Mayor David Mitchell: Talk key in Smart Cities win, public transit launch
Ten years ago, the Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia took seriously a provincial directive that municipalities needed to create a sustainability plan if they wanted to receive their portion of gas tax funding.
That push led to not only a decade-long focus on sustainability, but also recent recognition from Infrastructure Canada and a win in the Smart Cities Challenge for the town’s Energize Bridgewater initiative.
Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell discussed the town’s success with Municipal World CEO Susan Gardner when the two sat down at the 2019 Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Quebec City.
Addressing Local Energy Sustainability
“We determined 40 percent of our residents live in energy poverty – they spend more than 10 percent of their income on their energy needs,” Mitchell said. “We’re not unique; we’re not the only town with this 40 percent issue. Once you know that, you can’t unknow that. So, we had to address that.”
Without control of energy prices, the town focused on undertaking home energy audits. This would allow city officials to discover what homeowners needed done to lower their costs. Renovations would be funded by a $15,000 grant residents would pay back through their taxes over 10 years.
“The money they save is greater than the loan repayment, so there is no negative effect on them,” he said. “We’re actually, from day one, making it easier because they will save energy right away. We were going to do that in two generations, basically. By winning the Smart Cities Challenge, we can knock that down to one generation.”
Communication Key for Bridgewater Success
Whether it is Energize Bridgewater or the 2018 launch of the town’s single bus, single route public transit plan, Mitchell said communication with constituents is the key for success. This, he added, is particularly true in smaller communities.
“If you stick your head in the sand for four years, then you’ll probably have an easy four years, but you’ll only get four years,” he said. “You have a goal of serving your community and seeing your projects through. Which, many of us can’t do in one election cycle. The only way to accomplish that is to make sure you are genuinely, respectfully talking to you constituents. Don’t be afraid of it.” MW
✯ Municipal World Insider and Executive Members: You might also be interested in the article: Promises and pitfalls of employee engagement. Note that you can now access the complete collection of past articles (and more) from your membership dashboard.
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