their stand on 15-minute cities, seeking a commitment from them individually as our elected councillors that they will not take any steps to introduce elements of a 15-minute city concept, a UN inspired agenda to control where and how people can travel to stop climate change, and that that they will resist any such implementation. As explained in a blog, “Cochrane’s Town Council Mum About 15-Minute Cities“, only one councillor, Susan Flowers, ‘responded’, dismissively telling me that she wasn’t “involved with conspiracy theories”, and that she was “busy working on the important things in reality that Cochrane needs”. In character with their previous passive aggressive behaviour, none of the other town councillors replied to my query, a simple enough question which they chose to ignore. As the saying goes, silence is consent.

To clarify if they shared Ms. Petrunić’s perspective of need  “to get rid of cars”, an email, “Where Do You Stand?”, was sent to Town Council on April 2, 2024:
“Thankfully, there was a touch of reality in response to that bone-headed study to electrify Cochrane’s COLT fleet, a study which so ‘excited’ the mayor.
During her presentation to Council on March 18, 2024, Josipa Petrunić, President and CEO of CUTRIC, the company, chosen by Trudeau that carried out the study to the tune of $103,800, declared that the mission of her organization is “basically to get rid of cars and advance public transit”, and followed up that comment with a chuckle.
Not a word in response that night from Council, which prompts one to ask the question, do you as a Council Member agree with Ms. Petrunić’s perspective, that is, “basically to get rid of cars and advance public transit” to supposedly meet Justin Trudeau’s net carbon zero agenda?

Given past experience, one seriously wondered if  any of the council members would be willing to declare where they stand by answering my question, “do you as a Council Member agree with Ms. Petrunić’s perspective, that is, ‘basically to get rid of cars and advance public transit’ to supposedly meet Justin Trudeau’s net carbon zero agenda?” After waiting patiently for two weeks, I received my ‘answer’ back, which was no answer. However, as the saying goes, silence is consent.

On April 1st, Councillor Nagel posted a April Fool’s joke at his Facebook page with the caption, “At tonight’s Council meeting I will be sponsoring a motion to rezone Jim Uffelman Memorial Dog Park for 6-story residential apartment buildings. The parking in this area is going to be a bit of a tight squeeze, and so I am recommending we reduce the required parking stalls by 30% – in hopes that 1/3 of the residents will choose to rely on Colt instead of owning vehicles”, a sentiment that no doubt would be heartily endorsed by CUTRIC’s President and CEO, Josipa Petrunić. However, it is noteworthy that what Councillor Morgan Nagel was willing to say in a April Fool’s joke, he was unwilling to say otherwise.