The letter below was sent to the Town Council and Staff to suggest a plan of action for the Town to move forward with their adoption of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan (CCAP). A motion was accepted unanimously by the Shediac Town Council on March 18 but to date the plan has not been adopted, resulting in Pointe du Chêne officially having no Climate Change Adaptation Plan in place. This letter was submitted as correspondence for discussion at the June 3 Town Council meeting at 6 PM, will be open to the public with the discussion of the correspondence occurring mid way through the meeting.
We feel it is important that the CCAP be adopted as we will soon be entering the summer season when there will be far less opportunities to determine how to begin this process. Also, given the early spring flooding at PDC and the prediction of a very active hurricane season, we need to prepare for emergency response, controls on flooding, condition of the roads and sea level rise.
We hope to see as many community members as possible at the June 3 meeting to help us express our concerns. Please join us!!!
Letter to the Town of Shediac
The Red Dot Association of Shediac Bay Executive is concerned that the Shediac Town Council is having difficulty adopting the Climate Change Adaptation Plan, presented to them on March 18, because they are all not aware of the process that has been explained to our association repeatedly during the development of the plan. The following is the basis for our concerns.
Over the course of the development of the CCAP, our association was told there would be a presentation to the Shediac Town Council after which time Council would adopt the plan on behalf of the town. We were also told that the plan was a living document that should and would be changed to accommodate improvements in technology, weather patterns, funding availability and safety concerns. The following excerpt is from a document provided to our association by the Climate Change Secretariat:
Chapter V – Developing an Adaptation Plan The goal of this chapter is to help communities develop an adaptation plan, a written document that addresses their vulnerabilities and sets out a series of adaptation actions that addresses reducing their vulnerability. An adaptation plan may be a comprehensive document that addresses all potential climate change impacts and vulnerabilities within a community. It may also be focused on a single high priority climate impact, such as flooding. Adaptation is a long-term process, and thus these plans or strategies need to be considered as living documents and be updated every five years as new scientific information on climate change projections datasets become available.
On March 10, 2023, a meeting was held with Mayor Caissie, Counsellor Harry McInroy, Director of Municipal Operations, Robert McEwen, the Director of Climate Change Adaptation Robert Capozi, and Red Dot Executive President and Vice President Tim Borlase and Arthur Melanson to discuss these points. It was made clear that the adoption of the plan by the Town of Shediac would result in no political, legal or administrative requirements to address any or all of the recommendations presented in this plan. This was initially presented to the Town Council on September 5.
The Climate Change Secretariat believes that responsible communities with a Climate Change Adaptation Plan will complete the necessary recommendations to protect its infrastructure and residents. We are now reminded by the Climate Change Secretariat that communities who have not adopted the plan are considered to have no plan. This will negatively affect applications for funding of climate change projects. The recommendations made in this document can be dealt with one at a time or can occur simultaneously. As a living document they can also be modified by the Council. The most important element of this process is that a Climate Change Adaptation plan for the Town of Shediac must be adopted. Thank you very much for your interest in this very important plan for our community. We are hopeful that this topic can be raised and discussed at the upcoming Town Council Meeting on June 3.
Tim Borlase President Red Dot Association on behalf of the Red Dot Executive:
Trudy Brydges
Arthur Melanson
Bill Ross
Brenda Ryan
Helen Wedge
Roger Whittaker
Angele Wilson
