Andrea Reimer At Large

Got Ideas? Greenest City "dragons den" set for Oct 1

City of Vancouver - News release - sept. 15, 2010

Green Ideas Sought for Vancouver’s Future

Top ideas chosen for panel review with CBC Radio’s Bill Richardson and Mayor Robertson

Building on the success of the “Talk Green to Us” campaign, the public is invited to participate in the on-line forum www.talkgreentous.ca to share ideas they want to put into action to help Vancouver become the greenest city. The public can also visit the forum to vote on their favourite ideas.

The authors of the most innovative and creative ideas with the most votes will be selected to pitch their ideas to, and receive feedback from, a prestigious panel of experts facilitated by Mayor Gregor Robertson and Bill Richardson, host of CBC Radio’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and In Concert programs.

“We are pleased to see so many innovative and entrepreneurial ideas from our citizens about how to green our city,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “This campaign supports the goals of the Greenest City Action Plan, keeping us on track for Vancouver to be the greenest city in the world by 2020.”

The panel features professionals from the sustainability sector and community leaders including: Mayor Gregor Robertson; Councillor Andrea Reimer; Arran Stephens, President of Nature’s Path Foods; Tamara Vrooman, Chief Executive Officer of VanCity; Janet Austin, Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Vancouver; Matt O’Grady, Editor of BC Business Magazine; and Greenest City Action Team (GCAT) member Cheeying Ho who is the Executive Director of the Whistler Centre for Sustainability.

Contestants can enter by adding ideas on the www.talkgreentous.ca forum by September 24. Innovative and creative ideas with the most votes have the best chance of being selected for the panel. A people’s choice winner, chosen by the audience attending the panel review, will be treated to dinner at a local Green Table restaurant as well as tickets to “Cities, bicycles and the future of getting around” with musician David Byrne and Mayor Robertson on Sunday, October 24 at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Hosted by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Space Network and the Simon Fraser University (SFU) City Program, the panel event will take place at the SFU Woodward’s Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre. Poet laureate Brad Cran and musician Veda Hille will be providing entertainment while Jaime Kowal and Ryan Tomkinson will share art and photography submitted by citizens of Vancouver to their website: www.greenthecityvancouver.com. The public are encouraged to attend but must register for the event as space is limited: http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/64166248

The panel event is part of the Greenest City Open House taking place at the Woodwards Atrium from 4 – 7 pm on Friday, October 1. City staff will be available to discuss the greenest city vision, goals and targets and to hear your ideas and feedback. Everyone welcome.

The deadline to participate in the contest is September 24; however the www.talkgreentous.ca forum will remain open until October 7.  More information about the contest is available at vancouver.ca/greenestcity

The Greenest City initiative is also on Twitter: twitter.com/greenestcity and facebook: facebook.com/greenestcity

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Media Contact:
Corporate Communications
604.871.6336
media@vancouver.ca

Yes You Can: Citizen Advisory Committees Looking for New Members

There are quite a few City of Vancouver citizen advisory committees open for applications from the general public. If you have an interest in one of the areas below, and a little time, consider putting your name forward.

Citizen advisory committees accepting applications right now include:

- Board of Variance
- Development Permit Board
- Family Court Youth Justice
- Public Art Committee
- Vancouver Athletic Commission
- Vancouver City Planning Commission
- Vancouver Civic Theatres Board
- Vancouver Heritage Commission
- Vancouver Public Library Board
- YVR Noise Management Committee

Most are accepting applications until November 5, 2010 but you can visit http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/civicagencies/civicvolunteer.htm for more information and specific details on each advisory body (click on the relevant links at the bottom of the page).

In addition to the advisory committee vacancies open to the general public, there are a few such as the Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee which have openings for specific representatives and/or demographics. Check it out.

One Giant Leap Forward for the Regional Growth Strategy

Metro Vancouver Regional Planning Committee received a new draft of the Regional Growth Strategy today and, after discussion and debate, we agreed unanimously to send it out for final comment before referral to a formal public hearing, proposed for late November.

This new draft has significant, and in my opinion, positive changes ranging from much stronger local flexibility on local issues while still maintaining good control on issues of regional significance and explicit recognition of the role of land use planning in the economy.

It's not perfect, and there are likely still changes ahead (some even made today at the committee), but much better and much closer. And it's worth noting that a document that needs the unanimous approval of 22 municipalities is unlikely to be perfect from any one municipality's perspective.

All of this came about as a significant change in process. Previous drafts were prepared by Metro staff and sent out to individual municipalities for comment, back and forth several times over many, many months with little sign of it getting closer to the unanimous approval it needs.

This current draft is the product of several months of direct negotiations between planners from Metro's member municipalities who worked hard to fight for local interests but also worked hard to find solutions that everyone can live with and meet the goals of the plan.

A media release from Metro Vancouver staff follows. You can find the new draft of the Regional Growth Strategy at:

http://www.metrovancouver.org/boards/Regional%20Planning%20Committee/5.1_Attachment-RGS-Draft-RPL-%20September_3_2010-Additional_item.pdf