The Town of the Blue Mountains has completed phase two of its integrated community sustainability plan, which outlines its goals and priorities for sustainable development over the next 50 years.
Composed of 46 objectives spread across five categories, phase two of the sustainability plan sought to develop an overarching vision and set of priorities to guide the town’s decision-making process in the immediate and near future.
Phase two included nine weeks of public engagement between June and August, 2021, which saw 268 participants provide input through surveys and public events hosted by the town.
The top 15 priorities brought forward through the public engagement process are as follows:
- Maintain, protect and improve the natural environment
- Responsible development
- Respect land, clean water, and clean air
- Affordability
- Green energy
- Car alternatives
- Green infrastructure and buildings
- Diversity & inclusion
- Sustainability and environment leadership
- Tree protection and retention
- Balanced economy, environment, society, culture, and built environment
- Waste management improvement
- Buy local food, services, and materials
- Diverse economy
- Public art
Phase three of the sustainability plan will bring forward a set of objectives across a ten year period, as well as the steps that will be required to achieve them.
The town’s steps to meeting its ten-year objectives are anticipated to be reviewed and updated every five years.
Phase three is slated for completion by summer 2022.
Phase two of the project was presented to council Nov. 30, where council members were concerned about creating concrete, actionable steps to service the broader goals that were brought forward.
Councillor Rob Sampson voiced frustration that the current sustainability plan echos the Sustainable Path, a document from 2010 that similarly sought to guide the town’s sustainability efforts over a 50 year period.
“I worry we're following down the track of essentially creating a document we already have,” Sampson said. “What that has done is put us 10-plus years behind actually getting some meat and potatoes on the ground.”
“I worry that we have spent time that probably would have been better spent taking the sustainable path document … and making it more operational and implementational.”
TBM CAO Shawn Everitt agreed that the town needed to move towards actionable steps to achieve its goals.
“The sustainable path was a great document, [but] a 50-year plan is a tough one to get full buy-in because there are so many unknowns,” he said. “To be quite honest with you, I'd much rather have a document that is actionable with good numbers than a warm fuzzy feeling that just, you know, isn't deliverable.”
“Look at the deliverables, let's get some pricing and let's get some costs so the public can have a good understanding of what these great initiatives will actually cost them.”
Everitt also stated the current sustainability plan is well on its way to delivering actionable steps.
“I think the committee has done fantastic work,” he said. “The momentum that I've seen them have over the last, you know, 12 to 15 months is great to see. I think they're on the right track.”
Council moved for the Sustainability Advisory Committee to identify the highest priority initiatives presented through phase two of the sustainability plan, and for staff to outline the fiscal resources required for meeting each goal.
The visions and goals arrived at in phase two of the project may be viewed here.
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