Mayoral Uncertainty, Spycams, and Wingy Water Woes
START: 7:06 PM
ABSENTEES - none
PUBLIC GALLERY: Brian Clavier, Pearl Morin, Rick Potratz, and Steve Lawrence. Ingrid Mateen, Jess Camalari, Claudia Camalari, and two others left after 28 minutes. Special recognition guests Mr. & Mrs. Winter Festival (Arnold & Merle Chester), the Winter Festival Queen (Lori Hannah-Fiddler) and Festival Princesses (Justine Antoine-Roy and Kate McKelvic) also left after 28 minutes.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: 275 pages [a remarkably small pile, considering that the last council meeting was 28 days previous. The number of complex subjects up for discussion by council shrinks dramatically when the Mayor is out of town - as he was for a large part of February 2009. Apparently, when he's not here, nothing important should happen.]
Recognition - Times Six
[This is becoming a permanent feature of council meetings.]
Stephanie Sasakamoose, the Prince of Wales Scholarship winner, was not present. For the benefit of Shaw cable viewers, the Mayor interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Winter Festival, the Festival Queen, and the two Festival Princesses. First Princess Justine Antoine-Roy - who confidently referred to herself as "numero uno" - asked her interviewer, "Are you really the Mayor?" Mayor Scarrow's guilty reply was drowned out by loud laughter from throughout the chamber.
7:14 PM
Submission of Pecuniary Interest Forms
For the eleventh consecutive meeting, the Mayor requested members of council to submit forms detailing what financial interests they have in the city that might affect their actions as municipal counillors. Again, no explanation was given for this request.
[The public now has reason to believe that someone on council is buying and selling properties so often that they need to submit a new form at every council meeting - or that the tape of this remark is looped to repeat indefinitely. To clarify: the procedure defined in section 116 of The Cities Act refers to the submission of these forms just after councillors are elected or re-elected, or when there is a change in either their municipal property holdings or their corporate involvement with the city coffers.]
Bylaw 47 Public Hearing - to Allow a District Development Plan Amendment to Create Country Residential Lots, at Aspen Estates (25 lots north of highway 302, east of the city) and Boyer Estates (17 lots, west of highway 2, north of the city)
- Brian Clavier [as expected] spoke against the bylaw, on the basis of the city's and RM's failure to respect section 5.4.8.1.viii of the District Development Plan (which requires country residential proposals, such as Boyer Estates, to be located more than 500 meters from the commercial area on the east side of highway 2 at Red Wing); the documentation's failure to assess traffic impacts generated by the two developments; the increased danger, in particular, at the main Red Wing access road intersection with highway 2, from additional traffic at a location that already has too many accidents and close calls; and long-term unsustainability of residential developments on the edge of the city that have no energy- or resource-reduction components.
- Councillor Williams explained that the Red Wing development is intended to attract young families, who are needed if the elementary school at Red Wing is to survive.
- Councillor Atkinson questioned the approval of two more projects that will affect traffic to and from the city, and the impact the developments will have on the Rural Water Utility, which is supplied by the city's water network.
- THE VOTE (to refer to bylaw section of the meeting): 8 - 1 in favour, Councillor Atkinson opposed.
7:24 PM
Development Permit Application Public Hearing - to Approve a "Breakfast Restaurant" in the Proposed Confectionery at 1928 Central Avenue (formerly the Grand Central Cafe, Pat's Place, and the Hillside Grocery, going back to 1945)
- letters of opposition from the operator of the Earth Spa business (located next door to the proposed restaurant/confectionery, in the same building) and the tenant living above the proposed restaurtant/confectionery space were posted to the city's web site on February 23.
- Brian Clavier spoke in favour of granting the permit, on the basis of the location's history as a restaurant, although he was concerned about how "commuter" is defined in Prince Albert, since it might mean an excessive number of additional cars parked in the area in the morning, rather than walking, cycling, or bus commuters being patrons of the restaurant. He said that the four existing parking spaces were enough, rather than the nine called for by the city's bylaw.
- Jess Camalari, the permit applicant, spoke about his arrival in the city in July 2000, his four children (all of whom speak three languages), and his experience running the concession at the Buckland arena.
- Councillor Zurakowski responded to Mr. Camalari, saying that "your excitement is contagious." He also noted that parking will need to be monitored, just as it is for the restaurant at 6th Avenue West and 22nd Street [which is in his ward].
- THE VOTE: 9 - 0, to approve the development permit.
7:34 PM
Shaw Cable Present - Despite the Lack of Such a Requirement in Their Broadcast License
- a letter from Shaw Cable [page 4 of the background documents] explains why Shaw's presence at council meetings may be inconsistent, but not why the picture was unavailable to viewers of the January 26, 2009 meeting. It also refers to the possibility of a "broadband service" Request for Proposals that it hopes will be produced by the city in spring 2009.
- Councillor Zurakowski said he was "pleased to hear [that] Shaw is committed to being here."
[Note: Brian Clavier wrote to council in 2006, then subsequently spoke at a council meeting in early 2007, about live internet broadcasts and online archiving of city council meetings. A report (with incomplete research) was produced in mid-2007 that served to justify council's failure to act on Brian's suggestions. There is no explanation for the continued presence of Shaw-produced videos of the September 10, 2007; September 24, 2007; and December 3, 2007 council meetings at http://www.citypa.ca/TheCity/CityCouncil/CouncilVideos/tabid/424/Default.aspx , under the heading "Recent City Council Meetings."]
Year-end Safety Report - New to the Public Eye
- the Occupational Health and Safety Report for the city for the year ended December 31, 2008 is presented in the meeting documents, beginning at page 29. A summary of city employee accidents has not been made available online before this.
Councillor Atkinson pointed out that the numbers of accidents for prior years [which, surprisingly, are not in the report] would be valuable, in order to create a context for the current year numbers.
- City Manager Cotterill excused the absence of this important information, stating that the individual who prepared the report "is new to the position."
7:42 PM
Time-saving Sypcams Will NOT Cost $240,000
- the Transportation Project Manager's report on obtaining three video cameras (two for the Diefenbaker bridge, plus one for the Riverside Drive overpass) described the full cost for these cameras, their installation and maintenance, and two message boards to allow the information they gather to be relayed to the motoring public as approximately $240,000 [at page 90 of the background documents]. There is no mention of right-to-privacy issues in the report. [Council's discussion of this item also neglected to address privacy issues.]
- Mayor Scarrow apologized for missing the Executive Committee meeting where this item was discussed in detail. His thoughts on this topic were not provided to members of council at that time. He stated that the message boards, a $200,000 expense, were not required, and that the $15,000 for monitoring was also not needed. He claims the cameras would give 5 to 20 minutes of additional warning to the police service of dangerous situations. The Police Commission [of which he is the Chair] has alrady reviewed this item, and the cost totals about $45,000.
