North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto receives award from Premier Campbell.
City of North Vancouver - Winner
The City of North Vancouver was chosen for implementing its official community plan, which is based on smart growth principles.
The City of North Vancouver has an excellent relationship with other north shore municipalities on a variety of issues such as social issues, recycling and innovative bylaw dispute mechanisms. They also utilize smart growth principles in their OCP and have Sustainable Development Guidelines that resulted in the first LEED residential tower in Canada. They have also established the Lonsdale Energy Corporation and are a leader in the province in district energy utilities.
City of Kamloops
Kamloops has diversified their economy by striving to become the Tournament Capital of Canada…and in the process have ensured that sports buildings have been constructed to LEED standards. They have also focused on food sustainability through edible landscaping, farmers markets, and community gardens. Their new community wide recycling collection program will use innovative low emission co-collection vehicles to collect garbage and recyclables in one pass, a first in B.C., thus saving money and reducing GHGs.
City of Maple Ridge
Maple Ridge was the first to take part in Smart Growth on the Ground and is now implementing many sustainability initiatives such as their green fleet program where they have purchased 12 hybrid vehicles (one-third of fleet). They also do work on protecting their waterways and environment through mapping and involving the public and by demanding a deposit from developers to ensure ecosystem works are performed in sensitive areas.