BACKGROUND
Following Climate Strike events organized by local students throughout 2019, Sackville Town Council acknowledged that the world faces a climate crisis and as part of a response, committed to establish the Mayor’s Roundtable on Climate Change. The Roundtable is an invited group of town, academic, professional experts and other community stakeholders assembled by the Mayor as a pilot project. The mandate of the group is to provide advice and guidance to the Town of Sackville in improving its efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to design long-term structures to sustain those efforts.
ACTIONS
To date, the Roundtable has been actively assisting the Town with climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.
Capital Budget Review
A small group of Roundtable members volunteered to evaluate the Town’s 2020 Capital Budget and provide comments and suggestions on the variety of planned projects. These comments were forwarded to Town Council and Department Heads who will be considering and reporting on the comments and suggestion as capital projects are planned and brought to Council for implementation. This is the first time that an external body has considered the Town’s Capital Budget with a climate change related lens.
Public Forum
The Roundtable hosted a Public Forum on February 1, 2020, which was planned to coincide with Tantramar Climate Change Week. The Forum was an opportunity for individuals, groups, businesses, etc., to present suggestions to a panel of Roundtable members on what the town and/or community can do to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This Forum was also a first for the Town of Sackville.
The purpose of the public forum was to address the following question: How can Sackville move ahead and take action to mitigate and adapt to climate change?
The forum was an open call to the public, and invited a variety of perspectives and ideas to the event, including projects, policy directions, partnerships, research, communication, etc. All presentations were made to a panel of eight of the Roundtable members. Written or electronic submissions were also encouraged before, during, and after the forum.
The agenda for the Forum and the presentations that were delivered electronically are available below.
- Public Forum Agenda – February 1, 2020
- Presentations (those provided in PowerPoint)
You can listen to the audio recording of the Forum here:
NEXT STEPS
The Roundtable will be meeting again in the coming weeks to reflect on the Public Forum and to further review the submissions and recommendations that were provided as well as other sources of information. The Roundtable will be delivering a summary of the Forum to Town Council, along with recommendations on what specific actions the Town and/or community can take to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
MAYOR’S ROUNDTABLE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Aiken, Ron – Deputy Mayor
Anderson, Fred
Barney, Jaden
Barney, Liza
Burke, Jamie – Town Staff
Cheeseman, Adam
Clayton, Barbra
Cope, Simon
Croucher, Kelli-Nicole
Dietz, Sabine
Di Lonardo, Alex
Eaton, Samara
Elliot, Richard
Fox, Michael
Fraser, Zoshia
Gosselin, Natasha
Handrahan, Phil – Town Staff
Hardie, Daimen
Herteis, Anne
Higham, John – Mayor
Inglis, Robert
Kurek, Josh
MacAskill, Quinn
MacEachern, Neil
Marlin, Amanda
Mesheau, Shawn – Councillor
McLellan, Nick
Thomas, Peter
Vaillancourt, Elise
PUBLIC FORUM PANEL
Cope, Simon
Fox, Michael
Gosselin, Natasha
Herteis, Anne
Higham, John
Marlin, Amanda
MacAskill, Quinn
Thomas, Peter