Prince George city council rejected a proposal to apply for a Federation of Canadian Municipalities climate change mitigation project in partnership with municipalities in Tunisia at a special meeting held on Wednesday, March 5.
Discussing the application at the meeting was Cori Ramsay, who said it would have no cost to the City of Prince George and if successful, could bring in a portion of the $11.5 million in funding being provided through the FCM and Global Affairs Canada to nine Canadian municipalities.
With the application deadline set for March 7 and the next regular council meeting not until March 10, the special council meeting was called to make sure the meeting was held on time.
Ramsay said when the FCM held a board meeting in Prince George last spring, they were impressed with the district energy system as well as its fire mitigation efforts.
By participating in the program, she said Prince George would have a chance not only to share information with a developing country but perhaps get funding for a local research project on climate adaptation and mitigation.
Mayor Simon Yu said that he and Fraser-Fort George Regional District Chair Lara Beckett recently attended the FCM’s 2025 Sustainable Communities Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick last month and colleagues recognized Prince George as one of the country’s most progressive cities for dealing with climate change.
He advocated for council to approve the application, even if Prince George’s participation wasn’t assured.
At a time when countries like the U.S. are backing away from partnerships with other countries, Coun. Garth Frizzell said there’s an opportunity for Canada to help fill that void.
In past years, he said, he worked on FCM partnerships with municipalities in countries like Vietnam, Peru and Colombia. He said those projects promoted equity, democratic governance and international diplomacy.
Coun. Brian Skakun said calling a meeting for a subject like this is “extraordinary” and that climate change is an important issue, but he’d rather the city focus its efforts on challenges the city is facing in its own backyard like crime and the fentanyl crisis. He said he wouldn’t support the application.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said that while it sounds like important work, he said it sounded like the federal government downloading more work onto municipal governments. While it won’t cost the city money to participate, it will cost the city in terms of staff resources, Sampson said.
Ramsay said she wasn’t sure what the time commitment would be for this project but said while participating in a previous FCM project, she developed the material on her own through researching publicly available resources.
City manager Walter Babicz said the city has a single dedicated environmental specialist on staff as well as staff whose roles indirectly touch on climate change. He also pointed out that climate change is on the city’s strategic plan.
He said he thought it was important to communicate to council that the city’s resources on this front are limited, but valuable, and may require some priorities to be shifted if the application was approved. However, he said the will of council would be followed.
Coun. Ron Polillo said it is important to build relationships and that the project aligns with council’s strategic goals, but said he would vote against the project because of the five-year time commitment.
Frizzell said from his previous experience, the budgetary impacts would be negligible and recommended that if it was some of his colleagues’ main concern, the motion should be amended to specify that money not be spent.
Ultimately, he said Ramsay would be volunteering her own time, not that of staff.
Coun. Trudy Klassen said she didn’t feel the urgency of the project was enough for her to support an application.
Attempting to change his colleagues’ minds, Yu said he thought the world needs to come together to fight climate change. Despite “very trying circumstances” right now, Yu said it’s still important for Canada to reach out to other countries and other people impacted by climate change.
The motion was defeated by a narrow margin of five votes to four, with Ramsay, Scott, Frizzell and Yu voting in favour.
