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Appendix 2 The Simple as Dirt ICSP Process

This section contains more details on the overall process that went into creating the ICSP. Included in this section are:

• A flow chart showing the entire process.

• Looking Forward Sustainability Seminar April 1, 2008

• Statistics that were included with the Seminar Handouts

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The Process The Town of Taber devised a Made In Taber approach that capitalizes on the strengths of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. See attached Simple As Dirt Preliminary Discussion Paper for details of the new process.

The Made In Taber Approach

Consideration was given to hiring an outside consultant to lead the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan process, however, the Town chose to appoint a Process Leader and Process Manager from within the Town of Taber municipal staff and that specific external expertise is sought on a per item basis as required. The benefits of an internal sustainability team are fourfold:

• maintain expertise in house for long term Town capacity increase

• keep the process a Town of Taber initiative rather than suffer possible Community resistance to external consultant

• internal manager will be able to monitor outcomes and brief Council on progress in years to follow

• Rather than utilize available funding solely on the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, the Town will maintain funding reserves for application on capital or operational priorities.

In short, having an internal sustainability team provides the surety that the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan will not simply become another study sitting on someone’s shelf but will remain a living and active cornerstone document and the ability, in part, to utilize existing funding opportunities on other project.

A Sustainability Plan allows

the Town of Taber to set the

foundation for its future and

streamline its projects and

practices to not only meet

the expectations of the

citizens today, but also to

provide the framework for

success and prosperity for

future generations.

Extract from Executive

Summary

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The Plan Process

Looking Forward:

Sustainability Seminar

Vision and Community

Issues

Baseline Questionnaire

Sustainable Taber Month

Analyze Data / distill into

key issues for discussion

Goal Setting / Action Plan

Review strengths and

weaknesses in inventory

Identify Emergent Trends

Simple As Dirt Opportunities for

partnership?

Preliminary Descriptions

of Success

Resource Sources

Focus Groups

Council to confirm Values and Vision

Regulatory Compliance?

Social Participation

Population Health

Downtown Revitalization

Sustainable Community Design

Taber Staff Discussion ~ What are we up to?

~ Sharing Knowledge

Engage Public concurrent with Census

Web Based Library, Museum & Town Office Drop Off Points

Media and Information

TCAPS Meeting

Display Boards Getting to Know You (specific target groups)

Optional Sustainable

Events

Municipal Sustainability

Plan

Identify Priority Strategies for 2009 Budget

Local Media Coverage

Apr 08 June 08 Sep – Oct 08 July – Aug 08

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Looking Forward: Sustainability Seminar

In order to successfully achieve a sustainability plan that was appropriate to our small town and reflected the needs and values of the community, Taber partnered with the Town of Coaldale to plan and host the “Looking Forward: A Sharp Focus on Small Town Sustainability” Seminar on April 1st, 2008. The seminar was designed to educate and inform our respective Town councils and administration on sustainability issues pertinent to our local region and community scale, however, its design to fill part of the void on small town sustainability issues was very well received and the seminar was attended by over 60 participants. Delegates included: Elected officials and administration from: Town of Taber; Town of Coaldale; Town of Raymond; Town of Vauxhall; Town of Bow Island; Village of Barnwell; City of Brooks; City of Lethbridge; City of Medicine Hat; Municipal District of Taber; County of 40 Mile; County of Vulcan; County of Cypress Engineers, Planners and Architects from: Scheffer Andrew Ltd; Sturgess Architecture; Focus Corp; Intelligent Futures; Associated Engineering; Stantec Engineering; UMA Engineering To complement the presentations given at the seminar, a selected research book and community fact sheet was provided to each participant.

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Seminar Brochure:

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Seminar Welcome Letter

WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME

LOOKING FORWARD: A SHARP FOCUS ON SMALL TOWN SUSTAINABILITY

This is an exciting and occasionally stressful time for rural communities across Alberta. With the

looming infrastructure deficit, increasing demands on limited funds and the ever present push

for environmentally friendly practices, municipalities are constantly being challenged to stretch

their available resources to the maximum. While researching options for our communities, we

discovered that there was a general information gap regarding the challenges faced by small

rural communities, and a lack of resources at our disposal to address “sustainability” issues.

There is an incredible amount of information and technical expertise for large centres but

smaller rural communities do not have that same luxury.

Simply put, we have tried to identify the issues and coral the information that affects us; small

town Southern Alberta. We don’t really have a problem with traffic congestion but changes to

our Highway corridors will dramatically affect our futures; but how to plan for those effects or

how they will manifest themselves is a mystery. The skies over our Towns look clear and sunny

and don’t appear to be falling, so how does climate change fit in? What responsibilities do we

have to the environment and what can be done practically ~ on our scale ~ on our soil ~ and

with our river? And what about our citizens; how do we ensure their health and happiness ~

are our communities inclusive and welcoming ~ is not the feeling of community one of the key

assets and strengths of a small town? Faced with the challenge of finding immediately

relevant and localized information, we were forced to be creative.

This seminar is intended to start filling in the gaps that exist for communities like Taber and

Coaldale and to address the pressing areas that affect our municipalities. By bringing together

the right people to address the right issues, the foundation can be set for Councils to start

thinking in “sustainability” terms. With a customized agenda focusing on small town

sustainability, the information presented is relevant, useful and practical. Instead of intangible

examples with intangible solutions, the intent is to find solutions to address real issues within our

own communities relating to sustainability.

Good planning is essential to our continued success as rural communities in an urbanizing

environment. By joining together and sharing our resources, ideas, ingenuity and experiences,

the partnerships we form today will make community planning more effective now and create

a sustainable future.

On behalf of the Town of Taber and the Town of Coaldale, we would like to welcome you to

this exciting seminar, created to kick start our mutual efforts to build Integrated Community

Sustainability Plans for our communities. This seminar is unique because instead of waiting to

stumble upon the information relevant for our particular situations, we have customized a

program to address head on the needs of our communities’ growth, infrastructure, and

environment and the health and happiness of our people.

Now is the time to start looking forward and we thank you for joining us on this journey.

Your Seminar Coordinators:

Bonnie Farries from the Town of Coaldale & Tania Sprong from the Town of Taber

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Seminar Handout

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Index of Selected Research Provided to Seminar Participants