INNISFAIL – Todd Becker is candid when he discusses the challenges municipalities face over energy, specifically the battering all receive by today’s escalating costs.
“I'll be bold enough to say there is a threat. But now I need to understand how large of a threat that is and this is not just for Innisfail. This is for all communities,” said Becker, the chief administrative officer for the Town of Innisfail. “But I want to know how that's going to impact Innisfail; what other social issues are going to come forward.”
Becker is currently tasked to find solutions for this problem from his recent appointment as a fellow with Energy Future Labs (EFL); an Alberta-centred coalition of innovators, leading organizations and stakeholders across the energy system who are collaboratively developing solutions for a low-emission and socially equitable energy future.
In partnership with EFL, the municipality through its own Innisfail Energy Hub initiative, was selected as the sole host of the 2022-23 Energy Futures Roadshow program; a series of four community-led workshops that began last year, and continuing until its final one on March 9.
“We are here to help them realize their ambitions within this realm and expand their understanding of what's possible,” said Juli Rohl, an EFL facilitator at Innisfail’s Jan. 24 roadshow workshop. “The participants are so engaged. This is forefront in their minds, which is amazing.
“The more people we can mobilize, the more collaboratively we can bring people together,” she added. “And so, the story shouldn't be finished by March 9. That should just be the beginning of the story.”
The first three Innisfail roadshow workshops included focus areas of government relations strategy, Innisfail community energy conversations, Innisfail Energy Hub, Innisfail’s upcoming 2023 Spring Trade Show and energy education.
“The intent of the energy conversations is to engage with different stakeholders in the community, and then get their feedback on how energy is impacting them, whether it is a small business or a social organization, or a housing developer,” said Becker. “It’s to understand what they are they doing to mitigate the increasing cost of energy. Are they aware of who to contact regarding energy technologies to help them be more efficient?”
Becker noted the roadshow also had initial discussions of energy inequity, specifically around the increased energy costs and how that could create new social challenges.
“We’re learning more of energy as it advances. It’s going to create social impacts; one can be a social benefit by placing a revenue stream into the social needs of the community but there’s also a social threat,” said Becker. “If people are forced to either pay their energy bill or buy prescription drugs for the benefit of their health, then there's the potential of social inequities to be even larger if we don't understand the impact of what's going on with energy.”
For the past two years Innisfail has been a provincial leader in looking at ways to mitigate escalating energy costs by transitioning towards alternative sources, notably solar energy.
With that, there is the growing transitioning by the town and many other jurisdictions away from traditional oil and gas, which in Alberta is always a controversial and worrisome issue.
However, EFL believes common ground can be found between the two sides of the debate.
“We naturally kind of break that polarization cycle through the work that we do,” said Rohl. “We bring people together intentionally that are on the opposite ends of that spectrum; to find ways that they can agree to move forward together and that's what breaks the polarization.
“It's not us telling you one thing or the other or somebody convincing somebody else,” she added. “It's finding a project you can work on together; that you both agree can bring us towards a future that you want to live in.”
Stefan Labrecque, the principal at Innisfail’s St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School, was asked to speak at Innisfail’s Jan. 24 roadshow workshop from an “educational lens” perspective, and how to engage youth.
Before last Christmas his K to 9 school hosted an Energy Fair where young students had an opportunity to have an interactive experience by looking at alternative sources of energy.
“Even though kids might not always understand the complexities of the conversation or the shift that Innisfail is having, when you engage them with some critical thinking, some design thinking challenges and present them the topic and language they understand and can embrace, they come up with some really, really good ideas,” said Labrecque.
He added the energy discussion is also an important part of the school’s social justice call; the sense of stewardship it has within the community.
“Understanding those shifts, the impact, the necessity behind it, the potential for new jobs and economic system shifting, that's really important in our overall curriculum," he said.
