Environment
One of the first things you will notice in Fredericton is how important our environment is to us. Imagine our city without the trees that line the streets, without our vast amount of urban forests and add smoke stacks and smog. It just would not be the same. The city has made great strides in making sure the citizens have options to make green decisions and this has largely been why we are en route to become the first Canadian city to make Kyoto. It is certainly important to recognize the great work of our staff at city hall and community leaders such as our campuses and businesses that have taken part in the community initiatives so far. We are achieving something great here.
On the other hand however, Fredericton has never been a city to sit back and be proud with our accomplishments, which is why I and others feel that it is important to keep moving forward on this increasingly important issue. There are several steps that I feel need to be made a priority in the next few years.
1. Extend recycling opportunities to multi-unit residential dwelling that the service currently does not exist for. Apartments and condos should not be considered the same as a business in all senses. These dwellings are charged twice the property tax, but receive less services and the bottom line is that it is the tenants that pay the taxes, albeit indirectly. In the interest of being both equitable in our treatment of citizens and progressive in our addressing of environmental concerns.
2. We must explore composting options. To simply have options for our papers and plastics is not enough. Currently, a lot of household waste, particularly foods, are going into our plastic garbage bags and taking up space at the local dump. The formula is simple, if we can reduce the number of bags going to the dump, we can also reduce the rate by which we fill it up. These are two benefits of a common sense solution.
3. Increase the appeal and usage of the city transit programs. If we can encourage people to keep their cars in their driveways and provide them an inexpensive alternative, then we can reduce CO2 emissions. This will take work however, and broad planning. Everything from downtown population density to the way we present our schedules play a part in the ridership increase objectives.
In Fredericton there is the recognition of a required balance. Being environmentally friendly does not mean we stop development. It is important to keep growing in a sustainable way here in the City of Fredericton. This means we need to consider the relevant data without putting a one sided interest as the lens we look through. Sustainable development exists, and we should keep moving in that direction.
