CENTRE FOR LOCAL PROSPERITY
TOWN OF LOCKEPORT
December 6th, 2021
1. Introduction
A. Summary
100-150 words that highlight the key takeaways from the Community Summary Report. Were there any issues, concerns, solutions or ideas that were talked about in multiple breakout groups and/or were strong themes in discussion of the full group? Did any general points of consensus emerge from the group?
The key takeaways and themes that emerged from the conversations were:
● The biggest common concern is the collapse of the fishery. The lobster are moving north from the warming water which is causing overfishing. The long term sustainability of the fishery is a serious concern.
● The increased costs of living such as food and fuel is concerning.
● The concern of sea level rise and lack of a long term management plan (with emphasis on a threatened connection to the mainland).
● To have more support and affordability in moving toward electric and renewable energy sources.
● Everyone loves living in Lockeport and the way of life, the natural environment and how people look out for one another. There’s expressed Interest in more work opportunities and ways to be more self-sufficient locally.
B. About the Green Resilience Project
This community conversation was part of the Green Resilience Project, a Canada-wide series of conversations exploring and documenting the links between community resilience, income security and the shift to a low-carbon economy. Working with a designated partner organization from each community, the Green Resilience Project aims to create spaces in which a wide range of participants can talk through the links between climate change and income security, and identify possible next steps to build or maintain community resilience in the face of these challenges.
This Community Summary Report reflects what we heard and learned in our community’s conversation. Each Project partner organization across Canada will be producing a similar report. In March 2022, the Green Resilience Project will produce a final report summarizing
findings across conversations, which will be available to the public and shared with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Funding for the Green Resilience Project is generously provided by Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund. The Project is managed and delivered by Energy Mix Productions, Basic Income Canada Network, Coalition Canada Basic Income – Revenu de base, Basic Income Canada Youth Network, national experts and local partners
C. About the Community Partner organization
This section should talk about what the organization does and its connection to the community in which the conversation took place. It could also discuss how the organization came to participate in the Green Resilience Project and why it was interested in participating. If you used the Green Resilience Project conversation script as the basis of your conversation, you may be able to pull this content from your script.
The Centre for Local Prosperity (CLP) promotes local economic and climate readiness solutions for rural and local communities in Atlantic Canada. CLP organizes conferences and community working sessions, and conducts evidence-based studies that often lead to community implementation. We draw on examples throughout the world and right here at home. Our work builds strength through citizen, business and local government collaboration. We encourage broad-based, practical, innovative and experimental community development initiatives that lead to communities gaining agency over their future.
Lockeport Nova Scotia is a rural community with a population just over 500, located outside of any commuting distance to a major urban centre. Lockeport is a unique Atlantic coastal island town that is significantly exposed to climate change related ocean impacts since it is joined to
the mainland only by a beachside causeway. Lockeport has a maximum elevation of 9 meters. In order to secure its future, the community must have broad-based, proactive sea level rise and storm surge adaptation measures, as well as energy, fresh water and food security measures adopted in a timely manner.
In addition to its high-risk exposure to ocean changes, Lockeport has been experiencing other significant impacts of climate change. These include storm related power outages, lack of rainfall and drought conditions, and related concerns about food security. For example, the recent depletion of domestic dug wells in the town has intensified climate change awareness. As an island community connected only by a sand bar, Lockeport could potentially be cut off from the mainland at any time. For this reason, energy and food insecurity issues need to be addressed. More needs to be done for local energy production and efficient use. Food insecurity is a significant negative outcome of climate change as some food growing areas can become unsustainable.
The sea has been Lockeport’s economic lifeblood since 1762. The economy is primarily fishing based with supporting services – Town Hall, Recreation Centre, library, Medical Centre, drug store, Town Market, restaurants, outdoor performance venue, gas bar and hardware store. Economic diversification is also an issue due to longer term changes in ocean health and the strength of fish stocks. The measures described in this proposal will also assist greatly in stabilizing the long-term health of the local economy.
Despite these challenges, the town’s residents remain optimistic and trust that Lockeport will still exist in 2100 and beyond. They recognize that the future of the community can only be ‘future-proofed’ by building high levels of resident, business and government proactive engagement in addressing the issues and risks facing the town.