- Councillor Zurakowski expressed his opposition to the expenditure, asking whether safety would be increased. The Mayor replied, "Yes."
- Councillor Dionne [a member of the Police Commission] told council that the Riverside Drive overpass was again hit by a truck on Friday night [February 20, 2009] , but the truck in question was fund due to the degree of damage. Cell phone callers, he said, do not give emergency services operators enough detail about incidents that happen on the bridge. He supports buying the cameras.
- Councillor Williams asked where the money is coming from, and whether the province was contributing any funds (since the bridge and overpass are on provincial highways).
- City Manager Cotterill replied that the costs would be included in the 2009 budget, and the province might contribute.
- Councillor Atkinson noted that there were an average of 6.3 accidents per year on the bridge and at the overpass, over a ten-year period, and that the delays at the two spots represented "less than point zero-one percent" of that time. He maintained that the cameras should be added to the police service capital budget.
- Mayor Scarrow countered that the cost should be in the public works budget, and that the police would monitor the cameras at no cost.
- Councillor Zurakowski asked if additional staff would be needed to monitor the cameras. The Mayor said, "No."
- THE VOTE (to include the three cameras in the 2009 budget): 7 - 2 in favour, Councillors Atkinson and Williams opposed.
7:51 PM
Indoor Hockey Season - "You play, you (might) pay"
- Mayor Scarrow noted, after again apologizing for missing the Executive Committee meeting where this item was discussed in detail, that the individual cost for extending the season at each of the three arenas in the city was not included in the report from the Recreation Manager.
- Councillor Zurakowski explained these numbers would be in the next report from Community Services.
- Councillor Williams reminded council that other arena users, such as the lacrosse players, would be affected if the hockey season is extended.
- Councillor Ring said the cost recovery rate should be set at 70% or higher.
- Councillor Dionne said that the RM of Buckland should be contacted, to see if they are extending their arena's hockey season. [It was not clear why the rural rink's hockey season was relevant.]
- Councillor Zurakowski remarked that the language of full cost recovery "is a slippery slope" that limits recreational facility access for youth.
- Mayor Scarrow [taking the discussion to uncharted lows] affirmed that sports are the "best anti-gang program."
- Councillor Williams clarified: the arenas' hockey programs are elite programs - not part of an anti-gang program for at-risk youth. What's more, if "you're gonna play, you pay" should be the operative principle.
- Councillor Zurakowski believes "at-risk" youth are increasingly middle class youth who cannot afford to participate in organized hockey.
- Councillor Atkinson brought the discussion back to extending the hockey season at the arenas, saying that there is less money available for at-risk youth if money is spent on extending the arenas' hockey season.
- THE VOTE (to have an in-depth report prepared): 9 - 0 in favour.
7:59 PM
Water Utility Budgets Drip Red Ink
- Councillor Atkinson reminded council that the water and sewer operating fund was supposed to be self-supporting, that it had a positive balance of $2 million in 2007, and that it now shows a $4.6 million deficit. The fund is "funded on the backs of residential users," not business or rural customers. There are minimum-usage rates that subsidize larger users, and no conservation elements. The more one uses, the less one pays. He said council should not wait to make changes to the fund's budget, municipalities across the country have already dealt with this problem, and if nothing is done, the $4.6 million deficit will get worse.
- Mayor Scarrow said the rate increases were passed by this council, council ignored a required $700,000 expenditure in March 2006 [seven months before this council was elected], and this council met with the treatment plant employees, who would "no longer come in at all hours." He claimed residential charges were below the provincial median, business charges were at the median, and there will be a profit inthe fund. This is an enormous ($19 million) issue, and the penalty of not doing things is "the price we're paying now."
- Councillor Swystun said the recommendations call for a review.
- Councillor Atkinson explained that when he wasn't in favour of the current pricing methodology, he voted against the rate strucure because he wanted everyone to pay more (not just residential customers). The report from administration is very late, the deficit has doubled, expenses have been limited to the bare essentials, and we should not have to wait another year for a detailed report.
- City Manager Cotterill said an "extremely complicated review" was being requested. He stated the federal and provincial governments have to step forward, and the city is applying within the next 60 to 90 days to the BCF [Building Communities Fund] - the city of "Yorkton got $12 million last week," and we will be applying for about that amount.
- Councillor Swystun [a former City Engineer] said that water system improvements are a "moving target." Saskatchewan Environment [SE] , for example, wanted $7 million in immediate system improvements two years ago. However, the interjection of "sanity" into the negotiations between the city and SE produced the current cost estimates.
- Councillor Atkinson said the waste water treatment plant in the east end was built solely with city funding [including the issue of debentures] ten years ago, while the problems in North Battleford a few years later resulted in the province coming to the rescue with "bags of money."
- Councillor Williams said he spoke out about the lack of conservation measures when the rates were changed two years ago; we're still washing cars and watering lawns with potable water, and we should educate citizens about this in order to change that way of thinking. In addition, he said that fire hydrant water is also potable, simple measures can save money, and a vast review of what we can do is needed.
- Councillor Zurakowski agreed, indicating that the city should look at some of these conservation measures - dealing with "the possible" now and "the perfect" later. He called for the question [an immediate vote on the motion].
- THE VOTE (to approve the budgets for the water utility and give the City Manager until December 31, 2009 to provide a report on the rates): 6 - 2 in favour, Councillors Atkinson and Williams opposed. Councillor Ring [the chair for today's Committee-of-the-Whole meeting segment] did not vote. When asked about this by the Mayor, he replied that he would have voted in favour of the motion.
New Emergency Radio System - Project Employee to Cost $60,000
- Councillor Dionne objected to hiring someone for a short period of time for $60,000. He suggested seconding an employee from the fire or police departments.
- City Manager Cotterill said the fire and police chiefs told him that the relevant expertise could not be found among their employees, and we have to "put pressure on the province for a system we can use." On the other hand, he also said that the province will be testing a system in Prince Albert next month.
- Mayor Scarrow said that the selection of a radio system by the province to replace Fleetnet was almost complete. To add more confusion to the issue, the Mayor also said that the city can't hire someone for $60,000 with the relevant expertise.
- THE VOTE (to refer the report to 2009 budget deliberations): 5 - 1 in favour, Councillor Dionne opposed. Vote was too quick to see who was in favour of the motion (other than the Mayor's supporting vote).
It's ONLY 3.7 million dollars . . . .
- Councillor Swystun moved that the city prioritize the expenditures that will be covered by MEEP [the Municipal Economic Enhacement Program] in 2009 - see the Public Forum section below, and refer to pages 247, 248, 249, and 259 of the meeting documents.
Saskatchewan Lotteries Funds Clock and Cabinet (but no couch)
- council voted to approve the 2009 Community Grant Program recommendations to Saskatchewan Lotteries. The recommended project grants include $3500 towards a new time clock at the East End Community Club, as described on page 270 of the meeting documents, and a $2000 grant to the Prince Albert Skating Club for the full cost of a display cabinet at the Dave Steuart arena, as described on page 271.
