Bruce County council has given its endorsement to a new Environmental Sustainability Action Plan.
The new plan will give a big-picture strategy for the county’s environmental sustainability from 2026-2030.
During discussion, Councillor Steve Hammell said he’d like to see a more in-depth plan when it comes to waste management.
“We do have a very successful hazardous household waste collection system, but I do feel that there’s always improvement and always ways – and we should have goals in collecting more, and benchmarking ourselves against other counties or regions of the province to see if we can do more, and if we can work with out municipal partners to get even more of that waste to the right spots and to be recycled,” he said, adding, “I think that there needs to be more collaboration with our local conservation authorities to have even more trees planted, or natural windbreaks, and I’m hoping that we can have that in the future and I’m not sure if that’s in the plan or something separate in the future. I view this as a good base, but we need to not put it on a shelf for four years.”
The ESAP acts as a roadmap to help the community prepare for challenging weather and future pressures, and its implementation includes the necessity of regular updates to council on the progress of the plan as a whole.
Environmental Initiatives Coordinator Matt Meade explained, “The plan is a phased approach and the first phase over the next year is really to establish some of that foundational work through things like a long-range waste management plan, a climate adaptation plan, a forest management plan, and so on and so on. The ESAP really establishes that foundation so we’re starting to look at setting the stage to do the next phase of work.”
The actions are meant to strengthen community resilience and support coordinated, informed decision making across the organization.
The first phase is establishing baselines and developing key plans to move forward.
From 2027-2029, the county will be implementing initiatives, and integrating them into the county’s operations.
In the final year, 2030, staff will evaluate the work completed and use that information to form the following planning cycle.
The ESAP organizes across four focus areas:
1. Climate adaptation and mitigation
2. Stewardship and forest conservation
3. Waste management
4. Sustainable transportation and mobility