Nov 9, 2025

Grey County Climate Action Plan Under Threat

At the meeting of the Grey County Budget and Finance Committee on October 29 , 2025 two motions were approved:

• To cut funding for the Experimental Acres program (an initiative that supports small farmers to adapt to changes and to enhance soil quality and output);

• That staff prepare a report on the implications of removing the Going Green in Grey initiative for the consideration of the 2027 budget.

These motions were initiated by a committee member’s reference to a recent paper by Bill Gates entitled Three tough truths about climate, which Gates summarizes as follows:

• Climate change is serious, but we’ve made great progress. We need to keep backing the breakthroughs that will help the world reach zero emissions.
• But we can’t cut funding for health and development—programs that help people stay resilient in the face of climate change—to do it.
• It’s time to put human welfare at the center of our climate strategies, which includes reducing the Green Premium to zero and improving agriculture and health in poor countries.

Members of the GBCAN community were quick to rally in support of both programs and many letters have been submitted for consideration at the upcoming meeting of Grey County Council on November 13. We also sent letters to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of many municipalities in Grey County.

Here are the points raised in our letters:

• In the larger picture, humankind has been successful at conquering our planet. There is no place left unchanged. Municipal and regional governments are at the forefront of land management, operational services, waste management, transportation, housing, and more. Your leadership and decision-making impacts communities directly and at the local level. (Danuta Valleau)
• Gates is not negating climate action. He is saying that climate action, while necessary, is suboptimal unless global poverty reduction is given much greater priority than it gets at present. He is suggesting an “and / and” way of looking at both priorities. (John Butler)

• As Remembrance Day approaches, we should all be open to the lessons that wars teach us. Grey County did not start the First World War and it would have been possible for County officials to have said (as one councillor said) it is “beyond where we are as a local government.” At local Remembrance Day events we would do well to reflect on what would have happened if our municipal officials had responded to the war in this way. And there is no doubt – neither Bill Gates nor any responsible social or scientific analyst would suggest – that climate action and poverty reduction are any less important than waging a war. Just as we judge history, so history will judge us. (John Butler)
• Withdrawing from the Going Green in Grey plan is not fiscally responsible. The modest local investment in climate action has already leveraged significant federal funding, effectively doubling the impact of County-led climate initiatives. Such partnerships demonstrate sound fiscal management and effective use of public funds. (John Anderson)
• The 2025 budget allocated just $427,900—or 0.14% of the County’s total budget—to climate initiatives. This modest investment has been amplified by over $400,000 in external funding, including federal grants and partnerships with other municipalities. (Joachim Ostertag)
• The Insurance Bureau of Canada warns that for every dollar paid in insurance claims for climate-related damages, governments pay six times more to repair public infrastructure. Insurance losses from catastrophic weather events have doubled every eight years since the early 1980s — an alarming trend reflecting the accelerating costs of climate impacts. This trajectory is economically unsustainable.  (John Anderson)
• Municipalities are on the front lines of this crisis. As the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has emphasized, local governments own roughly 60 percent of Canada’s public infrastructure and must protect both built and natural assets — roads, bridges, stormwater systems, forests, and wetlands — from intensifying storms, floods, and heat events. Every municipal dollar spent on mitigation and adaptation returns an estimated twelve dollars in avoided costs and community benefits. Climate action is not a burden; it is a shield against escalating losses. (John Anderson)
• According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, “In Canada, municipalities have influence over roughly 50 percent of the nation’s GHG emissions.” FCM, Climate and Sustainability (Joachim Ostertag)
• Almost 50% of Grey County’s land is being farmed and subsequently 60% of Grey’s emissions come from agriculture. Farmers alone cannot solve this problem. The proposed 2026 budget for Experimental Acres includes only $28,000 for pilot programs supporting agricultural adaptation—just 0.024% of the capital budget. (Joachim Ostertag)
• A medical journal, The Lancet, urges all of us to take an All Hands on Deck approach in order to protect human health as we face increasing climate risks globally: “The science is unequivocal. Concrete and meaningful actions are urgently needed to protect the world’s populations from the climatic changes that have now become unavoidable, and to prevent an increase of climate change threats that exceeds the possibilities of adaptation.” (Joachim Ostertag)
• The work done so far by the Climate Initiatives staff is commendable and thorough. The pollution from emissions, landfills, and construction needs to be evaluated and managed. In taking a positive direction by adopting Going Green in Grey, Grey County has become a leader and change maker. Going Green in Grey is the mitigation plan. The next step is the adaptation plan: Resilient Grey. Out of this plan should come the work required to make our communities safer from flooding, storm surges, extreme weather events. This is necessary and commendable work that directly connects Grey County with its community. (Danuta Valleau)
• Going Green in Grey represents a collaborative, forward-looking commitment that began in 2019 and was unanimously approved by Council in 2022. It reflects extensive community engagement and genuine regional leadership. Abandoning it now would reverse years of progress, undermine public trust, and weaken the County’s credibility with partner municipalities, funders, and residents. (John Anderson)
• Going Green in Grey involved significant allocation of staff time and investment of public funds as well as extensive public engagement and consultation. It is truly a made in Grey plan. Entertaining the cancellation of the plan is unconscionable and demonstrates a disregard for constituent and staff time and public funds. Even more so it demonstrates either a lack of understanding about the impact of the changing climate or complete disregard for its impact on constituents and this beautiful County. (Ann Schneider)
• Council’s declaration of a climate emergency recognized the urgency of protecting citizens and infrastructure from the escalating costs of climate impacts. Those impacts are no longer distant threats—they are unfolding now and accelerating. This is precisely the moment to strengthen our resolve, not retreat from it. (John Anderson)
• This is definitely not the time to pivot away from a focus on emissions reductions and other responsible climate actions.  Climate change is unfortunately here to stay and it will get worse.  Humans are now shifting to the use of clean electrical energy in many places across the world.  I believe it is the way of the future and the future is now.  We need to think of the future for our kids and grandkids. (Bob Gray)
• It is ironic that these recommendations were made the day after the 4th annual Youth Climate Action Conference; an event that involved nearly 80 community volunteers, 27 teachers, and 125 youth from 24 schools. They were joined by elected officials and staff from Grey County. This event was a clear demonstration of our communities shared concern about climate change. (Ann Schneider)
• Following an energizing and effective Youth Conference last week, I was shocked to witness the regressive thinking of the Grey County Finance and Budget Committee. The cursory reference to and clear misrepresentation of Bill Gates’ message, which indeed does include the need to act on all fronts regarding climate adaptation, was unimpressive at best. (Jenny Carver)
• We in Grey County can’t abdicate our responsibility to do our part in emission reduction. As Gates writes in his essay, “Every tenth of a degree of heating that we prevent is hugely beneficial because a stable climate makes it easier to improve people’s lives.” Substantial emissions reductions are now eminently practical financially in Grey County for three reasons: i) electric machines such as heat pumps and EVs are replacing their fossil fuelled precursors around the world as they continue down costs curves that have seen 99% reductions in cost since 1990; ii) Ontario’s clean, and getting cleaner, electric grid means heat pumps and EVs have already achieved emissions reductions of 95 to 98%; and iii) the zero emissions power generation technologies of solar PV, batteries and wind are on similar cost curves to those of heat pumps and EVs, already being the lowest cost generating technologies in most of the world and on track to be still more efficient and lower in cost in the future.  (Roger Martin)
• We can’t abdicate our responsibility to adapt to climate change in Grey county. Further climate change is inevitable now, as emissions are still rising and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are now 50% higher than they were before warming began over 100 years ago.  It’s simply prudent and responsible to plan for a future of higher temperatures, more energetic storms and higher probability of forest fires.  (Roger Martin)