- the grant guidelines at http://www.bbcsask.ca/pdfs/toolkit/Districts-Annual-Funding-GuidelinesDec07.pdf have not changed for the 2009 grant year. The fourth and fifth pages of the document explain that capital expenditures (construction, renovation, or upgrading of facilities are specified) are ineligible for grants. The primary eligibility requirement is to"encourage participation in sport, recreation and cultural programs and in particular, to encourage participation by economically disadvantaged people, new Canadians, older adults, persons with a disability, single parent families, or youth at risk."
- The 2009 Prince Albert Community Grant Guidelines are on pages 205 and 206 of the document http://www.citypa.ca/Portals/0/PDF2/Council_Agenda/2008/2008%2012%2015%20-%20Order%20of%20Business/Agenda%20-%20Pages%201%20-%20423.pdf The City of Saskatoon elaborates on ineligible 2009 expenditures on the fourth and fifth pages of http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/leisure/facilities/pdfs/CGApplication.pdf
AND the Mayor and Councillors Attended/Will Attend/Congratulate . . . .
- Councillor Matheson advertised the Kinsmen "Mini-Miracle" at the Rawlinson Centre on March 2 - musician Donny Parenteau will play there - and ate at Amy's Restaurant during a Francophone Culture Awareness Week event.
- Councillor Swystun said a UNESCO representative from Ottawa and the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor will be in Prince Albert for the March 20 sign-on to the Cities-Against-Racism-and-Discrimination group.
- Councillor Dionne praised the Heart Health Olympics, and encouraged all of us to attend the next edition of "R U Tuff Enuff." He said 3100 people attended the most recent one, and that the "ladies" bout was the best.
- Councillor Ring filled in for the Mayor at many events - the city's long-service-awards dinner, the Winter Festival juried art show, a Prince Albert Grand Council inter-agency conference, a River Bank Development Corporation award ceremony, and a non-embarassing dog sled ride at the Canadian Sled Dog Challenge.
- Mayor Scarrow met Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies construction students; attended the Art Hauser posthumous Citizen-of-the-Year tribute, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention, and the Shore Gold open house. He congratulated the City Manager for creating a new honour for civic employees (an award of appreciation for volunteer work performed), then asked the Director of Financial Services how many employees the city has, speculating that there were about 500. There was no reply.
8:37 PM
Inquiries - Snow Removal and Problems Resulting from the 28th St. West Construction
- Councillor Atkinson asked whether the recent snow removal near Arthur Pechey school would be repeated at other schools in the city. The Acting Director said he would look into this.
- Councillor Zurakowski asked about snow removal and weight limits on the 24th Street temporary route to the hospital during the continued closure of 28th Street, in response to stuck vehicles and excessive road wear. Scott Golding said there was a 5000-kilogram limit on 24th Street, and that it now had "priority one" status for snow removal.
8:46 PM
Motion to Re-name Soccer Fields
- Councillor Zurakowski's motion to re-name three soccer fields [see the posting for the January 26, 2009 council meeting] was postponed.
Public Forum - Mis-spent Survey Money, An Errant Calculator, and Nuclear Power is a No-No
- Brian Clavier complained about the $10,000 the city was spending on a badly-composed, age- and education-biased survey about Bruce Power's proposal for a nuclear power plant. He also gave a scathing comparison of the details for spending the $3.7 million in provincal MEEP money on pages 247-249 of the meeting documents with the spending summary found on page 259.
- Steve Lawrence [the Green Party candidate for the Prince Albert constituency in the October 2008 federal election] spoke against locating a nuclear power plant in the Prince Albert area, citing larger-than-predicted construction and operating costs; kilowatt-hour generation costs that are three-and-a-half times those for windpower, and double the cost of solar-generated electricity; increasingly cheaper solar- and wind-generated electricity; the need to have taxpayers assume 100% of the risks of a nuclear power plant; the fixed cost of wind-generated power (for 20 years); Germany's current plan to shut down all 16 of its nuclear power reactors; the potential for biomass-generated electricity; and a report by Moody's Investor Service that gives 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt hour as the cost of nuclear-generated power, versus the 9.38 cents we now pay. He also said that city residents should make their wishes on the question of nuclear power clear to the provincial government.
Always the Final Word
- The Mayor thanked administration and Councillor Dionne for their work. He admonished the Deputy-Mayor of the day, noting that "the Chair votes as well, Councillor Ring."
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:58 PM.
[The meeting's length was not due to a long agenda, but to lengthy discussions on three reports and councillors' attendance at a month's worth of noteworthy events.]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Off the Rails 2
NOTE: The only regular City Council meeting in Prince Albert in February 2009 will be held on February 23. The reason for the four-week interval between meetings is that council's movers and shakers were attending the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention in Saskatoon on February 2, and February 16 is a civic holiday (Family Day). To compensate for the lack of public decision-making activity by our local governors, I present this post - on a topic that has never been taken seriously by this city's elected officials.
"The Environment" is Neither Disposable nor Replaceable (and Protecting it is Neither Expensive nor "Dangerous" to the Economy)
On February 5 the new federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (Scott Vaughan) released his first report to Parliament. The first story line from it that the national news media picked up was the lack of accountability for $1.5 billion the federal government had given to the provinces (ostensibly to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other airborne pollutants). In the environmental media, the focus was on the report's blunt reference to Canada "not [being] on an environmentally sustainable path." What the Commissioner didn't say was that everything each of us does has an effect on the environment - nearly all of it negative. He also didn't say that individual and governmental failure to change what we do, so that we generate smaller negative effects on the environment, is more important than Canadians realize.
The City of Prince Albert is a prime example of a local government that has failed to take responsibility for minimizing the detrimental impacts on the environment produced by activities that occur within its boundaries. Recognizing that the first step in righting that wrong is the creation of a "Green Plan" that is uniquely suited to the city, I wrote out the requirements for and an outline of such a plan, then presented this to City Council at its regular public meetings. My presentations were given over a four-month period, from November 26, 2007 to March 24, 2008. None of the details of these presentations were reported - by either the print or broadcast media. Fully cognizant of their lack of newsworthiness, I am nonetheless reproducing the presentations here.
Fifteen months have elapsed since I began trying in earnest to educate Council on this (very basic) issue. Since much has happened during that time, including City Council giving congratulatory messages and nods of approval to Green Living Action Day and Project Porchlight last fall (but also, on my part, large doses of introspection), I have added comments on the original text. These appear in green ink.
Basic Requirements for a Green Plan
(presented at the City Council meeting on November 26, 2007)
1. [In the short term] It must consist of mostly low-cost, or no-cost measures.
