ATHABASCA – Athabasca town Coun. Ida Edwards has been named to Alberta Municipalities’ Sustainability and Environment Committee which will review upcoming provincial matters concerning water, climate change, clean air, brownfields, solid waste management, land use planning, cumulative effects and municipal sustainability planning.
Edwards learned she had been chosen for the committee after applying for the opportunity at the November AUMA convention, which incidentally is also where the municipal advocacy group changed its name to Alberta Municipalities (AM).
“I was thinking that maybe (the application) didn’t get through, so when I got the e-mail, I was really pleased, and I feel privileged to be picked for the Sustainability and Environment Committee. We’re meeting in a couple weeks and I'm excited to work with what’s now known as Alberta Municipalities,” Edwards said in a Feb. 3 interview.
The committee is chaired by Calgary Coun. Peter Demong and includes other regional representation from Town of Westlock Coun. Curtis Snell, who also chairs the Westlock Regional Waste Management Commission, along with seven other elected and administrative officials from around the province.
Following the October municipal elections, Edwards was also elected chair of the Athabasca Regional Waste Management Services Commission, where she sat as a representative for the Town of Athabasca during the previous four-year term. The environment, sustainability and the role that municipalities can play in both have long been topics of interest for the twice-elected councillor, but she recognizes there will be a lot to learn in the coming months.
One of the emergent issues on the horizon that Edwards will be immersed in is the move toward extended producer responsibility which will affect recycling services and how packaging is designed.
“We’re anticipating that with it involving sustainability and the environment, of course, waste management is going to be high on the agenda. We’ll have to work with this new program when it gets rolled out and I think it will be a steep learning curve for me,” Edwards said.
Another issue she will likely see come across her desk is how hazardous waste will be disposed of when the Swan Hills Treatment Centre is shuttered. A federal goal to eliminate PCBs by 2025 will also see the main purpose of the plant eliminated, and it is too costly to operate without the special waste material incineration for which it was designed. The provincially owned facility, operated by a private waste management company, announced it was laying off 60 per cent of its 100-employee work force in September 2020.
Brownfield areas are another topic Edwards expects to see regularly. Brownfields are areas that are vacant, derelict; under-utilized; or contaminated, but are suitable for development or redevelopment for the general benefit of the municipality, if someone were to take the initiative to develop it.
“We have some significant brownfield areas in town, and in the county … they’re saying 1,700 brownfield sites have been abandoned on Main Streets and neighborhoods in almost every municipality across Alberta,” said Edwards.
She’s also looking forward to providing a rural perspective to the committee, as sustainability is something rural communities deal with on a daily basis, and it’s something she’s happy to talk with residents about.
“As the world expands and the population grows, climate change becomes a bigger issue. The environment is only going to be higher and higher on the priority list,” she said. “As we look at policy and procedures and how they affect water usage down the road, for instance … there’s a lot of interesting developments and I think we have to be careful about the domino effect they may cause.”