The engagement process began in February 2019, when “Future-Proofing Lockeport” began as a broad-based community discussion group to address both near and long term issues related to climate change. The Future-Proofing Lockeport group has been seen as an excellent example of a rural at-risk community beginning to discuss ways to safeguard their future.
D. Why this community was selected to have a conversation
This section should answer the following questions, and can be pulled from your conversation script:
● What issues does this community face, and how are they related to income security and/or climate change?
Lockeport Climate Change –
● With projected sea level rise and storm surges let’s think about:
○ Coastal assets and resources impacted by sea level rise including businesses, infrastructure, and buildings like The Beach Centre
○ Particularly, both sides of the causeway and access
● Seasonal changes
● Wells going dry
Lockeport’s Climate change economic threats –
● Lobster northern migration
● Saltwater intrusion
● Causeway failure –
a. Access for jobs, products, employers, 2017 Provincial stats: Lockeport fishery $12.7 million
b. Increases social isolation and mental health challenges
c. Reduced access to emergency services, schools and supplies: food, medication, and fuel
● New initiatives developing a diverse & vibrant local economy might be hampered ● No dedicated climate change and economic staff person
● Vulnerable intersection at sea level supporting infrastructure and a Nova Scotia Power substation where a loss of electricity shuts down our wastewater and drainage system
● How is the local environment changing, and what actions has the community taken on climate change, the energy transition, income security or community resilience?
Future-Proofing Lockeport began as a broad-based community discussion group to address both near and long term issues related to climate change. The Future-Proofing Lockeport group has been seen as an excellent example of a rural at-risk community beginning to discuss ways to safeguard their future. This group, comprising about 30 members, has begun to meet with regularity over the past 18 months, with a 6-month interruption in 2020 due to COVID. There’s been some community efforts around researching getting electric vehicle charging stations in Lockeport.
Lockeport has –
● Participated in Provincial and Atlantic studies on infrastructure vulnerabilities
● Restructured some vulnerable street sections and culverts and the trestle
● Replaced the Sewer Treatment Plant berm
● Commissioned a causeway engineering design study – Recommended realigning and raising causeway across the back harbour – 2017 cost: more than $1 million
● Initiated active transportation projects and installed LED lighting
● Participated in a climate change coastal erosion and vulnerability study
a. Assessed Lockeport’s coastal vulnerability to erosion by storm winds and increasing water depths
b. determined coastlines and buildings vulnerable to erosion and inundation c. suggested adaptation strategies
● Created Lockeport’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) and the Municipal Climate Change Action Plan (MCCAP)
● Created a salt marsh high school students and the Town monitored for 3 years when reinforcing an eroding road impacted fish habitat
What are the community’s strengths and/or assets?
● There are strong community values in helping each other with small town values of considering neighbours.
● There’s an attitude that people are resilient and adaptable.
● There’s a strong sense of home and appreciation for the beauty of the area.
● New residents, energy, ideas
● We support local businesses which generate a tax base important to Lockeport’s economic sustainability
● Natural beauty and tranquility, we’re walkable and have Five different beaches, we’re Environmentally friendly and are a home to some endangered species
● Presently the lobster industry is flourishing, we have large fishery employers and ice-free ports and harbour facilities
● We have a theatre, artists and musicians and we are steeped in history and tradition
E. About the conversation participants
Based on the criteria provided to you by the Green Resilience Project, who did you choose to invite to your conversation and why? How were participants engaged or invited?
Because Lockeport is quite small, outreach was far and wide to anyone who would be interested and available. However there was a concerted focus on capturing fisher families, newcomers, as well as some long term care home residents to hear from elders and youth. The focus on the fisher families offers a perspective and voice not often heard. Their livelihood and direct observations on climate change impact is most relevant. A local resident reached out to the community by making phone calls, in person visits and sending emails as well as using social media.
Who attended the conversation? Did your participant group reflect a range of lived experiences? Were any key community groups absent? Did you have high numbers of participants belonging to a certain community group? Did you make any specific considerations or accommodations to enable accessibility?
Youth from 10 years of age to 100 years of age had a conversation. There were fishers, self-employed, business owners, newcomers, youth, elders, town council. There was a good range of representation of the community in Lockeport.
