Building Sustainable Communities 2013 Research Project Community Sustainability Planning and Rural BC

The Fraser Basin Council advancing sustainability throughout BC

o 2005 Federal Gas Tax Agreement o Clean air – Clean water – Reduce GHG’s o Also established Integrated Community Sustainability Planning (ICSP) across Canada o In BC, all LG’s must show that they are applying the seven sustainability planning principles, in return for receiving their per capita gas tax funding. Background

The Challenge How does this ICSP ‘thing’ work for rural regional districts and small municipalities? Research goals - to identify for rural BC: 1) what constitutes a successful ICSP process 2) what actions are suitable for a sustainability strategy 3) rural areas’ relationship with urban and provincial sustainability goals.

Defining ‘Rural’ For this research project, rural is defined as: All the unincorporated areas within BC’s regional districts (except Metro Vancouver); and All the regional districts’ municipalities (except those in Metro Vancouver) with pops of 10,000 or less.

Research Results - Highlights ICSP Process (as of ): Completed18.4% Underway19.2% Not started47.2% Don’t know15.2%

Highlights – Successful Process o Use in-house staff plus outside expertise o Develop own process o Adequate human and financial resources o Formal adoption of final documents o Community participation o Commitment to implementation o Support from elected officials and community leaders

Highlights – Actions for Rural Strategies #1. Protecting drinking water supplies #2. Pursuing economic diversification #3. Supporting locally owned small businesses #3. Encouraging health and social well-being

Highlights – Factors in Choosing Actions Very important/Important: o Support from elected officials and community leaders o Access to funding o Costs of implementation Less/Not Important o Helps urban areas in my regional district and/or province o Proximity to urban areas o Contribution to provincial sustainability goals

Highlights: Level of Realism for Implementing Sustainability Strategy Actions

Focus Groups Highlights Definition of sustainability is same; crucial differences: specific challenges or issues application of concepts implementation and best practices benchmarks and indicators Rural strategies would be different in: valuescontent specific lifestyleimplementation

Focus Groups Highlights Strategies – priority topics: Health care Education Transportation Economic development

Issue Specific Findings Agricultural land, local food, and rural/urban sprawl Important actions to include in a strategy Implementing these actions seen as somewhat, less, or not realistic

“The plan has to be believable and the public has to believe that it can be accomplished.” Questions? Comments? Thanks to Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions

Further Information Joan Chess, MCIP, RPP Research Project Manager and Program Manager, Smart Planning for Communities