Dooley critical of way government finds efficiencies
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
The mayor of Nelson admonished regional government directors recently for not responding earlier to finding efficiencies in greenhouse gas reduction.
Mayor John Dooley said the philosophy of greenhouse gas emissions reduction was fine, but it should not have taken a Climate Change Charter agreement to compel government to streamline the way it operated.
“It kind of amazes me that we now can find these kind of efficiencies, but we had to be driven to find them,” he said.
“We, as a board and as a municipal government, should be looking for efficiencies regardless of who is driving them.”
Those efficiencies were there 10 years ago, he said, just as well as they are there today.
“We are driven, in many cases, by the funding that comes along with this,” said Regional District of Central Kootenay chair Gary Wright.
Most of the greenhouse gas emission reductions that the regional district and the City of Nelson pursue actually have a positive financial return, said Mayor Dooley.
However, the big decisions will eventually be made when local governments begin looking at reducing greenhouse gas emissions when it is the right thing to do, not when it is the financial thing to do, he said.
The City is doing simple things already to reduce costs and emissions, like turning off computers at the end of the working day, said Mayor Dooley.
“Those are low hanging fruit and low hanging fruit should be identified at all times and it should have nothing to do with greenhouse gas emissions, that shouldn’t be the driving factor,” he said.
“The driving factor is you should be looking for efficiencies within local government all of the time just as you would in business.”
The City is also exploring the prospect of using a geo thermal system for heating and cooling and re-insulating City Hall to reduce the amount of gas they use to heat, among others.
“You’ll see a lot of things rolling out from the city over the next couple of months that we are currently doing,” Mayor Dooley pointed out.
