At the Monday, June 7th Planning and Development Committee meeting in Clarington, Mayor Adrian Foster put forward a motion, seconded by Councillor Zwart:

"That staff investigate and report back on the potential for implementation of 'Whitby Green Standard' within Clarington's existing green initiatives including options for more environmentally friendly roofing options."

Mayor Foster opened the discussion by saying that the motion was self-evident.

"I understand that..a lot of the work has already been done on this and it gives us an opportunity to make some potentially tangible steps forward," he said.  "Certainly we heard from the group of students earlier and Toronto has done some work as well."

Councillor Neal followed with his comments.

"I've raised this a number of times about Clarington trying to get developers to stop using asphalt shingles, which are 100% guaranteed to go in a landfill somewhere and I seem to always get met by silence and I'm not sure why," said Neal.   "I know Whitby is greatest place in the world but they have the same issue going on and every house that's being built has asphalt shingles and they are all going in the landfill, and so I'd like to hear something concrete about what we can do about that as a municipality, because I think we could probably do better as it gets right down to it.  Just my thoughts.  I'd like to hear something other than silence on that, that's all I'm saying."

Councillor Hooper weighed in with his thoughts.

"When I did a little bit of research on this, the Whitby Green Standards, it says at the bottom of the page, several already have green standards in place and we, meaning the municipality of Clarington, is already included, along with Toronto, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Vaughn, Mississauga, Halton Hills and Pickering," said Hooper.  "Can staff please provide our committee with what our green development standards are?  And are our developers aware of what they are at the present time?"

Faye Langmaid, manager of special projects, planning and development for Clarington, said "we do have green development standards that were done as part of Priority Green and we can send you the links on them and I believe that the report that the Mayor and Councillor Zwart are asking for here will fully cover what those green standards are.  As part of the secondary plans we were dealing with at the most recent meeting, some of those development standards were actually being implemented in the policy aspect so we could implement them as developers came in with them."

Mayor Foster closed the discussion by stating that the motion was designed to look at the Whitby Green Standards within Clarington's existing green initiatives.

"So the theory is to see what's being done and what we might be able to easily pick up and integrate with what we are already doing," said Foster.

The motion was carried unanimously.

DRHBA has reached out to staff to start a discussion on this matter and ensure that the voice and concerns of the building industry are heard.

DRHBA maintains that municipalities cannot mandate above the Ontario Building Code, and acquired a legal opinion on the Whitby Green Standards that supports this position.

Anyone with concerns is encouraged to contact Stacey.