We asked County Council the following:

• Do not see Bill Gates’ comments as an excuse for curtailing local climate work that needs to be done. Consider them instead as a way to see climate action and poverty reduction as two horses that need to be equally appropriately fed, pulling the same wagon. (John Butler)
• I respectfully ask you to continue to support the existence of Going Green in Grey, while continuing to scrutinize it to ensure it maximizes what Grey County can do best in terms of climate and environmental action. It is too important to be left unscrutinized, and too crucial to be abandoned. (John Butler)
• Please do not abandon the good work that has been done and is yet to come as outlined in Going Green in Grey.  And please continue to fully support the Experimental Acres Program.  As you are aware, some 60% of the carbon footprint within Grey County currently comes from agriculture.  We need to encourage farmers to explore the creation of healthier soils to capture more carbon.  It will benefit all of us. (Bob Gray)
• I respectfully request that Council 1) reject the Budget and Finance Committee recommendations; 2) Reaffirm the County’s commitment to climate action as a fiscally responsible, evidence-based, and community-supported priority; and 3) Request a recorded vote to ensure transparency and accountability on this critical issue. (John Anderson)
• Please reaffirm Grey Counties commitment to continue with climate action. Also please have a recorded vote so that each Councillor and municipalities position on the proposed withdrawal from Going Green in Grey is made part of the public record. (Ann Schneider)
• I certainly support that spending does need to align with community priorities and impacts, but I think it is entirely backward and damaging to terminate funding to Experimental Acres, and to force staff to spend their limited hours building the case to save the Green initiatives in the County, when the Climate Adaptation Plan is a strong and important plan for the County going forward. (Jenny Carver)
• That Grey County continues to take seriously climate science and the impacts of global warming on human life, our biosphere and particularly on future generations. Follow climate science rather than follow changing opinions and political interests. (Joachim Ostertag)
• That Grey County steps up even further working together with municipalities on Green House Gas emission reduction. (Joachim Ostertag)
• Keep the public informed on Climate Action Strategies including supports to apply for grants and rebates, and about progress in all areas of GHG emission targets and successes. (Joachim Ostertag)
• Support our large farming communities and introduce new farming practices, considering that many farmers have great overheads, experience increase risks of crop-loss, and are often dealing with limited profit margins which make experimenting and adopting new practices difficult and expensive. (Joachim Ostertag)

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