Since future revenue seems to be already allocated to asphalt, soccer, and infrastructure, a green plan must cost next-to-nothing. Small portions of existing staff’s time are needed for writing, review, and enforcement of the program. Anything more costly can be delayed [for one year, now that two budget years have passed since this was written] - as long as you remember that costs increase exponentially as each year passes. Fortunately, most “green plan” tools are low cost.
2. It must be comprehensive.
Garbage reduction, recycling improvements, decreased water and sewer use, and reductions in electricity and hydrocarbon consumption must all be part of the program at the start. The time for token gestures and empty rhetoric ended at least ten years ago. Favouritism and exemptions have no place in our green plan [for example, prohibitions on new drive-thru lanes and a tax on existing such services should apply to every fast-food outlet, bank, and credit union: we don't want to duplicate Kalispell, Montana, which, with half the population of Prince Albert, has a downtown "bank" consisting of six drive-through lanes and a "building" with a footprint that is 15 feet by 10 feet], and the costs of not acting on all fronts simultaneously are going up way too fast.
3. It must be simple.
The plan has to be simple, because there are still people in Prince Albert who think global warming does not exist, and others who do not link climate change to the 80,000 yearly kilometers their household drives. [In the middle of 36 days of temperatures stuck between -22 and -38 in December 2008 and January 2009, one of the local paragons of hydrocarbon consumption asked me, "So what happened to global warming?" With a hard glare and venom in my voice, I replied that "Prince Albert doesn't constitute the globe." My neighbours on both sides also fail to link their actions to climate change: they insist on warming up their vehicles in the driveway, for at least ten minutes before they drive off, whenever the temperature falls below zero.] Technical complexity can be added later - even if the two senior levels of government fail to get serious about environmental planning. [The October 2008 federal election might have had an impact, but as long as the Michael-Ignatieff-led Liberals support the minority Conservative government, there's no hope for significant change at that level. At the provincial level, the Saskatchewan Party, like the Alberta Conservatives, still believes that carbon sequestration and "clean coal" are meaningful pursuits.]
4. It must have real, measurable targets and goals.
Aside from setting realistic targets and goals, the capacity to record progress toward them must be in place.
5. It must use tools that are being used elsewhere, and not try to innovate.
There are lots of smart people in the world, and I think we can simply accept their work as worthy of duplication. Avoiding innovation will reduce public confusion, eliminate unrealistic options, and shorten decision-making timeframes.
6. The plan must have a champion - someone whose job is to implement it.
This person must be free from political influence. Neither David Suzuki nor Hamilton Greenwood [a department head at SIAST Woodland Campus] is available.
7. There must be an award system of some kind in the plan.
These keep the program in the public eye, and are very important for the current mayor [who, since November 2006, has accorded special recognition to a score of sports teams and meritorous individuals at city council meetings].
Part I - "Internal" Measures in a Municipal Green Plan
(presented at the City Council meeting on January 28, 2008)
Except for Councillor Dionne, who had to leave the last time I spoke, council will recall that there are three parts in a Municipal Green Plan. Tonight I will explain 16 internal measures that should be included in part one of the Plan. Their adoption must be the first step, because this will show leadership by city council and city administration. After all, if you don’t show an interest in environmental initiatives, it is unlikely the rest of the population will.
1. Hire a sustainable development coordinator.
This is necessary because someone who works for the city must conduct research and monitor the Green Plan’s implementation - full-time. That person will also be responsible for engaging the public in the Green Plan’s implementation.
2. Collect information on the electricity, natural gas, propane, gasoline, and diesel consumed by all of the city’s buildings and vehicles, then set targets (in percentages) for reducing this consumption.
[I know this is a tall order for an organization like the City of Prince Albert. If you want to know how difficult it is to get actual consumption information, start by examining the police operating budget found on pages 90-99 of the January 12, 2009 council meeting documents. It seems most police vehicles run on air and an unwavering sense of justice, not gasoline or diesel: the only references to vehicle fuel and oil costs are on line 331, where we see $1701 for "CFSEU Vehicle Fuel & Oil" in 2007, dramatically reduced to just $86 in 2008, and line 342, where the "Emergency Response Team" is noted as using $0 - yes, ZERO - for "Vehicle Fuel & Oil" in 2006, 2007, and 2008. This is either a brilliant achievement (worthy of at least a Pultizer Prize or an Oscar), one which the city must try to replicate in its other departments, or an indication that fuel costs are astronomically high, so are hidden somewhere else in the chart of accounts.] Targets should be in percentages of kilowatt hours, cubic meters, and liters - not in dollars or tonnes of greenhouse gases, because the process should be simple, and independent of price increases or emission formulas. Targeting 30% reductions by 2011 is a good start. For fuel used by city vehicles, I can give you a multi-function spreadsheet that I designed for my gas usage. [This spreadsheet can be easily modified to accommodate a fleet of several hundred vehicles].
3. Eliminate free parking for all city employees and elected officials.
Land is valuable, and if we insist on allowing public land to be occupied by private vehicles, less than 25% of the time, there should be a charge of $100 per month to use it exclusively as storage space. This is a fair price, compared to the $500 per month commonly charged for a parking space in Squamish, BC, and the $125/month average charge in downtown Saskatoon last year [2007].
4. Encourage city employees to take the bus to work, by giving them a monthly bus pass.
In order to get a pass for the subsequent month, they would have to use the pass to get to work on at least 15 days in the current month.
5. Encourage employees to carpool, by setting up a car pool program for each city facility with more than 5 employees.
6. Encourage city employees to walk or bike to work, by giving a dollar-a-day payment to them for any day they walk or bike to work.
7. Encourage city employees to bike to work, by installing covered, secure bike parking racks that do not damage bicycles, located within 10 meters of the main entrance to city-funded buildings. [This means installing racks at the Rawlinson Centre, the Art Hauser Centre, and the Dave Steuart Arena; replacing the ancient rack at the library; and covering the rack just outside the north door of City Hall.]
8. Adopt a policy that every building constructed or renovated with city funds must meet the energy efficiency standards at the silver level of the LEED building rating system.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and and Environmental Design. The City of Prince Albert is so far behind in this area that basic LEED certification is no longer acceptable. Although this is the level Saskatoon now requires - and Regina, and Calgary, and the 800-resident Town of East Gwillimbury, Ontario, for its 800 residents - we can do better.
9. Build sidewalks.
The money can come from allocating 1% of the road repair, resurfacing, and construction budget.
10. Allocate another 1% of the road repair, resurfacing, and construction budget to on-street bicycle lanes.
[A few years ago, the City removed the only on-street lane it had - on 15th Street East, from 6th Avenue to 10th Avenue. The entire length of this thoroughfare is a likely candidate for the first crosstown, on-street bike lane.]
11. Change the city’s streetlights to lower wattage, low-pressure sodium, flat-lens fixtures.
Wattages can be reduced since the flat-lens fixture focuses light down, rather than sending it up and sideways. [There also has to be a better way of ensuring that streetlights do not burn 24 hours-a-day: filling in SaskPower's web site form, as well as calls to their 1-800 number, both necessitate several weeks to address these problems.]
