Bracebridge — Councillor — Monck/Muskoka Ward / Ward 2
1. What actions have you personally taken to support a greener, more sustainable climate?
We have turned our ancestral home in Bracebridge into a park like setting. We have planted hundreds of trees, let nature work its magic with natural plants growing in abundance. We are an oasis in an urban setting. We have plentiful wildlife, and this year we have noticed more monarch butterflies than in previous years. We also have the privilege of being stewards/owners of a property (100+ acres) that was settled in the 1860s. Our family has planted thousands of trees on this property. It is a natural preserve.
2. What opportunities for climate leadership at the municipal level (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs)) would you champion in one or more of these areas: Buildings | Housing | Land use (sprawl) | Transportation | Other
Buildings: Heat pumps, insulation, solar panels to name a few.
Housing: Heat pumps, solar panels, local initiatives to transfer in common sense way from fossil fuels, tree planting
Land use (sprawl): We need more diversified approaches / strategies that innovate a way forward. Avoiding sprawl means developing a partnership with business, industry and the community that changes the course of current trends in our community. No one answer. No magical answer: dialogue and partnership must be the future.
Transportation: The electrification of the municipal fleet. I would like to see a “quantum leap” in the number of charging stations for electric vehicles.
3. A long-term problem requires a long-term solution. What is your 100-year plan? If elected, what would be your first action?
Electrification of the municipal fleet. Use of heat pumps on municipal properties. To be candid -I don’t have a hundred year plan. My plan is to overcome the inertia that we must confront to go green.