Halifax councillor, Richard Zurawski, apologized after appearing to make an ageist comment against colleagues who voiced concerns about a motion he brought forward Tuesday.
“I have to look at the most vociferous opposition to this comes from the two oldest councillors who have the least invested in the future,” he said in the afternoon portion of the Halifax Regional Council meeting.
The motion was to request the production of a staff report “detailing the proposed implementation of an ‘Ecological Lens’ in the decision-making process of” the municipality, as described on the agenda page of the meeting.
If the lens were to be implemented, it would be included in every staff report from the municipality as a way of determining the potential environmental impacts of each matter.
Zurawski’s comment received immediate reaction from his colleagues.
“That is out of bounds,” Mayor Mike Savage said. “I think David Suzuki is older than I am.”
Earlier in the meeting, Coun. Russell Walker said he believed that environmental considerations are already included in staff reports, and adding another staff report on the docket would slow down the process.
“I’ve been waiting two years to get some reports here, and they’re still not here yet. This may add another three months on the process, or four months,” he said.
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Coun. Shawn Cleary spoke after Walker and he said the environmental implications already in staff reports don’t include all of the things that should be considered regarding environmental impacts.
Later, during Coun. Bill Karsten’s turn to speak, he repeated some of the concerns raised by Walker.
“I’m sure if we collectively took 10 minutes at break, we could come up with another three, four, five different filters or lenses that we should be looking at,” he said. “How many more lenses do we need?”
Karsten said he wanted to know what the proposed lens would add when a section titled “environmental implications” is already in staff reports.
Zurawski then spoke, and he said that the environment needs to be considered a bigger priority than before.
“We’re tending to kiss off environmental concerns, and letting fiscal concerns override everything,” he said.
Shortly after, he said the aforementioned incendiary comment.
“Let’s not make judgments on people,” Savage said.
“But the carping towards me on this is acceptable?” Zurawski said, cutting Savage off.
Savage said he didn’t think carping occurred.
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Karsten stood up and asked for an apology, adding that he has been on an environment committee for years.
“Environmental issues are extremely important to me,” he said.
The question about how the proposed lens differs from the current way the environment is addressed in staff reports was not answered, Karsten said.
“I think I’ve answered that particular part of the question. Now, as far as the apology goes, I do apologize. In the heat of the moment, I probably said something I shouldn’t have. I hope you accept my apology,” Zurawski replied.
Karsten thanked him, and he said he accepted the apology.
“For what it is, I will accept that apology, but in my 24 years on council I would hate to say I didn’t care about the environment,” said Walker.
The motion was voted in favour of by 12 councillors, while four voted against it.