City of Powell River’s climate change mitigation and adaptation committee has modified its terms of reference to allow for expansion of membership.
At the March 18 city council meeting, committee chair CaroleAnn Leishman said amendments to the terms of reference to include more members of the public would make for a much more robust committee.
“We’ve got more people interested in helping us with our climate change mitigation and adaptation committee so I fully support this move to change the terms of reference to include more individuals,” said Leishman.
She also pointed out that this matter had been discussed in camera by city council and is now being brought forward in a public meeting. Mayor Dave Formosa said he thought that would be part of the city’s new habits.
Council voted unanimously to amend the committee’s terms of reference. Under the amendment, the committee’s membership will increase from nine to a maximum of 12, of which 10 are members of the public and two are members of city council.
Council then voted on new appointments to the climate change mitigation and adaptation committee. New members include: Joe Hargitt, Dylan Heerema, Flyn McCarthy, Dusty Reid and Paula Sampson, who were voted in unanimously by council.
Leishman said she is grateful to anyone who applies for council committees. She said committees are a lot of work but it is nice to see new individuals coming forward.
She said the new committee members have remarkable backgrounds.
“They are dedicated people wanting to help the city with climate action,” said Leishman.
Councillor George Doubt said it’s good to see so much enthusiasm from the public about applying to do the work of this advisory committee to council.
“It takes a lot of courage to put your name forward and commit to doing what is needed to fulfill the task,” said Doubt. “I’m glad council saw fit to expand the committee so we could appoint all of these applicants.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she is excited about being able to expand the committee and looked forward to seeing what comes out of it.
“Extra hands on this task is an excellent idea,” said Elliott. “I really was impressed with the folks who put their names forward. Thank you to all of them.”
Participation humbles councillor
Councillor Rob Southcott, who sits on the committee along with Leishman, said he had to acknowledge that these people being appointed bring particular expertise in environmental concerns, from engineering, from public policy and from ethics standpoints.
“I’m actually humbled that people from our community are coming forward with this kind of experience, education and talent to offer,” said Southcott. “I’ve had great appreciation for the contributions of some experts to help with our ability to move forward and save money in the process and do great work over these past few years.
“I’m proud of our community and our city for the work that is done. We are being recognized more and more across Canada for some of the exceptional things that are done here.”
Councillor Jim Palm gave kudos to Leishman and he thanked her for all of her fine work.
“We all know it takes commitment, knowledge, passion and hard work to make a lot of good things happen,” said Palm. “This is one committee, with all of the funds they have brought in, and all of the good work they are doing, that is just top of the heap.”
Formosa said when advertising for positions to fill the committee, the city received some great applications.
“When we read them, we couldn’t decide,” said Formosa. “That’s how the terms of reference got expanded. They were all so good.”
