Survey responses will help set direction for 2024
Do you have two minutes to weigh in on the village's climate future? Lions Bay's Climate Action committee is asking residents to complete a brief survey to help set priorities for the rest of the year.
"It really takes only a matter of minutes to complete," says committee member Norm Barmeier. "Ideally, we're hoping to have enough response to close the survey by the end of the year. We're looking for a baseline of where to focus the committee's energy, and then use that baseline to measure our progress."
The Lions Bay Climate committee was founded in 2018, and currently has four residents taking part, with Neville Abbott standing in as Council representative. Barmeier says they are always ready to welcome new residents as members.
Ultimately, the committee are hoping to piggyback on Metro Vancouver media packages to build an education campaign, perhaps through a town hall or mini-conference format with guest speakers, giving residents an opportunity to ask any questions they have on climate-related subjects.
Barmeier notes that in the last council term, a company called Brightspot Consulting did an energy audit of the village to get a sense of the municipality's carbon footprint. "One of the goals that came out of that audit is to change the heating of the hall from furnace oil into a biofuel like R100 (renewable diesel), or perhaps even to move away from burning fuel altogether."
Some grant requests are already underway. Public Works Manager Karl Buhr applied for a climate-related Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation grant on behalf of the village earlier this year, and Barmeier is hoping that more funding support is to come.
"Municipalities need to embrace climate action initiatives," Barmeier says. "A lot of infrastructure grants are now tied to climate action because governments realize the importance of climate-related issues, both at the federal and provincial levels."
The survey can be found HERE. Climate committee meetings are posted on the Village meeting calendar. The next meeting is set for January 22.
The Watershed welcomes your thoughts. Leave your comment below, or email us at editor@lionsbaywatershed.ca
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