Municipality of Shelburne
“Building a sustainable future today!” is the Municipality of Shelburne’s motto, a statement that is at once forward-looking and rooted in the community’s tradition of self-sufficiency.
“We’ve always relied on our own assets and our own people, partly because of the geographical area that we’re in,” says Kirk Cox, chief administrative officer for the municipality which has a population of over 4,800, with communities from Sable River to Clyde River in Southwest Nova Scotia.
Take, for example, Shelburne Harbour, which Cox says is the third deepest natural harbour in the world. The harbour is intrinsic to the area’s traditional fishing industry, but it’s also being used in a new way.
“The project we’re working on now is linking a cluster of institutions and the adjacent industrial park with a district energy system which uses the harbour as a heat source and also a cooling source in the summer. At the same time, we’re looking at the feasibility of incorporating some wind energy,” says engineering consultant Emily Tipton, who’s been involved in developing a strategic environmental sustainability plan and other projects for the municipality.
Cox says early next year an energy strategy will be launched across the municipality which “will be matching our energy needs with an energy plan so the municipality can become more sustainable when it comes to energy usage.”
“Eat local” is another familiar concept long practised by the municipality which declared 2009 the Year of the Lobster, largely in recognition of its economic importance. “Our area is very much rooted in the fishing industry – that’s been the main industry for generations,” Cox says. “I know it’s topical for communities to talk about local food movements, but we’ve been practising that for 150 years.”
They are adopting new approaches as well. For example, there are now two community gardens in the municipality. One of them is being started on the property of Shelburne Regional High School. “It’s incorporating the local food movement and giving students the opportunity to learn about where their food comes from and how it’s grown,” Cox says. Last spring marked the introduction of two successful community markets where local growers, fish vendors and artisans sell their products.
When asked where the municipality wants to go from here, Cox says: “We want to grow the economy and provide opportunities for people who are here, but we want to do it in a way that is sustainable and reflects our traditional industries and practices. If you look at the project at the industrial park, it’s a mix of using the harbour in a way that we’ve used it in the past – as an economic generator – and doing it in a way that’s sustainable and does not compromise the way our community is.”
This sense of community, which is front and centre at the popular breakfasts held by community halls throughout the municipality, is important to families like Cox’s who have lived in Shelburne for generations. It is also meaningful for the young people and retirees who are choosing to move to the area. They hail from Ontario to Texas, British Columbia to the United Kingdom.
“If you were to ask the people who have moved here in the last 10 years about why they came, I would bet 90 per cent would say it’s the quality of life,” says Cox. He cites attractions such as the municipality’s active arts centre and beautiful white sand beaches. “We have young professionals that are moving here who have jobs like consulting or other professions where they can work anywhere in the world, and they choose to come here and work from home.”
Tipton and her husband, Guy, an electronics engineer, moved to the town of Shelburne from Oxford, England. When they were on their honeymoon in Nova Scotia five years ago, they were told about sailing in Shelburne. For Guy, who was on the British sailing team, it was an immediate match. Today he telecommutes to the United Kingdom and runs the sailing school at the local yacht club on a volunteer basis. He and Emily have two young children.
Emily says, for her and her family, living in Shelburne represents “a huge improvement in our quality of life. It means we get infinitely more time together as a family because we aren’t commuting anymore. We’ve also learned a lot about community since coming here. We really value having a high level of participation in the community because that has its own rewards.”
