Final Pecha Kucha event held last Thursday

After a few cold weeks off, Jasper’s Community Sustainability Plan got up and rolling again with the third and final Pecha Kucha idea-sharing event on Jan. 22, which was attended by about 40 people.

Pecha Kucha is traditionally a format comprised of 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each but, as Chris Garnham, vice-chair of the Working Group, was quick to explain during his introduction to the session, the organizers were more than happy for people to bend those guidelines.

And that they did. The opening presentation of the evening was by eleven Grade 7 and 8 students from Ecoles Deschoers who dressed up and acted out a Dr. Seuss Pecha Kucha.

The brightly-coloured costumes featured Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss, the Children, the Mom, Thing 1, Thing 2 and a Fish. Their presentation, which was developed as part of their English Language Arts class with teacher Kim Wallace, touched on topics such as water usage, takeaway containers, composting, plastic bags and reducing waste. Their unique and entertaining presentation stole the evening.

Garnham said he was thrilled by the innovative presentation. “There was a lot of work being done by the teacher involved but the kids as well: that was just a delight,” he said. “It’s thrilling for people like me that offer up an opportunity and when somebody picks it up and runs with the ball like that’s just fun. That was really marvelous stuff.”

One other presentation was new to the forum, about a cost-benefit analysis with a stringent focus on the distribution of cost: who will pay and who will be rewarded? John Wilmshurt’s presentation highlighted the need for the Mr. Burnses (a wealthy character on television show The Simpsons) of Jasper to help support the town’s move toward sustainability.

Ron Hooper, chair of the Working Group, said that three Pecha Kuchas have helped the committee to “engage students and people who traditionally haven’t come out to public meetings ... a group of people in a way that we would never have heard participate otherwise. It allows people to have a comprehensive view. It gives them a forum to articulate their vision.” Hooper said that the Working Group was amazed with the amount of effort people put into their presentations.

Next on the agenda for the sustainability plan is two public workshops on Feb. 11 and 12 hosted by the Working Group. The aim for the two evenings will be to discuss and establish goals for the next 30 years.

The goals will be based around eight different themes, with four discussed each evening. The themes include natural environment; land use planning and development; housing; tourism and local economic development; transportation; municipal services (water/energy/waste management/emergency services); recreation culture, health and well being; and governance.

Hooper said the themes fall into the five pillars of sustainability. Plus, he said, the Working Group used “everything we’ve heard from residents who’ve participated. Every topic that has come up we’ve divided into themes that are important to this community. Housing, for example, was so important that we made it a separate theme.”

Background information will be available to the public prior to the meetings. Hooper said the group is trying to keep the background papers to less than four pages per person and will be available in only English, but should the need arise they would provide them in French as well.

The implementation of the goals will be discussed on Mar. 25 and 26 when the Working Group will hold two more public sessions.