12. Change the toilets in city buildings to dual-flush units.
Users save water by selecting a small flush for liquids, and a larger flush for solids. [The provincial government now gives Saskatchewan homeowners a subsidy to make the switch, so there may be funds available to the city for this purpose.]
13. Replace sink tap sets in city buildings with sensor-operated units.
[If you want to know how much water is wasted by a broken faucet, ask the General Manager of the Gateway Mall about the sinks in the men's washroom off the mall's food court: in the past ten years, I've been in that washroom at least 200 times, and on only two occasions have I found the taps not pouring rivers of water straight down the drains.]
14. Adopt and enforce a policy to restrict idling by city vehicles to a maximum of 30 seconds after starting up and while stopped.
[Police vehicles are the worst offenders in this category. Apparently the police versions of the Ford Crown Victoria and Dodge Charger driven by the local constabulary have batteries so puny they can't power the notebook computers in the vehicles. Solution: install solar panels on the roofs of the vehicles - but these would have to be larger than the ones just installed above the solar-powered light fixtures on stop signs at 22nd Street and 1st Avenue West.]
15. Change water and sewer rates to encourage conservation.
The current rate structure rewards high volume users with a lower cost per unit than low volume users pay. On a personal note, I’ve managed to reduce my water consumption by 50% over the last seven years [2000 to 2007]- with zero impact on my water bill.
16. Hold a public environmental planning workshop - to come up with ideas that supplement those I just spoke about. I’ve only given you a small sample of the many brilliant ideas that can put us firmly on the path to a Prince Albert that is "green" year-round [and I do tire quickly at hearing the sound of my own voice].
Part II - "Greening" Bylaws
(presented at the City Council meeting on February 25, 2008)
Here are nine to consider.
1. Eliminate drive-through lanes at all businesses in the city.
These asphalt atrocities encourage pointless fuel consumption, discourage people from walking, take up valuable real estate, and, in the final analysis, provide a “convenience” for a few people that is literally toxic to all of us. One way to phase in the elimination of these lanes is to require an annual $10,000 drive-through-lane license (the amount is a conservative estimate of the health and environmental costs to society resulting from the lane’s use). If you can’t see yourselves passing this bylaw, how about collecting $1 from every patron of a drive-through? Municipalities all over Canada (such as Toronto, Hamilton, and Jasper) have finally realized how much damage is done by drive-through lanes. We should join them.
2. Give builders an incentive to build “green” houses and commercial buildings.
This could be done with a 25% reduction on the building permit fee, or the “off-site levies”, for construction that meets LEED criteria (remember, that means Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Over their lifetimes, these buildings save the city money - in reduced water and sewer treatment costs, for example. Rather than immediately requiring home builders to exceed the R2000 standards by 20%, the bylaw could adopt the LEED for Homes criteria, which were established by the Canada Green Building Council just last month [January 2008]. These building standards should also be applied to renovation jobs.
3. Require subdivision developers to integrate their units’ transportation needs with the city’s transit system, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
This should be part of the development agreement they sign with the city.
4. Create parking spaces near the doors of city facilities that are reserved for registered car pool and hybrid vehicles.
Incidentally, this is already done across the street, at the Saskatchewan Forest Centre.
5. Adopt an anti-idling bylaw.
Drivers in PA are notorious engine idlers - another wasteful “convenience for a few” that causes major harm to all of us - and remote car starter addicts. There is no benefit from engine idling that can’t be provided by wearing clothes that are appropriate for the weather. Of course, the bylaw would need a phase-in period, and signs on the highways entering the city. [The toothless version passed in Edmonton in late 2008 should not be used as a model - look at Banff's.]
6. Impose an annual license fee for lawn sprinkler systems.
These are famous for watering during rainstorms and sweltering summer afternoons - a major waste of a resource that costs the city plenty to provide. The levy would be similar to the alarm system fee now paid to the city through the home security companies.
7. The flip side of the sprinkler system license fee would be a bylaw that reduces the property taxes of any commercial or residential property that removes a lawn and replaces it with xeriscaping (that’s a term for the use of landscaping elements that require very little, or no water beyond snowmelt and rainfall). [My personal xeriscaping project starts in May 2009.]
8. In the next contract with the city’s bus service provider, ask the company to pay half the cost of building bus stop pull-offs on streets that are also provincial highways.
[These streets are 6th Avenue East (from Marquis Road to 15th Street), the entire length of 15th Street, and the entire length of 2nd Avenue West.] This gets the bus out of traffic, allows traffic to flow more efficiently, and provides a safer ride for transit users.
9. Revise the building code to encourage energy-efficiency measures. This suggestion is different from supporting LEED-standard homes and commercial structures. Here I mean making it legal to build straw bale homes, use rain and gray-water in toilets, generate one’s own electricity; and, generally, supporting innovative, low-energy house construction techniques, then reducing a property’s tax bill based on a points system. If you think about this, it makes sense because these measures lower the city’s cost of providing services over the entire life of a building.
The bylaw changes I’m proposing are needed now. Let’s just do it.
Part III - Public Outreach
(presented at the City Council meeting on March 24, 2008)
Public outreach does mean getting the public involved in the municipal green plan. Here are seven ways that can be done.
1. Educate the public, using water bill inserts
This simple idea creates an opportunity for emphasizing the proper use of the blue bins; but it also provides an opportunity for educating the public on methods of reducing water consumption, recycling facilities at the landfill, and the city’s efforts to conserve resources at each of its buildings.
2. Educate the public, near the entrance of every city building
When members of the public enter city-run buildings, they should be immediately made aware of energy conservation, waste and water reduction, and recycling facilities located in those buildings.
3. Implement a city-wide faucet aerator and low flow showerhead replacement program.
By now you should have heard about the Town of Battleford’s plan to replace all the toilets in the city with low volume units, and Saskatoon’s token replacement of 3000 showerheads in that city. We need to start with aerators on all the water faucets in our city, then move on to all the showerheads.
4. Develop, then implement a green program for school-aged youth
Post-secondary schools will need a program that both their administrators and their student representatives can adopt. These need to go beyond one-off campaigns. High schools and elementary schools will need separate programs, but they may be easier to work with through programs developed in consultation with the school boards, as opposed to the individual schools we see at the post-secondary level. Remember that for every dollar spent in green education for adults, we should spend at least $5 on green education for children - because they will (hopefully) be around for a long time. Remember that these programs also readily lend themselves to public recognition awards, one of the mayor’s passions.
5. Involve businesses in creating a green city
This type of initiative can be tailored to separate businesses with more than 50 employees from smaller businesses, and both of those categories should be distinct from government employers. The first step would be a survey of existing corporate, federal government, and provincial government employers’ green policies and practices, followed by support for expanding the “green” activities for each type of business - with initiatives similar to those promoted among homeowners and the three levels of educational institutions. Specific measures should come out of the consultations.
