“To knowingly say emergency today, knowing that that will kick 20, 30, 40 per cent of the people in our city out of that conversation because they will not engage any more. They will decide, ‘This is not for me, this is the radicals. I'm not involved in this,’” he said.

Gibson put forward an amendment, saying that the city “acknowledge the climate crisis,” as opposed to declaring an emergency.

After being asked by Coun. Mike Salisbury what the difference was between the two, Gibson said an emergency has negative connotations that take away from what the city is trying to do.

“We're raising it to the exact same level as declaring a state of emergency,” he said.

“We're not actually doing it, but we are using the connotations to get us to that heightened level of, there's a wall of water coming towards us.”

The wording changes were approved in a 7-6 vote, with Allt, Gordon, Piper and Salisbury, along with councillors Cathy Downer and June Hofland.

The final vote for the reworded motion passed 9-4, with Allt, Gordon, Piper and Salisbury voting against.

"As I said earlier, words matter," Piper said.

"It may seem that I don't support that acknowledgement, but it completely alters the intent and the vision of the emergency motion or the crisis motion and completely alters the intent."

The move to declare a climate emergency came during council debate around setting up actions for the city on the way to Guelph facilities running on renewable energy by 2050.

Under those plans, staff would set up a capital reserve strategy to support energy optimization projects through next year’s capital budget, capital and operating costs to meet this goal. They would come forward during next year’s budget process and staff would report on the progress toward that goal every year.

Staff are also asked that, as part of those reports, to provide council with possible options that could speed up that timeline.

In May 2018, council voted unanimously in favour of setting that target.

Gordon and Piper first raised the prospect of a climate emergency declaration in March, shortly after Kingston passed a declaration of its own.

Similar motions have also been passed in several other Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Halifax and Burlington. A move to declare an emergency around climate change has also made its way to Parliament Hill, with both the Liberals and the NDP putting forward motions earlier this month to do that on a national level.

'My generation has failed'

The final item on the agenda for the evening, which stretched past midnight, the proposal of a climate emergency declaration brought out a full house to council chambers. There was also a full list of public delegates speaking in favour of a declaration.

“We failed,” Evan Ferrari of eMERGE Guelph said.

“My generation has failed, we have failed the generations that came before us, we have failed the very large group of young people in the audience tonight. We’ve known the implications of climate change for 30 years, and yet we’ve failed to wrestle it to the ground.”

Earlier in the evening, council voted against a motion from Gordon to reconsider a vote from last year, which set 2050 as the target date for the city to be carbon neutral, and for city facilities to achieve all of their energy needs via renewable means.

The Ward 2 councillor, in his motion, proposed moving that target to 2035.

Delegate Morgan Hannah, ahead of her delegation, called out the councillors who voted against the motion, questioning which of them would still be alive in 2050.

“My niece, who will have a child in September, could be a grandmother in this time period, if the climate crisis doesn't destroy our civilization first,” she said.

In light of the vote earlier in the evening, frequent delegate and council watchdog Susan Watson said the city should not declare an emergency.

“If you're not prepared to act like there is an emergency by taking bold action, don't bother declaring it. And at minimum, that position will have some consistency and integrity,” she said.

Speaking to Gibson and Mayor Cam Guthrie, both of whom have been vocal in their opposition to a declaration, delegate and former council candidate Matt Saunders said them moving to the pro-declaration camp would work to better reach those who do not see climate change as a problem, or even a reality.

“Twenty per cent of our community here still believes this is a big hoax. They won't listen to science, but they might listen to you,” he said.

“If you are contradicting this, you're contradicting all science and reason, and you are putting yourselves firmly in the camp of the deniers and the appeasers. You will become the Neville Chamberlain of the climate crisis.”

The final delegation of the night was a trio of teenagers, who spoke to their frustrations around not seeing actions around climate change, but older generations that have political power not appearing to do much about it.

“It affects everyone and there really is nowhere for us to run to,” Sequoia Kim said.

“Recognizing that climate change is going to affect low income and marginalized people first and foremost, and will hit them the hardest, to me that is so, so unfair.”