Janie Brooks took over as Tantramar’s newest climate change coordinator in November, the third person to hold the job in the three years since it was first established by the former town of Sackville.
CHMA sat down with Brooks to hear about some of the ongoing projects she is taking on, and what might be in the future for the job, should it continue to be funded beyond the spring.
“I’m kind of balancing two part time positions rolled up into one full time position,” says Brooks, who technically works for local environmental group EOS Eco-Energy, and splits her time between energy projects at EOS, and duties as climate change coordinator for the town, funded by a grant from the New Brunswick Environmental Trust.
Brooks works out of the EOS office, but also attends council meetings, and serves as a resource for town staff. “Addressing climate change isn’t something that one person can do for a municipality,” says Brooks. “I can be a resource and an extra set of eyes and hands in their decision making processes, to try to steer things more towards taking climate action and building resiliency in Tantramar against the consequences of climate change.”
One of the recently implemented projects that Brooks continues to work on is the town’s climate lens, which appears at the bottom of all staff reports to council. The lens is a form or questionnaire that directs staff to consider the impact of what they are doing on climate goals. “It’s just trying to orient people working for Tantramar to try to make decisions while thinking about and kind of centering climate action.”
The climate lens was something put forward by the town’s Climate Change Advisory committee, as was the position of climate change coordinator back in 2020.
There’s also the project to work towards electrifying the town vehicle fleet. The town’s first fully electric EV was ushered during the tenure of Brooks’ predecessor, Brittany Cormier. Brooks will work on the installation of a level 2 charger to be used by that EV as well as the the plug-in hybrid that is also part of the town’s fleet.
Brooks is also continuing work on a project that has allowed the town to produce its own electricity since 2022: the solar array on the recreation building at Bill Johnstone Memorial Park. Brooks says the next step is to install a public dashboard at the park so that people can see what energy is being generated.
“It does fluctuate a lot day to day even in the winter,” says Brooks, scanning the energy generation stats for the solar array. “On January 19, there were 39 kilowatt hours, which is the equivalent of over eight kilograms of CO2 equivalency. And that’s just one very cold winter day, ” says Brooks. “But it does fluctuate. It’ll be good to have that data public.”
As for the future beyond this spring, if the climate change coordinator position continues to be funded, Brooks says that she would be interested in expanding the town’s power generation possibilities and further reducing emissions in town, but she’d also like the climate change coordinator to work on helping the town adjust to the effects of climate change in areas like food security and flooding.
Brooks is originally from Maine, and recently graduated from Mount A with a bachelor of science degree in biology. She says she’s excited at the opportunity to stay in Sackville. “I was so thrilled to get this job,” says Brooks. “I just love this region. There’s so many great parts about living in Sackville.” And I’m excited to be in this position”
