Tim Park (chair), Jim Feilders (vice-chair), Carolyn Barnes, Guy Sheppard, Katie Rauscher, Herb Sinnock, Steven Horwood, Farzaneh Farahani, Herb Lewington, Kelly Cook, Henry Onah, Ramsha Ahmed, Colleen Lowe, Chris Maynard, and Councillor Sharman
Tania Barlow (Alt), Bob Burchett (Alt), Dmitry Kats (Alt), Lynn Robichaud (staff), Allan Magi (staff), Fleur Storace-Hogan (staff 7:00 – 8:00), Jim Cotton (McMaster University)
Katherine Miller & Susan Mattine (Alt)
None.
Jim Cotton is a professor at the McMaster Institute of Energy and is a member of Burlington’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the Community Energy Plan. In response to the city’s strategic plan’s direction to work towards being a net carbon zero community, as well as the COP21 agreement, Jim worked with his students, who volunteered their time (200 hours) to assess measures that would help Burlington get to net carbon zero. Jim had a disclaimer at the beginning of the presentation that a significant number of assumptions were made and that a lot of data (from Burlington Hydro, Union Gas and the city) was considered in their work.He noted that electrification of everything is not necessarily the answer as that would have a significant impact on the grid. Conservation is a priority but that only keeps energy demand level as population grows. How we heat our buildings is the biggest energy consumer and the biggest challenge. Potential actions include community energy systems, thermal storage, heat pumps, waste to energy, waste heat recovery and demand management.Jim is unable to share his presentation at this time but indicated that he would share it along with a paper likely sometime in the summer.Action: Lynn to follow up with Jim to access a copy of the presentation and the paper.
Tim delegated at the Committee of the Whole to present the SDC annual report. It was well received with positive feedback from councillors. Tim encouraged all members of council to attend the Let’s Live Green event on May 27th at Tansley Woods. Action: Lynn to attach Tim’s speaking notes with minutes.
Farzaneh attended the city’s 2nd climate change adaptation workshop. It began with a presentation about the risks of climate change such as the flood in 2014. Participants were divided into groups with facilitators from the city to assess the risk of different climate change scenarios on a scale of 1 to 5.
The new Official Plan has been launched for public review - Grow Bold. Councillor Sharman encouraged the committee to review and comment on the plan.The Region’s Planning & Public Works committee deferred.
Lynn advised the committee of a media release from the city highlighting two new public art installations. One is by Carol Nasvytis at Berton Park titled ‘Ecological Impact’, depicting honey bees. Part of the installation shows ripples around the earth representing shockwaves that would be felt through the ecosystem if honeybees disappeared.The second installation is by Brooke O’Connell, titled Bird Conversations, and will be installed at Fothergill Woods Park. Three large birds will be attached to trees in the wooded area.Allan Magi provided an update on the district energy study that was recently presented to the Committee of the Whole. The next couple of months will involve staff meeting with other district energy entities and municipalities to consider different options to develop and implement a district energy system in Burlington. The city plans to start in the downtown core but anticipates other nodes being developed in the future, such as the mobility hubs.
The Principles and Objectives of Sustainable Development have been finalized with some amendments made following the public consultation phase. The most significant changes are: a new objective related to waste reduction and the leadership objective is now the first objective. A motion was made by Guy for the SDC to endorse the revised Principles and Objectives of Sustainable Development. Approved.This Saturday is the Earth Day clean-up. The committee will meet on the berm across from the Fairview Street Walmart at 9:00. Participants must bring thick gloves and close toed shoes; safety glasses are an option. The committee will also participate in the Eco Fair at Central Park from 11:00 to 4:00. Free burgers for clean up participants by Turtle Jacks.May 27th Let’s Live Green Event at Tansley Woods – approximately 30 exhibitors have confirmed their participation. Action: Members who are volunteering at the Let’s Live Green event must review the emergency plan that Carolyn circulated via email.
There are 14 chapters of the new Official Plan to review; P&D members have been assigned to review each chapter with one member being a lead. There are two websites with information: burlington.ca/growbold and burlington.ca/newop. Guy circulated forms to provide comments.The target to complete the review is by the end of May, which will give the committee time to consolidate and summarize the comments. The target for the consolidation is June 13th, so the final document can be circulated to the Committee of the Whole for its meeting on June 21st to endorse.Action: Kelly to prepare a summary document for the OP review comments.Action: Chapter reviewers should include 4 or 5 highlights for their chapter to assist Kelly with the summary document.Action: Reviewers should also consider the policy direction comments that the SDC previously submitted to help guide them with their review.Downtown vision workshop – April 20th – Steve and Chris may attend.421 Brant Street – propose meeting on April 26th to discuss review of proposal.
Evergreen – the planner will inform the P&D sub-committee about a meeting with the developer by the end of April.
Hen hosted its AGM on April 11th and presented information on their new strategic plan. It is transitioning from a networking organization to one that delivers programs and develops partnerships. One example is a large scale modular farm that they are working on with Halton and Oakville. They are partnering with TREC to deliver an educational program on renewable energy to grades 4,5 & 6 school children. The Greening Sacred Spaces program recently received a large grant of just under $300,000 to help work with faith based groups to green their buildings. There will be a significant focus on improving energy efficiency through audits and helping groups to prepare and submit grant applications for renewable energy installations. They are planning a celebration of the program on May 4th at the Joshua Creek Centre.
Lynn is working on a combined energy and carbon progress report for both the corporate Energy Management Plan and the Community Energy Plan. It will be presented to the Committee of the Whole on May 29th.There are discussions going on with the QUEST and Clean Air Council organizations on how the province can work with municipalities to support home energy retrofit programs using Local Improvement Charges. Lynn will participate in those discussions as this is an action in the Community Energy Plan.There appears to be some research taking place in other areas of the implications of becoming carbon neutral communities. S2E is involved with the West 5 development in London (who will be speaking at the next meeting) and the Region of Waterloo is planning to do some research.Jim advised that he was told by a source with the Ministry of Energy that a rebate program for air source heat pumps is expected to be launched in May.
Their big event is this Saturday for Earth Day – the Clean Up and Eco Fair. They are also working on a new strategic plan.Jim raised the issue about the Waterdown Road widening project, requesting that P&D sub-committee prepare a letter to council asking that a wildlife corridor for small mammals be incorporated into the design.Lynn and Allan provided some background into the project, which has been in progress for a number of years. A wildlife safety crossing plan has been developed in consultation with the Hamilton Naturalist Club and has been submitted to Conservation Halton and the NEC for review. A culvert has been upsized to assist mammals to cross under the road. But Jim advised that unless lighting is provided, the mammals will not use it. Kelly volunteered to forward information that she has seen in her position. |Action: Lynn to coordinate communications with the project manager of the Waterdown Road widening project on the details about wildlife safety crossing.
Jim requested to attend the Climate Change Consortium symposium on May 11th and 12th at York University for $169. Steve also indicated that he may be interested in attending. Chris motioned that the committee support up to two people to attend the symposium. Action: Jim and Steve (if he attends) to report back to the committee about the symposium.Chris advised that he recently had a tour of Detroit, specifically related to urban farming. Although the situations are very different between Detroit and Burlington, he was impressed with the connection between community and farming. There was a real focus on the therapeutic elements of the community farms. He suggested that his friend who was involved in the tour could attend a future meeting of the committee to make a presentation.Action: Lynn to follow up with Chris to try and coordinate a date for his friend to attend a meeting to make a presentation about Detroit and urban farming. Lynn also to contact Michelle Bennett, the city’s community gardens coordinator, to invite her to the meeting.