We recognize that “diversity” is a measure that can vary by community—some communities may have wide diversity in age or occupation but not in race or gender, or vice versa—so here we are asking for your qualitative evaluation based on your familiarity with the community and conversation participants.
To complete this section, please summarize the preparatory work you did to determine who should be invited to the conversation. You can also draw on the identification forms filled out by participants during your conversation (which Project staff will send to you). You are welcome to include numeric data at your discretion and/or based on what you’d like to do with this report.
The Community Conversation
A brief description of what the conversation looked liked:
Conversation 1: In Person
● Where did it take place? The conversations took place in people’s homes, the town council chamber a long term care facility.
● How was it structured? We held conversations that lasted for about 1 hour to 1 hour and a half following some of the outline in the slide deck to guide the questions and to provide context. The groups were between 2-5 people at a time. We spoke with 23 people in total.
● Did you make any changes to the list of breakout group questions provided by the Green Resilience Project? No
● In your view, was the conversation a successful community event? Did you encounter any challenges while organizing it? Yes it was successful in that it brought people together to discuss a relevant and important issue that needs immediate attention. It is not an easy topic for local residents to be facing. Only a small percentage of potential participants actually participated. It appeared a large number of people were not interested in thinking about and discussing climate change and basic income questions. This may indicate denial or being overwhelmed by the topic. There also appeared to be a challenge for participants to connect the ideas of climate change and income security.
Conversation 2: Virtual
● There were 2 virtual sessions with 8 at one and 4 at the other.
● How was it structured? There was a slidedeck to guide people through the concepts and conversation questions. People shared all together since the numbers were quite low which didn’t require breakout sessions.
● Did you make any changes to the list of breakout group questions provided by the Green Resilience Project? No
● In your view, was the conversation a successful community event? Did you encounter any challenges while organizing it? Similarly to the in person conversation, it was successful in that it brought people together to discuss a relevant and important issue that needs immediate attention. It is not an easy topic for local residents to be facing.
What We Heard
This section summarizes participant responses to the questions asked during the conversation breakout sessions. For each question, please give a brief summary of the key points and ideas discussed across your breakout groups. Please include a selection of 5-10 anonymous quotes (total) to help illustrate key ideas.
A. How are the changes to our community’s environment and economy discussed in the introduction affecting you, your family or the community as a whole?
In person:
● The environmental impact of warming water and sea level rise is impacting the fishery.
“Global warming on the lobster fishery is moving the lobster north because of the colder water. There is a short term benefit to the economy. Eventually the species will be fished out since the demand is so high. Sea levels are rising. There is concern for a category 6 hurricane with oceans getting warmer.”
● Losing connection to the mainland with storm surges and sea levels rising will impact business and costs.
If we lose our connection to the mainland that would be a problem with my business – I don’t know how soon that will happen.
Connection to the mainland is the hot button. Many people drive in everyday. If we can’t get to work. There will be income issues.
The tide going over the dunes destroys households. Businesses will shut down, people will leave. No one wants to live in a town that’s flooded.
Hurricanes and tornadoes are getting closer and closer. We need a way out of our town in case of emergencies. There has to be a way to get out. We need infrastructure and income.
● The wells are drying up with dryer summers.
No one has seen in their lifetimes the wells going dry. There are more wells being drilled because of the drought.
Winters are the same and aren’t changing. Seeing differences in the summer. More humidity and extremes. We installed heat pumps in the house and thought we won’t be using heat pumps in the summer – but we are. Water is creeping up onto the lawn. Seeing more coastal flooding.
● Increased costs such as fuel.
Family finances, increased costs of driving, new wells, costs going up. Scared for the winter when heating with fossil fuels and increased costs. Change to electric vehicles. Ensure that electricity isn’t being made by coal.
Virtual:
● The sea level rise and wells drying up is deterring people from moving to the area. Environmental changes are a big expense.
After living in Lockeport for 5 months, I’ve been trying to convince my parents to move there, but of course, the impact of climate change on housing (e.g. wells, sea level rise, etc.) does make me feel a little reticent to be super gungho about encouraging them to move.
