Conservation Questions
My responses to the Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s Candidate Questionnaire
My undergrad degree was primarily in environmental science and complex systems. In my first year at UNB Law, I did a pro bono project on conservation easements for the Conservation Council — this was before the provincial legislation existed. I've been engaged 20 years with cycling and active transportation organizations. These inform how I approach conservation: practically, from several directions at once, and with an appreciation for how natural and built systems work.
Environmental action at the municipal level isn't just about having one big plan. It's also about how we approach dozens of seemingly unrelated matters — building codes, street design, procurement, lot coverage, tree planting, drainage — that collectively determine our environmental outcomes. The measures that stick are usually the ones that serve environmental goals while also making the city more livable, resilient, and affordable to service.
Climate and the environment are among the issues people are most specific about at the doors. Residents bring ideas from their professional lives and experiences in other cities. I'd like to serve on the Environmental Stewardship Committee where much of this work happens.
1. Climate Preparedness
Q: What specific actions would you take, such as zoning changes, floodplain protections or investing in natural infrastructure, to prepare your municipality for extreme events caused by climate change?
Fredericton has a foundation to build on: bylaws restricting development in flood-prone areas, a strong infrastructure renewal program, and a Climate Change Adaptation Plan from 2020 that's being updated this year. That update will be an opportunity for the incoming council to shape the city's approach.
The Resilience Lands program is another example of good work already underway: protecting ecologically significant lands that also help with flood adaptation. I wrote briefly about it here. I'd work to see that program continue and grow.
We should look at using building codes and infrastructure standards to mandate resilient design. It's less expensive to prepare for the conditions we know are coming than to retrofit later. Residents have raised measures like permeable streets and grassed swales for drainage. We do already have Green Building Guidelines — but guidelines are only guidelines.
When it comes to development decisions, including the exhibition grounds, we will need to be attentive to wellfield protection and how we handle existing tree cover and sponge areas. The city has a tree planting program that focuses on resilient and native species. We should ensure that program is more than keeping pace with trees lost to development, infrastructure projects, and disease.
Small things can also make an impact. A resident pointed out that the city prohibits planting gardens on the city-owned verge. A garden is generally better than grass at catching stormwater runoff, and this would be an easy fix. The city is already experimenting with food forests in parks, so the appetite for this kind of thinking is there.
2. Protecting Natural Areas
Q 1: How would you use municipal planning tools, such as zoning, conservation easements or development restrictions, to support local conservation, and would you offer support for the province's 30 by 30 goal?
I've worked through my cycling club with private landowners to dedicate land for conservation under provincial programs. Organizations like Nature Trust NB are active in this area. There are tools available at every level of government. Fredericton's Resilience Lands program is an example of this type of direct conservation. The City's intervention to facilitate the continuation of the Ferris Street U-Pick rather than see it sold for development is similar, though what's conserved is not a natural area. We need to keep looking for opportunities like these.
At a more structural level, we should continue to use zoning and planning to encourage infill and appropriate densification rather than expanding the city's footprint into natural areas. That's where municipal tools have the most impact on conservation.
I support the 30x30 goal — protecting 30% of land and water by 2030. I'd add that the exercise should be more than a cataloguing of existing parks: the objective should be to conserve ecologically significant lands.
Q 2: If elected, would you like to hear from a group such as the Conservation Council of New Brunswick about protected areas in your region?
Of course!
3. Lowering Energy Costs and Community Emissions
Q: What actions would you prioritize, like improving municipal buildings, supporting transit or expanding electric vehicle charging, to reduce emissions and save money?
The biggest impact for investment is in transportation, where active transportation and transit infrastructure reduce both emissions and costs. More on that below.
On municipal buildings and operations, I'd want to know where the biggest energy costs are and start with upgrades that pay for themselves — that's where the financial case and the environmental case reinforce each other, and where it's easiest to build support. The city has corporate and community energy and emissions plans, and I mentioned the bus fleet electrification study under transportation below. These plans need to be assessed on whether they're delivering results, not just on whether they exist.
This is also an area where funding from other levels of government is often available. We should be leveraging it.
4. Transportation
Q 1: How will you create more walkable communities, and support better transportation options (like walking, biking, transit and electric vehicles)?
I am the poster child for active transportation. Most people are surprised to learn that I can drive. Residents have told me about traffic calming, safe routes for kids, better connections to trails and transit.
Fredericton's Integrated Mobility Plan sets a target of 30% sustainable mode share by 2050. Once the plan is adopted, the new council will need to ensure that it delivers. That means steady investment in walking, cycling, and transit infrastructure, and design choices that make active transportation a safe, convenient, realistic option. I wrote about that briefly here.
Q 2: Would you offer your support for the province's goal to electrify its school bus fleet?
On school bus electrification: that's a provincial decision. I'm more focused on the municipal fleet, where council has direct control. I'm told there's a feasibility study on electrifying the municipal bus fleet that shows it would be cash-positive. I'd like to see that study.
5. Community Infrastructure
Q: When making infrastructure decisions, how would you balance traditional 'grey' infrastructure (e.g. pipes, culverts, concrete drainage systems) with 'green' infrastructure (e.g. wetlands, rain gardens, trees and natural floodplains that absorb water)? Can you give an example of when you would choose one over the other, and how this would show up in your planning and budget decisions?
Green infrastructure should be the default: wetlands and rain gardens handle stormwater effectively and cheaply and make neighbourhoods more livable. The South Core Plan's sponge zone provisions are an example of building that default into planning from the start. Grey infrastructure is necessary where we need capacity or reliability that natural systems can't provide.
A landscape architect in our ward told me that rooftop gardens are always the first thing cut when a project needs to save money. That's too bad, because those are exactly the kind of features that help a city manage heat and stormwater. I'd look closely at how to incentivize green infrastructure.
6. Protecting Water
Q: What steps will you take to protect drinking water, rivers, wetlands and coastal areas through local planning and infrastructure decisions?
Some of the tools I mentioned above also protect water. Wellfield protection needs to be front of mind when permitting development — in particular, I'm thinking of the exhibition grounds.
We should continue to partner with organizations like the Nashwaak Watershed Association, and invest in planting trees and native vegetation to reinforce riverbanks. Municipal policy should address pesticide and fertilizer runoff into watercourses.
Fredericton also needs to stay proactive about invasive species — zebra mussels, Eurasian water milfoil, and invasive carp are real threats.
7. Herbicide and Pesticide Use
Q: Would you support bylaws or policies to reduce or restrict pesticide and herbicide use, and how would you implement and enforce them?
New Brunswick has had a provincial ban on certain over-the-counter pesticides since 2009, but it's not as useful as you'd think: lawn care professionals can still apply most commercial pesticides. If you're wondering where I personally stand on this, I invite you to behold the assorted greenery that passes for a "lawn" at my house.
For example, it should be straightforward to pass a bylaw banning cosmetic pesticides. Beyond that, I'd want to learn more about best practices from municipalities that have already moved on this before offering a specific approach. Enforcing bylaws is often more costly than effective, so a policy on pesticide use in city operations combined with advocacy to the province may turn out to have more impact.
Any policy should distinguish cosmetic use from pest management that protects trees and ecosystems — an invasive pest threatening Fredericton's tree canopy is a different matter than a dandelion-free lawn.