North Cowichan council has directed staff to prepare a report on a request made to the municipality by the Cowichan Climate Hub to join a class-action lawsuit against the petroleum industry to recover the costs of local climate damage.
Council made the decision in a tight 4-3 vote at its meeting on Sept. 4 after Cowichan Climate Club members Jane Kilthei and Valerie Russell made a presentation at the previous council meeting on Aug. 21.
Kilthei and Russell said oil and gas companies must be forced to change their business practices and pay their fair share for the harm they are causing.
“How do we pay for a safer and healthier future for all British Columbians?” they asked. “We sue Big Oil.”
Kilthei and Russell said a number of other municipalities across the province have decided to join the class-action suit and encouraged North Cowichan to join as well.
At the meeting on Sept. 4, Coun. Christopher Justice put forward the motion that staff provide a report exploring the merits of joining the lawsuit to recoup expenses related to climate change from fossil-fuel companies.
He said the motion is not to join the lawsuit, but to have staff provide council with the information it needs to evaluate whether to join it or not.
“The way I see it, we do have a responsibility to North Cowichan taxpayers, both current and future generations, to at least explore the possibility of recouping some of the money that we’re going to need to spend related to climate change in the municipality,” Justice said.
Coun. Chris Istace said he has concerns about using staff time to prepare the report.
“But I don’t think there’s any harm in just supporting the request that staff take a look at this, which doesn’t show that I support the request [to join the lawsuit] one way or another,” he said.
But Coun. Bruce Findlay said he thinks it would a waste of staff’s time to write the report when there are much bigger issues for them to deal with during a tough tax year.
He said it’s not a good use of staff time and taxpayers money “in any way or capacity”.
“Suing Big Oil is like suing the agricultural industry and individual farmers due to all the cows that they own and the massive amounts of farts they emit on an annual basis,” Findlay said.
Coun. Tek Manhas said everyone uses petroleum products and he won’t support the writing of the staff report.
“Until we, as individuals and as a municipality, cease to use petroleum products, I think this is frivolous and very hypocritical on our part,” he said.
“This is just not in our lane.”
Coun. Debra Toporowski said everyone has different perspectives of what they see happening around them.
“Every voice matters and we should listen to everybody,” she said.
Mayor Rob Douglas said municipalities are being increasingly pressured by the province to take on more responsibilities that haven’t traditionally been their's.
He said there’s now more expectations that municipalities take on more roles in regards to affordable housing, child care, climate change and other issues that were once definitely outside their lane.
“Being a creature of the province, they obviously have a lot of power to determine what’s in our lane and what isn’t, and even with climate change, they have expectations in regards to our climate-adaptation strategies, so that’s the type of work we’re going to take on,” Douglas said.
“I am interested in getting more information on this so that we can make an informed decision.”
The motion passed with Findlay, Manhas and Coun. Mike Caljouw opposed.