● Storm surges can easily wipe out the whole town. Concerns about long term sustainability.
There are supply chain issues, things aren’t as accessible. Building costs have gone up by 500%. You need to find a way to make it more locally available to produce it on our own. Finding a new creative system. The causeway, if that’s gone, Lockeport is gone. If a storm wipes that out. I don’t know what the town has to repair or stabilize it.
Biggest noticeable aspect is the sea level and storm surges and things that will cut you off from your community.
● New people are moving to the area
New people who are moving into our area have given a boost to both my job and to my husband’s job. These people seem to be moving here for the lifestyle and community. People are coming for big changes and looking for a different area to live in. People are leaving the cities for instance for a future.
B. How are these environmental and economic changes related to each other?
In person:
● The warming water has increased the catch, which has been good for the economy but this puts the species population at risk long term.
Environmental changes have benefitted fishers coming up here. Industry has been better because of climate change. Now it’s payday but in 20 years there might not be anything left.
Trudeau Government introduced licenses which doubled the catch in Lockeport when that happened. Bringing in the draggers- big boats making it less sustainable.
Farmers and lobsters, climate affects everything. There isn’t anything that it doesn’t affect. Tourism. There’s no separation between climate and economy.
● Sea level rising impacts the economy with people leaving.
The tide going over the dunes destroys households. Businesses will shut down, people will leave. No one wants to live in a town that’s flooded.
Virtual:
● The earth’s resources are finite
Everything is connected to whether we have a planet to live on. If humans take everything- we can’t continue to use the planet as a resource. The environment and climate should be our preeminent. We should have an economy to have our needs met based on resources. That’s why the climate is changing – we’re not using what we need.
I also think we’ve had this paradigm thinking that things are infinite. Not only are they not infinite. That we’ve taken more than we need. The more is better philosophy and be and get more and more – has created a global economy of where we are now. There’s no coincidence that there’s more respect to listen to Indigenous peoples around the world, not just in Canada on how they lived and survived. I think switching the way we think- the earth is no longer there as a resource.
● Environment and economy work together, and put a price tag that will impact people’s economics.
To mix the environment and economy – it has to work together. If you say you can save a beach or the natural environment- not many people care. But put an economic impact on people’s wallets– that’s what makes a change. When people hear about basic income, they think of socialism. They won’t change if it changes their pocket book. I’m from Switzerland. When I started talking about solar panels 15 years ago they thought I was an idiot because they said there wasn’t enough sun. There’s so much misconception. That’s the biggest and hardest to counteract. It’s the economic impact that will drive the changes in behaviour. It’s a small population.
● Environment and economy must come from political activism in shifting systemic structures.
Not everyone has the ability now to participate in activities toward climate change. It’s not feasible for a community to be part of banning bottled water when they don’t have access to clean water. The relationship between economics and ability to participate is that they can’t. It might look like subsidies. The individual is not enough. It has to be political activism and systemic structures.
● The fishing industry is not sustainable long term.
Lockeport revolves around the fishing industry, if climate change is affecting the lobster / fish stocks it’s affecting the income of it’s residents. Long term thinking would suggest that if that continues Lockeport is going to need to prepare to transition to another industry for a new source of economic growth.
● Focus on renewable energy sources
Renewable energy provides the most flexibility. Windmills in coastal communities make sense, hydroelectric to harness tidal flow. The weather in Lockport is getting warmer deeper into the fall and with the stretch of beach open there could be opportunity for solar as well. The difficulty is funding and educating members of the community on how to build and maintain those structures.
On UBI
“It’s about getting people aware and proactive and resilient. Before basic income, creating programs and services to rely less on something. It’s about being independent about being resilient in a crisis. It’s about building people up to be resilient themselves to respond to crises. Whether through programs such as green energy. Universal basic income is a great place to start. Pre-work needs to be done first. Manitoba model- pilot versus long term sustainability. Programs and fishers make hundreds of thousands and are still going on EI. Basic income needs a transition, what it means for everybody. What do you need to live? About awareness, our own financial security and what that means for every person.”
This is a good idea since you wouldn’t have to worry. Extra time would be used knitting or sewing. Help with whatever was going on such as volunteering.
