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Sustainability
The Integrated Community Sustainability Plan is a sustainability plan for the Municipality of the Town of Taber, its citizens and all Town owned land. It also, however, will take into account our critical role as the centre of a large trading, social and recreation radius. The sustainability plan will also consider our direct and indirect environmental impact on the Old Man River Watershed, the Palliser Triangle and other land and watershed management issues.
Through inclusive, governmental and citizenry participative dialogue, the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan will target five broad areas of sustainability; Economics; Governance; Social; Culture; and Environmental Integrity. The plan will ultimately provide a comprehensive vision for the future of Taber and will set measures of success that will serve as guides for sustainable future development.
A critical concept surrounding sustainability planning is the effect of ‘systems’ and our role within them. Systems are simply the inter-relationship between various things and the impact that one item has on another. For example, if as a community we determine that we want a healthy population, then we must consider every aspect that leads to health including but not limited to medical care, leisure opportunities, social inclusion, stress levels, income, environment (clean air and water), education and early childhood development. In short, the systems based approach means that we can no longer view items in isolation, but rather, that we must view everything in the context of its relationship to other areas within the overall goals and values of the community.
Through sustainability planning we have the opportunity to frame not only our physical environment but also the social and governmental fabric that shapes and supports our community. The sustainability plan we develop this year should not be viewed as a finished document, but rather, a document that provides a framework for future work and sets a foundation for growth. It will be a ‘living’ document that can and should be reviewed annually to make sure we are on target and, where necessary, is amended to reflect changing priorities within the community.
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