The little town of Saint Martine just south of Montreal (see map) is offering new home builders a one year property tax rebate if they can earn a Silver, Gold or Platinum level LEED designation for water use. There is no reason why other towns like Westmount or Hampstead couldn’t make the same offer for existing homes. It saves the municipality money in the long (sustainable) run.

Source: Le Devoir

La municipalité montérégienne de Sainte-Martine exemptera de taxes municipales pendant un an toute nouvelle construction qui respectera les exigences de certification LEED pour résidences, que ce soit au niveau argent, or ou platine. Elle devient ainsi la première municipalité au Canada à offrir une telle incitation fiscale.

Research Credit: Mary Soderstrom

Yesterday at Westmount’s third and final Sustainable Development Visioning workshop, city Coordinator Joshua Wolfe revealed that while Canada and Quebec have a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to the United States, Westmount’s footprint more closely resembles America’s.

This fact was compiled by a recent study completed by McGill University’s GEOG 302 undergraduate class.

The full stats:

Quebec: 5.95 Hectacres/Person
Canada: 7.61
Westmount: 8.58
USA: 9.60

The United States has one of the world’s largest carbon footprints. Only the United Arab Emirates, which has constructed indoor ski slopes in the desert, has a bigger footprint than the U.S.

I went to the first visioning workshop and was amazed by the high level of citizen input and the receptivity of city officials. It is great to see the city where I live actually start to create a vision for the future sustainability of our community.

(version français plus bas)

Here’s what is being planned for the City of Westmount’s final Sustainable Development Visioning Workshop, to be held Sunday, Nov. 16 at Victoria Hall, at 2 pm.

Whether you attended one of the previous workshops or not, you’ll want to be at this one!

As a result of public comments, a new synthesized draft vision statement has been prepared.

In addition, we’ll present an estimate of Westmount’s ecological footprint.

Small group discussions will focus on the challenges and possibilities that Westmount faces in moving to sustainability.

Please post the attached announcement or forward it to other people you think would be interested.

en Francias:

Ce courriel est pour vous inviter au dernier atelier de la Ville de Westmount, sur le développement durable et la vision pour l’avenir qui aura lieu le dimanche 16 novembre, 14h à Victoria Hall.

Peu importe si vous avez assisté à l’un des autres ateliers, vous ne voudriez pas manquer celui-ci !

Pour donner suite aux commentaires du public, on a préparé un nouvel énoncé de synthèse.

De plus, une estimation de l’empreinte écologique de Westmount sera présentée.

Lors de discussions en petits groupes, les gens examineront les potentiels et les défis auxquels fait face Westmount dans une transformation en ville ‘durable’.

Source: Joshua Wolfe, City of Westmount, 514-989-5282