It’s good for certain people. Anyone below the poverty line, and senior citizens. People shouldn’t be entitled to it. It should be for anyone struggling. I would work less, I would do more things – to get things going for people my age, walking programs for example. Especially young people starting out can’t afford the basics to live. They live with their parents.
The relationship with climate change and basic income would require a basic plan and outline.
I don’t see the relationship with climate change and basic income. I don’t classify us as struggling and it’s needed for people who can’t provide for their families. How would you regulate something like that? Welfare system – doesn’t work with people who can work but don’t. Everyone should be able to work.
I would like to help to do whatever is needed. I would like to help people and support families.
Not totally convinced with this working here. In a crisis, yes people would come together. Basic income discouraging – $30,000 you can see people doing other things…discouraging entrepreneurship. Why bother and people don’t work because of that.
The automatic responses are very negative. Income assistance prejudice — such difficult conversations. If they don’t understand it can be difficult.
I don’t think we’re ready for it until there’s more education about it. Everyone should understand it. Conversations help with that.
Let’s talk about Universality and why it’s important. Universal health care is important and can be compared.
C. What are some possible solutions to the challenges we’ve discussed that will help the community respond to climate change and create income security for all community members?
In person:
● Set up regulations
Have regulations that control the size of the boats to diminish fuel consumption. Slowing down the harvest. Smaller boat and engine. Sustainable livelihood. Regulate greed.
● Create incentives and affordability
Have solar panels at a reasonable cost. The cost is prohibitive. Incentives would be helpful.
Government incentives, people are trying to move back but can’t because of the real estate boom.
I need to drive to get to work. I don’t drive a big gas gusler. When I can afford alternative powered vehicles I would choose that but it’s inaccessible — also there are no charging stations in Lockeport.
● Develop renewable energy sources for people to access
Work with the tide for energy. Develop our own energy, tidal, wind, solar, Lockeport has access to this all around us. I would be concerned about energy coming from a pipe. Berwick, Antigonish and others have their own energy systems. It’s expensive, it can be done individually working with the Province/Fed. Price of coal can go up and make it inaccessible or burn the forest down- which isn’t right.
● Continue having community conversations and engagements; community regeneration
Futureproofing Lockeport group was good and would love to see that resurface. To get more people involved again to come out to meetings. The group had a good representation of various stakeholders.
● Help each other; look into micropolis
We’re so used to having 2 cars, 45-60,000. Are we going to have a truck that will cost 30,000 instead or to carpool more to save on gas? We need to outreach and help each other. I know people who help the elderly to do groceries for example. Becoming more inclusive of each other. When people are in need we will be there to help each other. Lockeport is a helping community. I’ve written 60 poems about the kindness of people in Lockeport.
In the US, they have microopulus– which is a region where everything is together and needed in a community– we don’t have them in Canada.
● Get politically involved
Tax the wealthy to source the solar panel and renewable energy sources. Get it into politics. Protesting.
● Have more resources available made locally
We need more services nearby to not leave the community. For example ice rinks.
Lockeport used to have a shoe store. During Covid everyone went online and stopped buying and used less transportation. Taxes, we pay over $20,000– Amazon doesn’t pay any taxes avoiding the local taxation system. Shipping rates should be higher to support local businesses. Tax money.
Small scale solar manufacturing. Make solar panels here.
Virtual:
● Renewable energy transition
Renewables in Lockeport makes a lot of sense. It’s a small coastal community on the ocean. Wind. I know in Bay of Fundy produced turbines. Tidal is massive there. Not sure if it would work in Lockeport. With wells drying up, perhaps the more sunlight in summer – a grant can cover more solar panels on residents roofs. Decrease power bill for more folks.
Solar powered cars. Using hydro as long as it doesn’t harm the fish/lobster. Sidewalks aren’t the easiest to walk around since they’re not very wide.
Families can’t afford to put solar panels on their homes. I would have to save before I can afford to put solar panels. Having more water access, a free water filling station was made available to everyone. Not sure if that’s even possible in Lockeport.
