City of Powell River’s sustainability committee has morphed into the climate change mitigation and adaptation committee.
At its meeting on Thursday, September 5, City of Powell River Council carried a motion to establish the new committee as a select committee of council. Council also voted to appoint committee members, including councillor CaroleAnn Leishman as the committee chair and councillor Rob Southcott as the second council member appointee, plus four members-at-large: Jack Anderson, Stacey Fletcher, Steve Short and Carlos Williams. Council also directed staff to advertise for members of the public to submit expressions of interest for the three remaining member-at-large vacancies.
Leishman said the initiative was the re-establishing of the sustainability committee. She said the name of the new committee had been changed because the word sustainability is a little bit overused. It was felt that climate change mitigation and adaptation committee was more specific to the work that would be undertaken by the new committee, according to Leishman.
New terms of reference have been drafted to carry on with the work.
According to a staff report, council established the sustainability steering committee to promote and facilitate social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability within City of Powell River. Upon completion and adoption of the integrated community sustainability plan in 2015, the sustainability steering committee was dissolved.
In 2017, council established the sustainability committee to promote and oversee environmental sustainability actions corporately and community wide in the city. The committee’s term expired on May 31, 2019.
The new committee will convene on Wednesday, September 18, with the members who have been named. Leishman said the committee will be discussing the new terms of reference and changes from the previous committee, while they await new applicants for the October meeting.
City council declared a climate emergency on February 21, 2019.
The application form for new members of the committee is now available online. Readers can apply by following this link: https://powellriver.ca/online-forms/climate-change-mitigation-adaptation-committee-application
