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2009 Nov 19 (Thu)

U of A Sustainable Development Campus

Kevin asks for more information regarding the University of Alberta Sustainable Development Campus.

 

1814 Alberta Hansard November 17, 2009

Dr. Taft: Mr. Speaker, this October an international team of planners with the Urban Land Institute pored over the opportunities for the U of A to achieve landmark environmental standards as it develops its south campus. The planning results were pretty exciting, actually, and I want to congratulate the ministers of Environment and Energy for showing leadership on environmental design. My question, the first one, is to the Minister of Environment. What is the status of the plan that came out of that week-long exercise?

Mr. Renner: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to acknowledge that I, too, believe that the work that was accomplished in this week-long exercise will be invaluable as we begin to understand what sustainable development is all about. As I understand, the group that was here, the Urban Land Institute, prepared a preliminary report, which they have presented to the university and to those that were involved on the Friday of the event, and they’re preparing a more detailed final report, which we will anticipate receiving shortly.

Dr. Taft: Well, thanks. The Alberta departments of Environment and Energy were very involved in this process, as was the U of A, but the Department of Advanced Education and Technology didn’t seem to be. So I guess I’ll go back to the Minister of Environment for the moment. Are all government departments involved in this working together, or are there conflicting views between the departments on this planning process?

Mr. Renner: Well, Mr. Speaker, I think we should be clear that the emphasis of this program was twofold. One was to assist the University of Alberta in the development of a plan that they want to put in place for a sustainable developed campus. The reason why Alberta Environment and Alberta Energy were involved is because it’s in our interest to meet the core business that we are responsible for, to more fully understand what opportunities are available for us for not only this project but any sustainable development project in Alberta. That’s the reason why Alberta Environment and Energy were involved. I would say that Advanced Education was involved in that they are one of the prime sources of funding for the University of Alberta, who were substantially involved.

Dr. Taft: Okay. Mr. Speaker, I think I’ll go to the minister of advanced education for my last question. The members of the panel included some of the top urban planners, designers, and developers on the continent. They proposed what I think is a pretty inspiring goal for the south campus for the year 2035: “If everyone on Earth lived like the [proposed] community at the University of Alberta’s South Campus, we’d arrest climate change and live sustainably within the limited resources of our . . . planet.” My question to the minister: will this government consider making it a condition on any development funding for the south campus that the university’s development plans meet this target?

Mr. Horner: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Indeed, officials from our department were at this planning session, and I would like to commend both the departments of Energy and Environment for working with us as a cross-government initiative. We’re doing that more and more in this government, and it holds great promise for a number of issues. I would also point out to the hon. member – and he has been well advised of this over the course of the year and a half, two years that we’ve been talking about it in this House – that Campus Alberta looks at the capital projects around the province and prioritizes those capital projects through the Alberta access planning framework document that we produce every year. This will be encapsulated in that. It is also my hope, Mr. Speaker, that when the report is fully vetted and we’ve had an opportunity to look through the entire part of it, this report would also go to the Campus Alberta Strategic Directions Committee, which is all of the chairs of the boards of governors of Campus Alberta, Mr. Speaker.

 

 

 

 

Date: Thu Nov 19 16:17:59 MST 2009 changed by: Rebecca IP: 68.149.137.22