6. Involve the citizens in a major green project
The City of Saskatoon is supporting a downtown residential initiative called River Green. We should have had a major affordable green housing project where the empty shell of Prince Charles school sat. What made this idea a perfect fit for the site were its size, the location, the need for a major jumpstart to non-condominium home construction in the city, and the golden opportunity to apply for funding from Prince Charles’ Green Trust. Surely the future ruler of the British Empire would have looked fondly on a green project built around a school named after him. [Without even considering the potential for such a project, the city let the property be sold to a developer - who is building a half-dozen single-family houses there.]
7. Add the city’s new “green” image to the travelling public’s experience of our city.
Here I mean involving the thousands of hockey players, softball and baseball players, convention delegates, visiting golfers, and the family members who accompany these individuals to Prince Albert in our “green” programs. The intention is to give them more than a trophy, or bric-a-brac as a memento of their stay in the city: we should give them a perceptible share in the task of ensuring that our city is environmentally sustainable, and something they will use when they return home.
That’s it for my green "prescription." As I said at the beginning of this series of presentations, the information I’ve provided you with over the past four months is merely the foundation of a municipal green plan. And while I’m not hopeful that any member of city council will actually take it to heart, this whole process will have been worthwhile if it inspired even one person to make changes in their lives to advance the cause of making Prince Albert environmentally sustainable. Have a safe walk home.
*********************************************************************
One of my hobbies is collecting cartoons. Although I started my collection 30 years ago, "environmental" cartoons only got added to the mix in the last decade. I would have liked to have included a favourite example in this post, but respect for copyright issues intervened. Instead, I'll describe the image, and e-mail it to anyone who wants a copy.
The cartoon in question was originally published in the Ottawa Citizen, and subsequently re-printed on page 4 of the July 12, 2006 Prince Albert Daily Herald. It shows an obese middle-aged male, identified on his shirt as "NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY," and clearly in the grip of inebriation, urinating on a wall identified as "THE ENVIRONMENT." Unfortunately, the character relieving himself could have been identified as "PRINCE ALBERT." If we could change anything about this city that would be treasured a thousand years from now, it should be this image.
As a not-too-subtle reminder of some of the effects of ignoring the need to reduce our impact on the planet, and in sympathy with the residents of the Australian State of Victoria, I include this photo of the Crutwell fire (view north from Highway 302, West of the penitentiary, June 29, 2002).
"The Environment" is Neither Disposable nor Replaceable (and Protecting it is Neither Expensive nor "Dangerous" to the Economy)
On February 5 the new federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (Scott Vaughan) released his first report to Parliament. The first story line from it that the national news media picked up was the lack of accountability for $1.5 billion the federal government had given to the provinces (ostensibly to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other airborne pollutants). In the environmental media, the focus was on the report's blunt reference to Canada "not [being] on an environmentally sustainable path." What the Commissioner didn't say was that everything each of us does has an effect on the environment - nearly all of it negative. He also didn't say that individual and governmental failure to change what we do, so that we generate smaller negative effects on the environment, is more important than Canadians realize.
The City of Prince Albert is a prime example of a local government that has failed to take responsibility for minimizing the detrimental impacts on the environment produced by activities that occur within its boundaries. Recognizing that the first step in righting that wrong is the creation of a "Green Plan" that is uniquely suited to the city, I wrote out the requirements for and an outline of such a plan, then presented this to City Council at its regular public meetings. My presentations were given over a four-month period, from November 26, 2007 to March 24, 2008. None of the details of these presentations were reported - by either the print or broadcast media. Fully cognizant of their lack of newsworthiness, I am nonetheless reproducing the presentations here.
Fifteen months have elapsed since I began trying in earnest to educate Council on this (very basic) issue. Since much has happened during that time, including City Council giving congratulatory messages and nods of approval to Green Living Action Day and Project Porchlight last fall (but also, on my part, large doses of introspection), I have added comments on the original text. These appear in green ink.
Basic Requirements for a Green Plan
(presented at the City Council meeting on November 26, 2007)
1. [In the short term] It must consist of mostly low-cost, or no-cost measures.
Since future revenue seems to be already allocated to asphalt, soccer, and infrastructure, a green plan must cost next-to-nothing. Small portions of existing staff’s time are needed for writing, review, and enforcement of the program. Anything more costly can be delayed [for one year, now that two budget years have passed since this was written] - as long as you remember that costs increase exponentially as each year passes. Fortunately, most “green plan” tools are low cost.
2. It must be comprehensive.
Garbage reduction, recycling improvements, decreased water and sewer use, and reductions in electricity and hydrocarbon consumption must all be part of the program at the start. The time for token gestures and empty rhetoric ended at least ten years ago. Favouritism and exemptions have no place in our green plan [for example, prohibitions on new drive-thru lanes and a tax on existing such services should apply to every fast-food outlet, bank, and credit union: we don't want to duplicate Kalispell, Montana, which, with half the population of Prince Albert, has a downtown "bank" consisting of six drive-through lanes and a "building" with a footprint that is 15 feet by 10 feet], and the costs of not acting on all fronts simultaneously are going up way too fast.
3. It must be simple.
The plan has to be simple, because there are still people in Prince Albert who think global warming does not exist, and others who do not link climate change to the 80,000 yearly kilometers their household drives. [In the middle of 36 days of temperatures stuck between -22 and -38 in December 2008 and January 2009, one of the local paragons of hydrocarbon consumption asked me, "So what happened to global warming?" With a hard glare and venom in my voice, I replied that "Prince Albert doesn't constitute the globe." My neighbours on both sides also fail to link their actions to climate change: they insist on warming up their vehicles in the driveway, for at least ten minutes before they drive off, whenever the temperature falls below zero.] Technical complexity can be added later - even if the two senior levels of government fail to get serious about environmental planning. [The October 2008 federal election might have had an impact, but as long as the Michael-Ignatieff-led Liberals support the minority Conservative government, there's no hope for significant change at that level. At the provincial level, the Saskatchewan Party, like the Alberta Conservatives, still believes that carbon sequestration and "clean coal" are meaningful pursuits.]
4. It must have real, measurable targets and goals.
Aside from setting realistic targets and goals, the capacity to record progress toward them must be in place.
5. It must use tools that are being used elsewhere, and not try to innovate.
There are lots of smart people in the world, and I think we can simply accept their work as worthy of duplication. Avoiding innovation will reduce public confusion, eliminate unrealistic options, and shorten decision-making timeframes.
6. The plan must have a champion - someone whose job is to implement it.
This person must be free from political influence. Neither David Suzuki nor Hamilton Greenwood [a department head at SIAST Woodland Campus] is available.
