Strategic Sustainability Planning for Weedon (Reinvent Your Space!)

The municipality of Weedon, part of the Haut-Saint-François RCM in the Eastern Townships, wants to adopt a strategic sustainability plan to guide structural projects suited to the residents, enhance the municipality’s image, improve and protect its environment and restore quality of life to the area’s citizens. The strategic sustainability planning process will incorporate the Haut-Saint-François GHG reduction plan and draw inspiration from a recent feasibility study on development of a sustainable neighbourhood in Weedon. The municipality’s objective is to continue planning this neighbourhood development project as part of an overall integrated process. Sustainability planning will be done by the Corporation de développement économique et industriel de Weedon, in conjunction with the municipality, sustainability consultants, and various local stakeholders, using an approach that focuses on citizen participation. An Internet portal will be used to communicate with residents throughout the project and discussion groups will be organized to gather stakeholders’ ideas. The plan will deal with various aspects of sustainability, including reduction of energy consumption, conservation of drinking water, surface water management, protection of waterways and shorelines, sustainable and active transportation, GHG reduction, sustainability education, and development of green, sustainability-oriented businesses. Special attention will be paid to waste management since the last action plan revealed that there is currently no municipal pickup of compost or agricultural plastics. Weedon plans to consider this aspect with Valoris, which operates in the Haut-Saint-François RCM. For each objective identified, actions, performance indicators and indicator monitoring are planned. The systems approach and innovation potential, combined with the tools and policies to be adopted following this project to ensure that the plan is implemented, make this project an initiative that could benefit similar municipalities in Canada. (Project description from original funding application)