Will solar lights shine along all of Windsor’s walking trails?

A park in the City of Windsor, Ont. is seen in this CTV file image from 2016. (File)

Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie is hopeful solar lights will soon shine along all of Windsor’s community walking trails.

McKenzie asked administration during the last council meeting for a feasibility report on adding solar lights to the entire trail system across the city, saying there are over one hundred parks in Windsor and most have a walking trail component.

“Just like any infrastructure we have to maintain that infrastructure on a regular basis,” McKenzie says. “What I’ve asked administration to do is whenever they’re going back to remediate a section of trail is that they include as part of that remediation work to add solar lights so we’ll be able to continuously continue to add solar lights throughout the various section of walking trails that we have in parks across the community.”

McKenzie explains that he’s also requesting staff to look into adding solar lights to any new trails constructed in parks in Windsor.

“The City of Windsor, this council, one of the wonderful things that it did over the course of this term was enact the Community Energy Plan which has very ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets,” McKenzie says. “And in order for us to be able to achieve those targets, whenever we have opportunities to reduce energy consumption, we should be looking at the various alternatives that we have.”

According to McKenzie, Windsor already has funds in the city's budget set aside for trail remediation, suggesting it wouldn't be costly to make the change. McKenzie said various councillors including himself have already used their discretionary ward funds to implement solar lights in various places

“I think that there’s already a certain degree of ‘buy in’ if you will around the council table. The challenge just like anything that’s related to green infrastructure or any infrastructure really is time and money. How quickly we can implement it and what are the costs going to be associated with this,” he says.

McKenzie adds, “I think we very much are at the beginning of a new way to actually look at how we do things and the ways in which we can build the city from a more sustainable standpoint.”

The next regular Windsor council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 8.