7. There must be an award system of some kind in the plan.
These keep the program in the public eye, and are very important for the current mayor [who, since November 2006, has accorded special recognition to a score of sports teams and meritorous individuals at city council meetings].
Part I - "Internal" Measures in a Municipal Green Plan
(presented at the City Council meeting on January 28, 2008)
Except for Councillor Dionne, who had to leave the last time I spoke, council will recall that there are three parts in a Municipal Green Plan. Tonight I will explain 16 internal measures that should be included in part one of the Plan. Their adoption must be the first step, because this will show leadership by city council and city administration. After all, if you don’t show an interest in environmental initiatives, it is unlikely the rest of the population will.
1. Hire a sustainable development coordinator.
This is necessary because someone who works for the city must conduct research and monitor the Green Plan’s implementation - full-time. That person will also be responsible for engaging the public in the Green Plan’s implementation.
2. Collect information on the electricity, natural gas, propane, gasoline, and diesel consumed by all of the city’s buildings and vehicles, then set targets (in percentages) for reducing this consumption.
[I know this is a tall order for an organization like the City of Prince Albert. If you want to know how difficult it is to get actual consumption information, start by examining the police operating budget found on pages 90-99 of the January 12, 2009 council meeting documents. It seems most police vehicles run on air and an unwavering sense of justice, not gasoline or diesel: the only references to vehicle fuel and oil costs are on line 331, where we see $1701 for "CFSEU Vehicle Fuel & Oil" in 2007, dramatically reduced to just $86 in 2008, and line 342, where the "Emergency Response Team" is noted as using $0 - yes, ZERO - for "Vehicle Fuel & Oil" in 2006, 2007, and 2008. This is either a brilliant achievement (worthy of at least a Pultizer Prize or an Oscar), one which the city must try to replicate in its other departments, or an indication that fuel costs are astronomically high, so are hidden somewhere else in the chart of accounts.] Targets should be in percentages of kilowatt hours, cubic meters, and liters - not in dollars or tonnes of greenhouse gases, because the process should be simple, and independent of price increases or emission formulas. Targeting 30% reductions by 2011 is a good start. For fuel used by city vehicles, I can give you a multi-function spreadsheet that I designed for my gas usage. [This spreadsheet can be easily modified to accommodate a fleet of several hundred vehicles].
3. Eliminate free parking for all city employees and elected officials.
Land is valuable, and if we insist on allowing public land to be occupied by private vehicles, less than 25% of the time, there should be a charge of $100 per month to use it exclusively as storage space. This is a fair price, compared to the $500 per month commonly charged for a parking space in Squamish, BC, and the $125/month average charge in downtown Saskatoon last year [2007].
4. Encourage city employees to take the bus to work, by giving them a monthly bus pass.
In order to get a pass for the subsequent month, they would have to use the pass to get to work on at least 15 days in the current month.
5. Encourage employees to carpool, by setting up a car pool program for each city facility with more than 5 employees.
6. Encourage city employees to walk or bike to work, by giving a dollar-a-day payment to them for any day they walk or bike to work.
7. Encourage city employees to bike to work, by installing covered, secure bike parking racks that do not damage bicycles, located within 10 meters of the main entrance to city-funded buildings. [This means installing racks at the Rawlinson Centre, the Art Hauser Centre, and the Dave Steuart Arena; replacing the ancient rack at the library; and covering the rack just outside the north door of City Hall.]
8. Adopt a policy that every building constructed or renovated with city funds must meet the energy efficiency standards at the silver level of the LEED building rating system.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and and Environmental Design. The City of Prince Albert is so far behind in this area that basic LEED certification is no longer acceptable. Although this is the level Saskatoon now requires - and Regina, and Calgary, and the 800-resident Town of East Gwillimbury, Ontario, for its 800 residents - we can do better.
9. Build sidewalks.
The money can come from allocating 1% of the road repair, resurfacing, and construction budget.
10. Allocate another 1% of the road repair, resurfacing, and construction budget to on-street bicycle lanes.
[A few years ago, the City removed the only on-street lane it had - on 15th Street East, from 6th Avenue to 10th Avenue. The entire length of this thoroughfare is a likely candidate for the first crosstown, on-street bike lane.]
11. Change the city’s streetlights to lower wattage, low-pressure sodium, flat-lens fixtures.
Wattages can be reduced since the flat-lens fixture focuses light down, rather than sending it up and sideways. [There also has to be a better way of ensuring that streetlights do not burn 24 hours-a-day: filling in SaskPower's web site form, as well as calls to their 1-800 number, both necessitate several weeks to address these problems.]
12. Change the toilets in city buildings to dual-flush units.
Users save water by selecting a small flush for liquids, and a larger flush for solids. [The provincial government now gives Saskatchewan homeowners a subsidy to make the switch, so there may be funds available to the city for this purpose.]
13. Replace sink tap sets in city buildings with sensor-operated units.
[If you want to know how much water is wasted by a broken faucet, ask the General Manager of the Gateway Mall about the sinks in the men's washroom off the mall's food court: in the past ten years, I've been in that washroom at least 200 times, and on only two occasions have I found the taps not pouring rivers of water straight down the drains.]
14. Adopt and enforce a policy to restrict idling by city vehicles to a maximum of 30 seconds after starting up and while stopped.
[Police vehicles are the worst offenders in this category. Apparently the police versions of the Ford Crown Victoria and Dodge Charger driven by the local constabulary have batteries so puny they can't power the notebook computers in the vehicles. Solution: install solar panels on the roofs of the vehicles - but these would have to be larger than the ones just installed above the solar-powered light fixtures on stop signs at 22nd Street and 1st Avenue West.]
15. Change water and sewer rates to encourage conservation.
The current rate structure rewards high volume users with a lower cost per unit than low volume users pay. On a personal note, I’ve managed to reduce my water consumption by 50% over the last seven years [2000 to 2007]- with zero impact on my water bill.
16. Hold a public environmental planning workshop - to come up with ideas that supplement those I just spoke about. I’ve only given you a small sample of the many brilliant ideas that can put us firmly on the path to a Prince Albert that is "green" year-round [and I do tire quickly at hearing the sound of my own voice].
Part II - "Greening" Bylaws
(presented at the City Council meeting on February 25, 2008)
Here are nine to consider.
1. Eliminate drive-through lanes at all businesses in the city.
These asphalt atrocities encourage pointless fuel consumption, discourage people from walking, take up valuable real estate, and, in the final analysis, provide a “convenience” for a few people that is literally toxic to all of us. One way to phase in the elimination of these lanes is to require an annual $10,000 drive-through-lane license (the amount is a conservative estimate of the health and environmental costs to society resulting from the lane’s use). If you can’t see yourselves passing this bylaw, how about collecting $1 from every patron of a drive-through? Municipalities all over Canada (such as Toronto, Hamilton, and Jasper) have finally realized how much damage is done by drive-through lanes. We should join them.