● Removing restrictions/barriers
We should think about building things, as it was suggested, but also removing barriers to activities and resources that could also encourage more individual climate and economic resiliency. For example, when Hamilton put into place its green bin program, it allowed ALL residents of Hamilton, whether they used the green bin or not, to come to the compost centre to pick up free compost. They could fill their trucks, bins, whatever, take as much as they wanted, and it encouraged folks to actually participate in the composting program (i.e. less things going to the landfill). While I was in Lockeport, I heard the dump closed its doors to folks coming to get items, many of which were still good quality and usable for things like building. So removing a barrier could be removing this restriction again, and perhaps going a step further and creating a job of sorting through items that come to the dump so the good items CAN be reused.
In Europe, you can rent or buy part of your roof as a business. Is the Govt and Corp willing to do that? We would have to get that approved in the first place. It requires education and that it isn’t status quo. NS Power won’t allow it probably because of regulations.
● Start planning to transition and relocate residents
There’s also the concept that we need to tackle that people may not want to talk about. Lockeport’s position on the coast with rising sea levels is a very precarious one and long term there may need to be a hard discussion about whether or not Lockeport is even sustainable as the climate crisis continues. As dark and unfortunate as it is we may be past the point of being able to be proactive and we might need to consider reactive options such as transitioning residents away from the area as unfortunate and sad as that is to say.
● Develop partnerships, pilot programs, entrepreneurship
Conversations like this is not something we can solve as a single community. Entrepreneurship is a way forward. A mass crisis shows systemic structural issues. Coastal issues are shared all over the world– moving path toward – are there partnerships that can be made, such as lobbying, etc.. Are there opportunities, capacities, local education institutions, NS Power, beta pilot programs? Creative solutioning will need to play a pivotal role. There’s no point fighting that we will lose. It will take a lot of big pieces/parts for real change to happen. Pivoting will be important for the fishing industry, change comes with growing pains. If we know climate change is going to impact fisheries, why continue to support it? I don’t think we should shy away. It’s going to consider greater partnerships and levers to get the support we need. It’s a commonality across all of NS. Sustainability of towns and communities.
We need to work with many partners and collaborators such as our Indigenous Peoples who have a lot of knowledge about the planet.
● Develop alternative agriculture other than fishing
Community food security. We can be more regional and support people in the Province with community supported agriculture. Harvesting other things from the sea with what is available without over taking. Our ability to support one another within the Province. How are we going to pull this together?
D. How do you think these solutions can be achieved to build, maintain or strengthen community resilience? Who is responsible for these changes—individuals, community groups, governments or a mix?
In person:
● The systems change needs to be in the schools, in the municipal buildings, to be showing an example within the institutions.
● It has to be the whole country. There’s nothing we can do in Lockeport to change the ocean. We can care for garbage from going in the sea. The bigger picture is that it has to come from industry.
● Locals and companies are leaving us and going to China and elsewhere. Everybody, consumers, politicians, Canadians going to the US. People need to shop locally but it’s cost prohibitive. When shopping elsewhere to drive there, burning gas to get it.
● Readiness and buy-in from the local Government, and someone needs to be paying for it. Without much money. It’s all bandaids for everything without any long term solutions . ● It would need to be everybody working together to get it done.
● Need to have pride in where you live and take responsibility. Many small groups can engage.
Virtual:
● Municipal engagement
We need to see more happening from the Municipalities. Municipal initiatives- there are many within NS. 51 of them. That would be incredibly powerful if they came together. There can be volunteer components. So much more can be contributed by citizens.
You need a consistent presence with the knowledge and skills and leadership. Giving every municipality a job with that focus– that would make a big difference.
● Financial support
It comes down to money. With such a tiny tax base… right now the industry is flourishing. All fishers are able to pay their taxes to the town. If the industry flounders and employers– it’s how the town keeps going. It’s all the people connected to fisheries that support the local businesses. We need to be thinking incredibly hard about how to not depend on the lobster. We need to do more preemptive work.
Is there a way for someone to seek out different grants, and initiatives of what’s already available. What can we do with seaweed and algae for example? Who does that?
How do we share in a way that it benefits everyone rather than an adversarial – partnering and cooperating and forming cooperatives is critically important.
● Create a community driven economy
From the point of view of keeping money in one’s pocket, it would be best if individuals do it themselves. The price of power would not change if done by corporations– price will stay the same. To help and move on, you have to take it away from Corporations.
