Richmond Council Seeks Upgrade To Climate Action Plan

ARICHAT - A recent presentation to Richmond Municipal Council and a suggestion from a Richmond County resident have encouraged councillors to take another look at their seven-year-old Climate Action Plan.

In December, Richmond's Committee of the Whole meeting included a presentation from two members of the Bras d'Or Lake Biosphere Reserve Association (BLBRA), board chair Eileen Crosby and St. Peter's-area representative Gordon Kerr. The delegation encouraged Richmond officials to consider re-joining the association's board of directors.

Since that time, Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette has confirmed that a Richmond County resident has reached out to her with the suggestion that the municipality could be missing out on funding opportunities from bodies such as Clean Nova Scotia to develop renewable-energy and climate-change projects within the county boundaries.

With this in mind, Warden Mombourquette recently called for - and received - the support of her fellow councillors to authorize Richmond municipal staff to examine the county's Climate Action Plan, originally developed by the municipality in 2014. If municipal staff finds gaps in the plan, it will come back to the council table to allow the five Richmond elected officials to update the document for 2021 and beyond. 

Speaking to reporters following the January 25 regular council meeting at the Richmond Municipal Building in Arichat, the warden extolled the importance of keeping the Richmond Climate Action Plan an "evergreen" document. 

"It's an exciting opportunity to get a refresh on that plan," Mombourquette enthused. "I think it's going to be a lot more important to us as time goes on."