2. Give builders an incentive to build “green” houses and commercial buildings.
This could be done with a 25% reduction on the building permit fee, or the “off-site levies”, for construction that meets LEED criteria (remember, that means Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Over their lifetimes, these buildings save the city money - in reduced water and sewer treatment costs, for example. Rather than immediately requiring home builders to exceed the R2000 standards by 20%, the bylaw could adopt the LEED for Homes criteria, which were established by the Canada Green Building Council just last month [January 2008]. These building standards should also be applied to renovation jobs.
3. Require subdivision developers to integrate their units’ transportation needs with the city’s transit system, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
This should be part of the development agreement they sign with the city.
4. Create parking spaces near the doors of city facilities that are reserved for registered car pool and hybrid vehicles.
Incidentally, this is already done across the street, at the Saskatchewan Forest Centre.
5. Adopt an anti-idling bylaw.
Drivers in PA are notorious engine idlers - another wasteful “convenience for a few” that causes major harm to all of us - and remote car starter addicts. There is no benefit from engine idling that can’t be provided by wearing clothes that are appropriate for the weather. Of course, the bylaw would need a phase-in period, and signs on the highways entering the city. [The toothless version passed in Edmonton in late 2008 should not be used as a model - look at Banff's.]
6. Impose an annual license fee for lawn sprinkler systems.
These are famous for watering during rainstorms and sweltering summer afternoons - a major waste of a resource that costs the city plenty to provide. The levy would be similar to the alarm system fee now paid to the city through the home security companies.
7. The flip side of the sprinkler system license fee would be a bylaw that reduces the property taxes of any commercial or residential property that removes a lawn and replaces it with xeriscaping (that’s a term for the use of landscaping elements that require very little, or no water beyond snowmelt and rainfall). [My personal xeriscaping project starts in May 2009.]
8. In the next contract with the city’s bus service provider, ask the company to pay half the cost of building bus stop pull-offs on streets that are also provincial highways.
[These streets are 6th Avenue East (from Marquis Road to 15th Street), the entire length of 15th Street, and the entire length of 2nd Avenue West.] This gets the bus out of traffic, allows traffic to flow more efficiently, and provides a safer ride for transit users.
9. Revise the building code to encourage energy-efficiency measures. This suggestion is different from supporting LEED-standard homes and commercial structures. Here I mean making it legal to build straw bale homes, use rain and gray-water in toilets, generate one’s own electricity; and, generally, supporting innovative, low-energy house construction techniques, then reducing a property’s tax bill based on a points system. If you think about this, it makes sense because these measures lower the city’s cost of providing services over the entire life of a building.
The bylaw changes I’m proposing are needed now. Let’s just do it.
Part III - Public Outreach
(presented at the City Council meeting on March 24, 2008)
Public outreach does mean getting the public involved in the municipal green plan. Here are seven ways that can be done.
1. Educate the public, using water bill inserts
This simple idea creates an opportunity for emphasizing the proper use of the blue bins; but it also provides an opportunity for educating the public on methods of reducing water consumption, recycling facilities at the landfill, and the city’s efforts to conserve resources at each of its buildings.
2. Educate the public, near the entrance of every city building
When members of the public enter city-run buildings, they should be immediately made aware of energy conservation, waste and water reduction, and recycling facilities located in those buildings.
3. Implement a city-wide faucet aerator and low flow showerhead replacement program.
By now you should have heard about the Town of Battleford’s plan to replace all the toilets in the city with low volume units, and Saskatoon’s token replacement of 3000 showerheads in that city. We need to start with aerators on all the water faucets in our city, then move on to all the showerheads.
4. Develop, then implement a green program for school-aged youth
Post-secondary schools will need a program that both their administrators and their student representatives can adopt. These need to go beyond one-off campaigns. High schools and elementary schools will need separate programs, but they may be easier to work with through programs developed in consultation with the school boards, as opposed to the individual schools we see at the post-secondary level. Remember that for every dollar spent in green education for adults, we should spend at least $5 on green education for children - because they will (hopefully) be around for a long time. Remember that these programs also readily lend themselves to public recognition awards, one of the mayor’s passions.
5. Involve businesses in creating a green city
This type of initiative can be tailored to separate businesses with more than 50 employees from smaller businesses, and both of those categories should be distinct from government employers. The first step would be a survey of existing corporate, federal government, and provincial government employers’ green policies and practices, followed by support for expanding the “green” activities for each type of business - with initiatives similar to those promoted among homeowners and the three levels of educational institutions. Specific measures should come out of the consultations.
6. Involve the citizens in a major green project
The City of Saskatoon is supporting a downtown residential initiative called River Green. We should have had a major affordable green housing project where the empty shell of Prince Charles school sat. What made this idea a perfect fit for the site were its size, the location, the need for a major jumpstart to non-condominium home construction in the city, and the golden opportunity to apply for funding from Prince Charles’ Green Trust. Surely the future ruler of the British Empire would have looked fondly on a green project built around a school named after him. [Without even considering the potential for such a project, the city let the property be sold to a developer - who is building a half-dozen single-family houses there.]
7. Add the city’s new “green” image to the travelling public’s experience of our city.
Here I mean involving the thousands of hockey players, softball and baseball players, convention delegates, visiting golfers, and the family members who accompany these individuals to Prince Albert in our “green” programs. The intention is to give them more than a trophy, or bric-a-brac as a memento of their stay in the city: we should give them a perceptible share in the task of ensuring that our city is environmentally sustainable, and something they will use when they return home.
That’s it for my green "prescription." As I said at the beginning of this series of presentations, the information I’ve provided you with over the past four months is merely the foundation of a municipal green plan. And while I’m not hopeful that any member of city council will actually take it to heart, this whole process will have been worthwhile if it inspired even one person to make changes in their lives to advance the cause of making Prince Albert environmentally sustainable. Have a safe walk home.
*********************************************************************
One of my hobbies is collecting cartoons. Although I started my collection 30 years ago, "environmental" cartoons only got added to the mix in the last decade. I would have liked to have included a favourite example in this post, but respect for copyright issues intervened. Instead, I'll describe the image, and e-mail it to anyone who wants a copy.
The cartoon in question was originally published in the Ottawa Citizen, and subsequently re-printed on page 4 of the July 12, 2006 Prince Albert Daily Herald. It shows an obese middle-aged male, identified on his shirt as "NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY," and clearly in the grip of inebriation, urinating on a wall identified as "THE ENVIRONMENT." Unfortunately, the character relieving himself could have been identified as "PRINCE ALBERT." If we could change anything about this city that would be treasured a thousand years from now, it should be this image.
As a not-too-subtle reminder of some of the effects of ignoring the need to reduce our impact on the planet, and in sympathy with the residents of the Australian State of Victoria, I include this photo of the Crutwell fire (view north from Highway 302, West of the penitentiary, June 29, 2002).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
