Dauphin's new City Council has had a very busy first week. Starting off with their swearing in ceremony on Monday, immediately into a visit from the Premier on Tuesday, Remembrance Day ceremonies on Wednesday, and several other things.
Deputy City Manager Lisa Gaudet said now the election is fully done, and Councillors and the new Mayor are sworn in, they're shifting their focus to the four years ahead. Though that doesn't mean things will slow down for either Councillors or City Staff.
"A municipal election involves months of preparation, there's a tremendous amount of work that happens behind the scenes long before election day, and then once the election is over, we move almost immediately into preparing for the transition to a new Council...and that involves organizing the swearing in ceremony and inaugural meeting, preparing their orientation materials, coordinating training, and ensuring that the new council has the information and resources it needs to begin it's term," said Gaudet.
As part of the inaugural meeting and swearing in ceremony on Monday, Gaudet read the new Council's first planned project: a partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, focusing on finding environment-based climate control measures. Considering the recent struggles Dauphin had in dealing with flooding over the summer, Gaudet said it's fitting for this to be the new Council's first focus.
"The City's been working with the International Institute for Sustainable Development to develop a climate adaptation plan. We've been involved in that process over the last few months, and that work involved identifying climate-related risks facing our community, and considering practical actions we can take to become more resilient...IISD has identified an additional opportunity, through the FCM, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Municipal Green Fund, and so IISD is preparing a funding proposal that would establish a group or cohort of municipalities to receive training, technical assistance, and potentially funding, to develop and implement natural infrastructure projects," said Gaudet.
In the immediate aftermath of flooding over the summer, the City of Dauphin and several other Parkland municipalities and governments made sure to have conversations about their needs. This combined project would be another good way for the Parkland's municipalities to work together in finding climate adaptation measures.
