The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Tom Hedderson, Minister Responsible for the Office of Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Emissions Trading:

Municipal Government Carbon Calculator Helps Turn Back the Tide

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to update this Honourable House on the continued work of our government to support our communities as they combat the impacts of climate change and help to turn back the tide.

The Office of Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Emissions Trading developed a Municipal Government Carbon Calculator – an interactive and innovative tool to help municipalities understand the carbon footprint of their operations. This initiative is instrumental as our municipal governments in the province continue to identify ways to reduce electricity and fuel costs. The calculator is easy to use and gets employees, councillors and other community leaders more engaged in recycling, reducing the amount of waste going into landfills. Mr. Speaker, the calculator is available on the Turn Back the Tide website.

To encourage municipalities to get involved, we launched the carbon calculator this past weekend at the Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador Symposium in Gander where my officials successfully demonstrated it before a large group of our community leaders. To complement the calculator, we launched the Carbon Footprint Challenge in partnership with the Department of Municipal Affairs. Once municipalities calculate their carbon footprint they can enter to win one of three $5,000 prizes after they explain how they would use the prize money to lower those results. All of those contest details are available at: turnbackthetide.ca 

Mr. Speaker, we know every dollar matters to our municipalities and this tool can be used to identify areas where efficiencies can be found and directed to other areas of need. This is just one initiative our government is working on to lower greenhouse gas emissions, a key goal of Moving Forward: Climate Change Action Plan 2011.

Consistent with government’s commitment to integrate climate change into decision-making, the calculator will also be incorporated into the Tidy Towns award from 2014 onwards.

Mr. Speaker, this government recognizes that climate change is one of the greatest long-term challenges facing the world today. We are committed to doing our part and I encourage all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to help us turn back the tide on climate change.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

2013 05 13             2:00 p.m.