Planning Pool

Drought-stricken farmland in Australia, between Melbourne and Sydney. Thanks to Beleobus on Flickr for the great Creative Commons photo.

Today, PlanningPool is coming to you live from the Symposium on Resilience at the University of British Columbia, where we just presented a lively panel discussion about Digital Media. (Our slides are online here.) Thanks to Karen Quinn Fung and Frances Bula for participating in the discussion!

An interdisciplinary panel of graduate students and professionals are currently discussing the critical planning issue of “Uncertain Water Supplies: Increasing the resiliency of development to water crises”. Planning graduate student Asrai Ord introduced the panel with the observation that a majority of Canadians believe in the “myth of abundance.” Unfortunately, frequent claims that Canada does not have to worry … Continue Reading

Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games claim to be the ‘greenest’ games ever. But are carbon offsets actually effective?

City in a Bubble by Flickr user polishq

Nicole Boyer facilitated a panel of speakers yesterday at Gaining Ground. Bill Rees, Vanessa Timmer, and Vincent Tan spoke about why we need to rethink cities and what cities of the future could look like.

To set up the context of why we need to rethink cities, Bill Rees showed how cities tax our ecosystems. Rees blamed Cartesian Dualism for creating the idea of “the environment,” something that is artificially separated from people and has infinite energy, resources, and capacity for waste. He also questioned the idea that economic growth is necessary, showing that growth is only a new phenomenon when considering the whole … Continue Reading

The first plenary session this morning is focusing on economic development. The panel contrasts two very different communities- Hamilton, Ontario, whose main challenge is poverty and more conventional economic development, and Clyde River, Nunavut, which is suffering from climate change.

The first speaker, Mark Chamberlain, is an entrepreneur in Hamilton. Chamberlain argues that like good, competitive businesses, communities have to put people first. Many of our economic problems have root causes that we do not fully understand or address, like poverty. Poverty, or socioeconomic status, is the largest indicator of health, wellness, future earnings, and use of the healthcare and criminal justice systems. Hamilton is heading towards a community where collaboration and innovation address root causes of social ills as a form of economic development. One way Hamilton is going about this is the creation of social enterprises. Social enterprises … Continue Reading

Over the next few days, Vanessa and I will be liveblogging from the CIP/OPPI Conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario. With currenty 900 delegates registered and over 1000 expected from the private sector, the public sector and academia throughout Canada and abroad, the 3-day conference should be very interesting!

The theme of the conference is “Building a Better World,” which is appropriate for the current economic situation and for the location of the conference. As the Mayor of Niagara Falls noted in opening remarks, the recession offers an opportunity for changes. Also, Niagara Falls is a model of change. A former manufacturing center, Niagara Falls transformed itself into a tourism destination focusing on the falls, casinos, golf courses and vinyards, a place that offers attractions year-round.

Today, the conference is opening with keynote speaker Sheila Watt-Cloutier. A Nobel Prize nominee, Watts-Cloutier helped launch … Continue Reading

***Update, July 17: The Comox bylaw received first approval from the town council.***

Have you ever wished that your least favourite form of development could be simply banished? In the Vancouver Island town of Comox (pop. 12,000), the town council is considering just that.

Drive-thru A&W in the City of Courtenay, in the Comox Valley. Thanks to Brian Chow for the Creative Commons picture.

A current resolution, meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable development, would amend Comox’s Zoning Bylaw to prohibit drive-thru services like restaurants and banks throughout the town. Existing uses would remain but no future drive-thrus could be developed.

Howls of protest and approval … Continue Reading

One Saturday last March, some friends and I sat around my kitchen table in the dark drinking beer, eating apple crumble and playing cards by candlelight. We hadn’t blown a fuse. The unplugged evening was in honour of Earth Hour, an annual occasion described by the World Wildlife Fund as a “symbolic event”:

Turning off our lights for an hour won’t stop climate change but it does demonstrate that our individual action is important and adds up to make a big difference. More importantly, it sends a very powerful message to government and world leaders that people want policies and regulations put in place that can achieve meaningful emission reduction to help fight climate change.

My personal experience of unplugging for Earth hour was enlightening (sorry) in a few ways.

The first few … Continue Reading