After three years of using the province’s Environmental Trust Fund to pay for a part-time climate change coordinator to work with town staff, the municipality is moving in a new direction this year, and has obtained a grant of just over $24,000 to produce a wetlands-themed play for youth and tour the production to local schools.
The province’s Environmental Trust Fund supports 190 environmental initiatives throughout the province, including about ten in the Tantramar region which take on things like watershed monitoring, energy efficiency, and wetlands education.
Since 2021, the town has received roughly $35,000 per year from the fund to help pay for a part-time climate change coordinator. The position was created in partnership with EOS Eco Energy, and so was never part of Tantramar’s unionized staff, but worked closely with the town’s Community and Corporate Services department.
Over the years, three different climate change coordinators have helped with research and recommendations for initiatives like electrifying the town’s vehicle fleet, coordinating the installation of solar panels on the Bill Johnstone Park building, and creating a ‘climate lens’ system in staff reporting to council.
At the end of Monday’s committee of the whole meeting, CHMA asked about the decision not to seek further funding for a part time climate change coordinator. Manager of Tourism and Business Development Ron Kelly Spurles explained that despite past success with the position, the funding was not meant to be permanent.
“The Environmental Trust Fund was never meant to be an ongoing source of funding for that particular position,” said Kelly Spurles.
CAO Jennifer Borne says that although there has been funding for a full-time permanent climate change coordinator in the past two municipal budgets, that position is currently “under review.”
In 2023, a full-time, permanent position was included in the new municipality’s first budget, but never implemented. Instead, the town applied for and received another $35,000 from the ETF to cover a part time coordinator for a third year.
In this year’s 2024 budget there is a salary allocated for an additional position in the Community and Corporate Services department, but CAO Jennifer Borne says it is not necessarily for a climate change position.
Mayor Andrew Black did not express concern about the loss of the position. Black acknowledges that council asked for a full-time permanent coordinator, but says he is willing to wait to hear the results of Borne’s review of the position.
“Yes, it’s in the budget. Yes, council asked for it,” says Black. “But we will wait, operationally, to see how that position would be filled.”
In the meantime, Council will be asked to approve the funding agreement for this year’s Environmental Trust Fund grant at its next meeting on June 11.
Ron Kelly Spurles says the planning for a wetlands-themed theatre production will start shortly after that. Kelly Spurles says the play will be created in the summer/fall of 2024 by professional actors in consultation with local school children, and will then tour to 8-10 area schools in the winter of 2025. The production will also be presented virtually to 10 more schools throughout the province.
Kelly Spurles is a longstanding member of the local theatre community, having served as artistic director for Live Bait Theatre, and current director of Festival by the Marsh. He says the ETF-funded wetlands-themed production will be coordinated by Tantramar, and is not connected to any other local theatre organizations.
