Climate Change
Climate Change is real. I have lived beside Biigtig Ziibi all my life. I have noticed that the river now opens 1 week earlier and freezes 1 week later. The advantages of living a long life. You notice these things.
We are working with Parks Canada to look at ways we can monitor the temperature of Lake Superior to document changes. We are trying to decide what types of data loggers would be best and where to put them.
I have constantly advocated with both the Prov and Fed Govts to put incentives in place so that residents can modify their homes using ground source heat pumps and solar panels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
I have, and will continue to talk to my counterparts at the Regional and National level about this issue.
I will continue to lobby the Provincial Govt to reconsider their energy policy which does not support Wind and Solar power and small run of the river Waterpower. Instead the Prov Govt supports the Nuclear Power industry, and OPG, and the creation of massive amounts of toxic nuclear waste which will be deadly for 100's of thousands of years. I will continue my lobbying against the Nuclear industry and Nuclear waste.
As we obtain more Own Source Revenue we will also install electric vehicle charging stations.
I have also talked to our housing staff about future sub divisions oriented to the south so that a cluster of houses could be serviced by a single ground source heat pump and solar panels . These houses would also be super insulated. This reduces costs and greenhouse gases.
Forest Fires may also be a threat with climate change as we all noticed in BC this summer. This possible threat is covered in our Emergency Preparedness Plan. ( Yes we do have an emergency plan ). The Emergency plan needs to be updated due to lessons learned from the Pandemic so the issue of fire threat needs to be updated as well.
We had tried in the past to keep a Forest Fire Crew but we were constantly being undercut in the contracts to the point where it was not worth the effort. As we gain more own source revenue we may look at that again but in the meantime we need to focus our efforts on our Structural Fire Fighters with our OSR. They need new gear, and a new garage as well as a training and honorarium $$. They are an excellent crew and I support them fully.
However, with the changing climate and a longer growing season we may also have the opportunity for creating an Agricultural program. I have talked to many of you about that in the past. In addition to being hunters we become farmers. However, we need more land and this is where the land claim comes in. This all ties in with the issue of Food Security and Food Sovereignty. We need both.
I have also talked to many of you about All Season Greenhouses and I was in the process of obtaining funds from Ontario when the pandemic hit. I will continue talks with them on this important program. The pandemic has shown us that we must protect the security of our food sources. Political unrest south of the border may also have an effect on our food supply.