It would be nice if you could get some kind of collaboration. It removes responsibility from the community. A partnership would be nice, but it has to be one that the community has a voice.
Energize Bridgewater is being led by the community, Tatamagouche and Summerside have a lot of community led transitions. If we own things it makes it much more meaningful.
Kind of like food, if healthy food was cheaper it would be more appealing. If we could do that with green energy then people would be more apt to participate. Then we market our community as a zero net community. How wonderful would it be to be recognized in that way.
People need a buy-in. Otherwise they won’t. Go back to the stories and meaningful insight where do people want to go with their lives to meet those needs and ideas in ways that support the climate?
Maybe looking into how affinity group activism/cooperation has worked in the past? Because change can’t just be top down. The vision needs to be multifaceted with people all contributing in their own unique ways.
● Individual responsibility in creating change
We should all be responsible in helping to make changes.I like to think that we all as individuals can do whatever we can think of to do this work – If you work on “hearts and minds” Change can happen.
Please give a brief analysis of your conversation, drawing on your conversation data as well as the evaluation forms participants filled out at the end of the conversation (which Project staff will send to you). Your response should answer these questions.
● Please summarize your perspective on the key points you listed in section two. Why were they important? Were they brought up frequently, met with contention, surprising to you or your facilitators, etc.? Was there a strong consensus on any of the key points? You are welcome to expand on any key points you find especially interesting.
There were varying opinions and understanding on the key questions. There was not an obvious link for people to be making between the key concepts. Those who are already involved in the issues understood but also questioned how a basic income would roll out in Lockeport. Many have the view that a basic universal income is like CERB and see that people will not work and will cost more in taxes. The culture has a strong work ethic especially among the fishers, therefore the concept was difficult to grasp and support. It was clear that more education and invitations for having more conversations is needed since we spoke with people who are not exposed to these concepts/ideas. It was possible because we went directly to them or they could come to a community member’s house which was more personable — but more work, but it seemed to be the only and best way to reach people.
● To what extent do you think your conversation built a wider and deeper understanding of the links and synergies between community resilience, livelihoods, income security and the low-carbon transition? Please explain your response.
○ 1 – Not at all
○ 2
○ 3 I think it was half/half with some people being familiar with this work and concepts and others it was new to be linking these ideas together. I think these conversations opened the door to begin thinking about it more rather than having a wider and deeper understanding since this was new for most. I think follow up engagements would build a wider and deeper understanding.
○ 4
○ 5 – Very much so
● To what extent did participants demonstrate increased awareness of climate change and their own capacity for climate action? Please explain your response.
○ 1 – Not at all
○ 2
○ 3 Most people were aware of climate change, some were not, which increased their awareness. Direct climate action did not come up in the conversations.
○ 4
○ 5 – Very much so
● To what extent were new relationships between community partners and conversation participants created and fostered? Please explain your response.
○ 1 – Not at all
○ 2
○ 3 People became aware of Future Proofing Lockeport and the Centre for Local Prosperity.
○ 4
○ 5 – Very much so
● To what extent did your conversation create opportunities to foster ongoing discussion of solutions related to climate change, income insecurity and community resilience? Please explain your response.
○ 1 – Not at all
○ 2
○ 3
○ 4 Every conversation expressed interest in continuing the conversation on all the topics and concepts discussed.
○ 5 – Very much so
● In your opinion, what does the community need to do next in order to build or maintain resilience in the face of climate change and rising income insecurity?
The community needs funding to hire a point person to hold the volunteers and continue the conversations with speakers and other gatherings. This role would help develop a master plan with strategies around a just transition that addresses all the intersecting issues that have been discussed.
The community can also begin to develop partnerships with surrounding areas to leverage resources. Reinitiating The Future-Proofing Lockeport group.
Next steps
Did conversation participants identify next steps for continuing the conversation, or continuing advocacy related to the topics covered in the conversation? What were they?
There was expressed interest from each conversation that people wanted to continue having the conversation.
As the community partner organization, do you have a plan for continued advocacy on the topics explored in your community conversation? Are you able to share your plan with us at this time, and whether or how conversation participants might contribute to that plan?