Climate change

About 75 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions come from activities that occur in cities,
and municipalities have a direct or indirect control over about half of those emissions.
In the last two years, Lowertown has joined efforts of other community associations and
environment associations to help secure a commitment from City Council to renew its Air Quality
and Climate Change Management Plan. As it expired last year, we joined others in demanding a
Greenhouse Gas Roundtable in March 2013 to discuss next steps, and participated actively.
We continue to monitor and will be watching to ensure the City fulfills its commitment for a
renewed plan in 2014. In recent years, we have signed letters encouraging the implementation of
green roofs, a fast lane for green developments, and a home energy retrofit financing policy,
among others.

In 2013, Ottawa experienced extreme flooding, followed by record-making snowfalls in 2014 and record-breaking cold in February 2015.