Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:
Date:
Time:
-
Location:
Room 307, Level 3, City Hall
426 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario

1.
Members Present:

Tim Park (chair), Jim Feilders (vice-chair), Carolyn Barnes, Guy Sheppard, Katie Rauscher, Herb Sinnock, Steven Horwood, Farzaneh Farahani, Herb Lewington, Kelly Cook, and Councillor Sharman

2.
Others Present:

Susan Mattine (Alt), Bob Burchett (Alt), Tania Barlow (Alt), and Lynn Robichaud (staff)

3.
Regrets:

Ramsha Ahmed, Chris Maynard, Henry Onah, Colleen Lowe and Dmitry Kats (Alt)

4.
Declarations of Interest:

None

5.
Approval of Minutes:

6.
Delegation(s):

7.
Regular Items:

7.1
Updates from previous events

a.
SDC’s Let’s Live Green – Tansley Woods (Carolyn & Tim)

Carolyn provided review of the event. Exhibitors advised that they were happy with attendance and thought it was well organized.  Estimated attendance at 130 although some thought it was more than that.  In the future may be best to hold a similar event in the mall or in partnership with another community group to draw more people.  The event also competed with other events taking place in the city.  It was noted that the presentations were poorly attended.  Therefore would recommend not holding presentations again.  Unfortunately there was no press coverage following the event.  There was no consensus at the Awareness Sub-committee about when to hold it again.  Would not be an annual event.

b.
Ward 2 BBQ – Lions Club Park (Carolyn)

Gareth and Carolyn attended the Ward 2 event at Rotary Park which was sparsely attended and not a lot of interest in the SDC materials. Most attendees were there for activities with kids.  It is recommended that the SDC not participate next year.

7.2
Upcoming events/news (All)

7.3
Council updates (Councillor Sharman)

Tall building guidelines were approved by committee this week which were simplified from the original version.

Downtown built form meeting last week where different height scenarios were provided.

The Hamilton Burlington Climate Change Partnership was announced at the Bay Area Economic Summit with a media release. Waiting for funding from the province – may be an announcement in early fall.  The framework will be similar to the Bay Area Restoration Council.  Stakeholders will be able to apply if they are interested in participating.  The partnership will support the work the city is doing with the Community Energy Plan.

Councillor Sharman Attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference earlier this month and accepted an award on behalf of the city for achieving all 5 milestones under the Partners for Climate Protection Program. Councillor Sharman spoke at the event about municipal activities, particularly about aligning the Official Plan with the strategic plan. 

7.4
Staff Updates (Lynn)

a.
Membership Update

Lynn advised that Kelly Cook has resigned from the committee as she has taken a job with Halton Region’s planning department and it was a condition of her employment.

b.
Budget Update

Lynn provided an update of the budget, particularly advising that there is still funds available for professional development (a little over $500) and asked members to let her know if there are any workshops that they would like to attend in the fall that are within the SDC’s budget.

c.
Hamilton Burlington Climate Change Parternship

The city has joined Sustainable Hamilton Burlington, a non-profit organization led by Sandi Stride. SHB works with small to medium sized businesses, assisting them with reducing their ecological and particularly their carbon footprint. Both Hamilton and Burlington have signed on with the organization.

7.5
Business arising from the minutes (All)

a.
Official Plan Review – SDC Comments

Guy provided an overview. Teams were assigned to each chapter to review and provide comments.  Some coordination was required to limit conflicts between comments. Members identified key issues.  Guy indicated that planning staff were particularly helpful in working with SDC members and responding to their questions.  Guy also thanked SDC team members for all their work reviewing the OP.

Guy reviewed the key issues identified and some follow-up recommendations. There was some discussion about the process of engagement and that there will not be an opportunity for stakeholders to present their key issues to staff and council, similar to the process used for the strategic plan.

Action:  Guy will finalize the summary and the detailed comments to send to Leah.  It was agreed that a second letter will be written to the Director of Planning and copied to council highlighting approximately five key issues that need to be dealt with, where further discussion with council is necessary.  The letter will be drafted and finalized at the next P&D meeting.  The final draft letter will be shared with Lynn to circulate to the committee of the whole members with a deadline for comments and then forwarded to the Director of Planning and copied to members of council.

7.6
Awareness sub-committee update (Carolyn)

At the last Awareness meeting, Jim presented a draft pledge sheet - the 10 tonne challenge with actions that people can adopt to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Jim has created a spreadsheet noting how each action can reduce GHG emissions. Tim’s son may try to create an app with it.

The SDC is registered to participate in the Appleby Street Festival on Sept 24th.

The committee’s fall library event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 25th. It is titled ‘Green Home Renos 101 - Local Stories’.  After the presentations there will be opportunities for the public to ask questions.  Information has been provided to the library for their promotions.  The next Awareness meeting is on August 9th and committee members should be prepared to attend with concrete suggestions for those who may be able to present about the work they have done on sustainable renovations.  Photos would be helpful.

Carolyn will miss the September Awareness meeting so someone will need to chair the meeting and take minutes.

7.7
Policy and Development subcommittee update (Guy)

Minutes will be completed shortly for the June meeting and circulated. There was a discussion with staff about Environment chapter and a discussion about the Evergreen development.

7.8
Reports from external groups and conferences

a.
Community Energy Plan (burlington.ca/CEP) (Herb/Lynn)

There was a meeting with CEP stakeholders earlier in the month where an update was provided on progress, similar to the report that went to council at the end of May. Milfred Hammerbacher from S2e Technologies presented again to the stakeholders about the West 5 development in London by Sifton Properties.  Attendees were very impressed and interested.

The city has received confirmation that they will receive up to $25,000 from the Ministry of Energy for the review and update of the CEP.

The city has added three plug-in hybrids to the fleet – Hyundai Ioniqs.

b.
BurlingtonGreen (burlingtongreen.org) (Jim)

Jim put forward two recommendations for the committee to consider and endorse related to the Community Energy Plan. BurlingtonGreen will be commenting on these and Jim asked that the SDC do the same.

1) That emissions be reported as annual totals for the City accounting for population growth including the "do nothing" or "business as usual" baseline; and,

2) That reference be made to the Provincial targets out to the year 2050 and the update clearly explain why we are not proposing to meet Provincial targets.

There was discussion about the recommendations. Lynn advised that there was already agreement to include total emissions in the plan, not just based on intensity as per the discussion with the CEP stakeholder advisory committee.  There will also be a chapter on the provincial targets and council’s strategic plan goal to be net carbon neutral and what is needed to achieve these targets.  The CEP is being reviewed and updated, including the action items.

It was agreed that the committee would wait to see what evolves in the draft plan before commenting.

BurlingtonGreen has received a grant from the Environmental Defence Fund to promote electric vehicles and heat pumps.

There is interest with increasing collaboration between BurlingtonGreen and the SDC on awareness initiatives.

8.
Other Business:

9.
Adjournment: 9:00 pm

Upcoming meeting dates:

Policy and Development subcommittee –

  • Wednesday, July 5, Room 307 (7:00 pm)
  • Wednesday, September 6, Room 307 (7:00 pm)

Awareness subcommittee

  • Wednesday, August 9, Room 305 (7:00 pm)
  • Wednesday, September 13, Room 305 (7:00 pm)

Note date has changed:  Committee of the Whole – Wednesday, September 27, Room 247 (7:00 pm)

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