Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee Meeting
Minutes
Meeting #:
Date:
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Time:
7:00 P.m. - 9:00 P.m.
Location:
Room 247, Level 2, City Hall
426 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario
Visited1.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 Ramsha Ahmed

Visited2.Others Present:
Susan Mattine (Alt), Tania Barlow (Alt), Bob Burchett (Alt), Gareth Williams (volunteer), Emma Defields (volunteer), and Lynn Robichaud (staff)
Visited3.Members Regrets:

Katherine Miller, Dmitry Kats (Alt), Colleen Lowe, Henry Onah, Chris Maynard, and Councillor Sharman

Visited4.Declarations of Interest:
None.
Visited5.Approval of Minutes:
Visited5.1Approve minutes from meeting held January 18, 2017

Motion by Kelly to approve January 18, 2017 minutes. Approved.

Visited6.Delegation(s):

None.

Visited7.Regular Items:
Visited7.1Updates from previous events
Visiteda.Natural Heritage Systems Planning
Kelly attended a workshop hosted by Ontario Nature and brought some materials (materials are also on-line), including a Best Practices manual. There are lots of examples from Halton and some from Burlington included. There is inconsistency in natural heritage planning across the province. Some interesting highlights from the workshop: Ontario Nature hosts a directory of citizen science, which is a collection of citizen science projects across the province. Some may also be interested in ‘I naturalists’ which is a searchable directory and you can upload your own project and use it to track results and engage participants. Information was also provided on a manual ‘How much habitat is enough?’ It provides guidance as a starting point, but planners must also take local conditions into consideration.
Visitedb.SHB Energy Summit
Ramsha and Farzaneh attended the Energy Summit workshop yesterday hosted by Sustainable Hamilton Burlington, which works with businesses to reduce carbon emissions. Case studies were presented by different organizations. MOECC presented on information on the Cap & Trade program; funding will be available for projects to reduce carbon emissions in the province. There was a presentation by ‘360 Energy’ about how to achieve buy-in from top level to achieve success in energy efficiency and conservation programs. The speakers from Arcelor Mittal Dofasco and Mohawk College were particularly engaging.
Action: Carolyn to request a copy of the AMD presentation from Sonia
Visitedc.Bikes vs Cars (Halton Green Screens)
No one attended but Ramsha heard that there was a good discussion after the film with a speaker from Cycle Oakville. The film may be shown in Burlington in the future.
Visited7.2Upcoming events/news
Visiteda.Adi Design Workshop, East Plains United Church, Gym – March 1
Action: P&D members are encouraged to attend this workshop
Visitedb.Climate Change Adaptation Workshops, City Hall – March 8 & 29
Action: Ramsha & Farzaneh will attend workshops. Lynn to see if they can attend both (depending on whether there is space).
Visitedc.2017 Bay Area Transportation Summit, AGH - March 31
Visitedd.Clean Up Green Up, BurlingtonGreen – April 22
Visitede.Take Action Burlington – Let’s Live Green, Tansley Woods – May 27
Visited7.3Council updates
No update as Councillor Sharman was unable to attend the meeting.
Visited7.4Staff Updates
Visiteda.Code of Conduct & Accessibility Forms
Reminder to hand in both Code of Conduct & Accessibility training forms.
Visitedb.Principles & Objectives of Sustainable Development - update
The new version of the Principles & Objectives of Sustainable Development have been posted to the committee’s website @ www.burlington.ca/sdc with a link to provide feedback. The deadline for comments if March 3rd.
Visitedc.Healthy Kids Challenge - update
Parks & Rec staff has not yet landed on a date to go to Council. The contracts for vending machines come to term in March 2018. However, the vendor has agreed to include reuseable water bottles in the vending machines and this is rolling out now.
Visitedd.Future Presentation by Jim Cotton, McMaster University
Lynn has submitted a request to Jim Cotton to make a presentation to the SDC on what it would take for the city to become carbon neutral.

Action: Steve to invite West 5 developer to a future meeting to make a presentation on their future carbon neutral development in London.

Visited7.5Business arising from the minutes
Visiteda.2016 year end reports and 2017 objectives
The group reviewed the SDC Annual report and some minor edits were made.
Motion by Katie to approve 2016 year end reports and 2017 objectives. Approved.
Visited7.6Awareness sub-committee update
It was agreed that the SDC would host a clean up in the morning of Sat. April 22nd and participate in the BurlingtonGreen Eco Fair following the clean up. Carolyn will book the clean up with BurlingtonGreen.

The SDC will host a fall library event on October 25th. The theme is to be determined; the group plans to see what resonates with people at the Lets Live Green event in May.

Tansley Woods May 27th event – 20 vendors are confirmed, with a couple more suggested by Steve. The speaking session with the Burlington and Hamilton mayors is still tentative so cannot promote it. However, expect the mayor to attend to bring a welcome to the event. There has been lots of interest by groups in making presentations. These will be confirmed in late March. Promotion is underway – BP ad, Mayor’s ad, Councillors, displays, TVs in rec centres, community events calendar, and social media. Kids activities are being planned. Will definitely need volunteers for the event. Carolyn circulated a sign up sheet for members to indicate how they would like to volunteer for the event.

Note: next meeting for Awareness will be on March 1st – switching with P&D. P&D will meet on March 8th.
Visited7.7Policy and Development subcommittee update
There is a design workshop on March 1st being hosted by Adi Developments for their Phase 2 Station West Development off Waterdown Road near the Aldershot GO station. P&D members are encouraged to attend the workshop. Info was circulated about the design workshop.

Note: P&D will meet on March 8th, switching with Awareness to avoid the conflict with the March 1st workshop.

Training on how to review planning applications and policies will take place before the next P&D meeting on March 8 @ 6:15 pm. Guy has set up a link to the necessary documents for the training that members can access in advance.

Carriage Gate Development at Brant & James Street. Guy requested volunteers to review development application and draft comments. (Kelly and Steve expressed interest.) There is a public meeting planned for the proposed development on March 28, at the Art Gallery of Burlington @ 7:00 pm.

The New Draft OP (Grow Bold) will be released on April 4th.
Visited7.8Reports from external groups and conferences
Visiteda.Halton Environmental Network (haltonenvironment.net)
HEN is hosting their AGM on April 11 at the Elizabeth Gardens Cultural Centre in Oakville. They have been working on a new strategic plan and programs. The latest Enviro Guide has been distributed and is available on line.
Visitedb.Community Energy Plan (burlington.ca/CEP)
A report on the district energy feasibility study will be presented to the Committee of the Whole on Feb. 27th (1:00 meeting) with a presentation by FVB. The results of the study show that starting with a small district energy system in downtown Burlington is technically feasible. Staff are recommending that the city proceed to the next step to develop a business and financing plan to implement and grow a system in Burlington.
Visitedc.BurlingtonGreen (burlingtongreen.org)
BG is working on a strategic plan, which will relate to their 10th anniversary celebrations.
Visited8.Other Business:

The 2025 Guelph Line project (new development at the Fortinos Plaza) was approved by council. However, the site plan application was undelegated and will have to be approved by council.

Gareth will be volunteering with Plug’n Drive at the Auto Show on this Sunday and the following Sunday.

Visited9.Adjournment:  8:20 p.m.
Upcoming meeting dates: Note: Awareness and P&D meetings have been switched from their usual dates:
Awareness sub-committee – Wed., March 1, Room 307 (7:00 pm)
Policy & Development sub-committee – Wed., March 8, Room 305 (7:00 pm)
Committee of the Whole – Wed., March 15, Room 247 (7:00 pm)
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