New city plan has eye on climate change

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This article was published 28/03/2022 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon has its sights set on developing a new city plan with a strong emphasis on green technology and preparation for climate change.

Public consultations began last month with the release of an online survey, and the next step is finding a consulting firm to help with this undertaking.

According to Andrew Mok, a senior planner with the city, there are three aspects to what Brandon is looking for.

The city wants a consultant to create a climate action plan to make Brandon carbon neutral by 2050, research policy recommendations for the plan relating to smart cities, movement and climate change resiliency and finally, undertake a peer review of the suggested policy changes.

The necessity of the new plan for the city has its origin in events that took place two years ago.

In 2020, the Brandon and Area Planning District, which included the City of Brandon and the RMs of Elton and Cornwallis, disbanded. That same year, the city was also granted subdivision approval authority within its borders, becoming just the second municipality other than Winnipeg with those powers.

The last time Brandon updated its city plan was in 2013.

“With that situation, it is necessary at very least from a provincial regulatory perspective, for us to have our own long-term plan,” Mok said. “With the timing here, there’s an opportunity for us to dovetail how we deal with climate change action.”

The new city plan will reflect the development reality for Brandon over the next 25 to 30 years and identify policies to achieve certain targets like being carbon neutral by 2050. This means Brandon would remove an amount of CO2 equal to the amount of carbon it emits into the world, effectively having a net-zero impact on the global climate.

“On the topic of climate change, the city further recognizes the need to become carbon neutral by 2050 in accordance with Canada’s commitment to the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, commonly known as the Paris Accords or Paris Agreement,” the tender agreement reads.

“This timeframe coincides with the city’s proposed City Plan 30-year timeframe. By having a climate action plan, the city will have further direction on local climate change action and mitigation efforts that will complement the overall policy direction of the City Plan.”

Those climate goals include reducing local greenhouse gas emissions, developing greener transportation strategies with an eye toward smart city concepts and mitigating possible impacts caused by climate change.

For instance, the draft city plan expresses support for the development of wind energy systems in and around the city.

“If we do adopt the city plan, it will give both city council and city administration general marching orders on how we move forward together,” Mok said about elements like that. “Whatever path we take, as long as we still meet those policy obligations, that’s what’s important. How we get to deal with various climate change action items such as providing power to the municipality, such as waste management/waste reduction, such as a steady supply of clean drinking water, those kinds of more detailed questions will need to be worked out after we adopt the city plan.”

The process will also help the city update its master and secondary plans as well as its greenspace and housing strategies.

For the planned peer review, Mok said it will allow for “third-party professional eyes to make sure we’re on the right track from a legislative and professional perspective for that document.”

Apart from the consultants’ feedback on the city plan, there will also be community engagement. Last month, the Sun reported that the city was hosting an online survey asking residents to identify their priorities and concerns with the development of a new city plan.

Sonikile Tembo, a community planner working on the public engagement efforts for the city plan, told the Sun there had been an issue with residents not receiving notices in the mail advertising the online survey on time. Because of that, the end date for the survey was extended to Monday.

“At this stage, we’ve received survey findings,” Tembo said. “We’ve been able to analyze them and find out what themes are coming out. Some of the themes I can tell you are coming out are issues around housing, issues around movement, active transportation, vehicular traffic and such. There’s been concerns about substance abuse, about health in different forms, public safety, climate change.”

Several local stakeholder groups have already met with the city regarding the new plan, and Tembo said groups who haven’t yet been consulted are welcome to reach out to arrange a meeting.

Next week, some of the information gleaned from the survey and these stakeholder meetings will be posted for the public to look over. There will also be sign-up forms so residents can register to participate in upcoming public meetings relating to the city plan on housing, transportation and climate change.

Residents who have participated in the online survey or sent feedback via email will be contacted with information on how to participate in those sessions as well. These sessions should be completed by the end of May, when another report based on the findings will be prepared and released.

In June, a community celebration is scheduled to go over what has been learned with the public and to discuss what the next steps are.

Ultimately, Mok said, the goal is for a final draft plan to be presented to Brandon City Council sometime next spring.

Information on the project can be found online at brandon.ca/cityplan.

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