Here’s a roundup of the details of my platform that I shared on social media this past week in one blog entry.
Naturalization at Big Albro Lake
Big Albro is an important park in Dartmouth North. It has a supervised beach, a washroom/change room, new playground, and nearby walking trails. Unfortunately, water quality at Big Albro has been declining. The beach was closed frequently this past summer. It needs work.
One big problem at Big Albro are Canada Geese. The Geese like the same thing as us, a big lawn near water. Unfortunately, their droppings leave a gross mess and wash into the lake feeding bacteria. There are potential solutions, such as naturalizing parts of the shoreline.
The way naturalization works is excess lawn space is removed and native plants are planted in its place. The result is native species that are better able to filter and absorb runoff and a less appealing landscape for the geese.
Naturalization doesn’t mean the end of space for people. It absolutely doesn’t mean that the beach and grass disappears. It means that we will be more deliberate about where those activities take place rather letting grass be the default landscape for the entire space.
If re-elected, I will pursue a naturalization project at Big Albro to, hopefully, improve water quality, deter the geese from using the beach, and add to the Park’s biodiversity.
Dartmouth, we do great things together!
Climate Change:
Climate change is real, and it’s affecting our world. We’re seeing the impacts here in Nova Scotia with milder winters, and more severe storms. The change is visible in our lifetime. Racing on Lake Banook with cars and horses is pretty much unimaginable today! We’re lucky if we get a week of skating.
We’re not going to fix climate change in HRM. The problem is every single country, state, province, city on this planet is in the same boat. We must do our part and press the rest of the world to do the same. This is biggest challenge humanity has ever faced.
HRM has an ambitious climate change plan, HalifACT, that commits HRM to netzero municipal emissions by 2030 and (the harder part) to drive change in the wider community. I have championed HalifACT in my time on Council, pressing for an implementation plan when staff wanted to delay due to COVID, and to adequately staff the effort when budget pressures made it tempting to once again delay.
We don’t have the luxury of time here. Perhaps if we had acted in the 1990s when the problem was first truly identified, we could have taken a more gradual approach, but that opportunity was squandered. We need to rapidly green our world. HalifACT is producing results as HRM electrifies its vehicle fleet, builds and renovates for net zero buildings, is about to launch retrofit initiatives, and more.
If re-elected, I will continue to be a strong champion for climate action. I know what side of history I want HRM to be on.
Dartmouth, we do great things together
Engagement
On the doorsteps this election, one message that I consistently hear is how much folks value my communication. Being a Councillor isn’t always easy. My approach has been that, although we may disagree from time-to-time, you should always know what’s happening and why.
That’s why after each Council meeting, I write a blog on what happened and what was noteworthy from my District 5 perspective. Not all my work happens at Council so I also send out a detail heavy newsletter once a month.
Neither the Council blog or newsletter are written by staff. It’s my voice, my perspective, in my own words. It’s a direct report back to you, the people who I’m accountable to.
It’s been a lot of work! The website word count, tipped up by 296,173 words over the last four years, hitting 643,547. Now ahead of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy! As far as I know, this is a level of detail that I don’t think many have tried to do before in politics. It’s a lot of work, but what I hear is that folks appreciate it.
We do great things together and that means a commitment from me to keeping you informed. If re-elected, I will continue to blog after each Council meeting and to send out the monthly e-newsletter.
Dartmouth, we do great things together
We appreciate you Sam, and the work that you do, advocating for the good, keeping yourself informed, trying new things, and keeping us informed. Wow! Keep up the good work.(BTW you articulated the geese problem directly. They are a real and expensive problem)
Has the city heard of using trained dogs to deter Canada geese. Before I moved from Ontario, they were being used at ‘Professors Lake’ in Brampton to try to decrease the number staying and to decrease their nesting efforts.
Yes! We’ve had a community volunteer lending us his collies. There is no one locally though who is operating this as a business. If there was, I think we would hire them in a second.
During the Little Ice Age of Europe, people skated and held markets in the Thames river in London. This was well before larges scale use of coal and petroleum. This indicates that climate variation is not caused by man made CO2. The example of vehicles and horses on Lake Bannook are no indication of CO2 as a cause of warming climate. It only means that over a few decades were have had a natural warming trend, as happened in the Little Ice Age. All the expense of net zero is for nothing, and a waste of money and resources. I suggest that HRM council concentrate on thier job of providing services economically, and quit trying to change the weather because it is not going to work.
Right. The entire scientific community is wrong. Not to be rude, but I’ll take the consensus of actual scientists on this one.
Thank you Sam. You have been a wonderful advocate and would continue to be I am sure. I appreciate the strong and steady voice you bring as our councillor.