A Word from the Mayor
In 2015 the 10 Mayors of Canterbury Mackenzie, Waitaki, Waimate, Timaru, Ashburton, Selwyn, Christchurch city, Waimakariri, Hurunui and Kaikoura and the Chair of Environment Canterbury initiated a forum to promote a working better together philosophy.
In 2019 the Mayoral forum agreed to broaden its scope from economic development to sustainable development across the four interdependent aspects of wellbeing (environmental, economic, social and cultural)
The Mayoral forum identified five priority issues to lead, facilitate and advocate for
- The sustainable environmental management of habitats – land, air, water and ecosystems
- A shared economic prosperity – adding value to primary production, tourism, retaining our skilled workforce.
- Better freight transport options – improve road safety, reduce wear and tear on our region’s roads.
- Climate change mitigation and adaptation – building community resilience, reducing carbon footprint.
- Three waters services – sustainable management of drinking water, wastewater, and storm water in Canterbury.
In 2009 the Mayoral forum launched the Canterbury Water Management strategy (CWMS) which was a foundation principle of the Hurunui Waiau zone committee, and one that we will work through as our current zone committee reviews it function and purpose as a joint committee of Ecan and Hurunui District council. Many hours have been spent over the past 10 years by community members but now it is timely to take stock and consider the future.
To strengthen our considerable advantages the Mayors and Chair want to build on our collective strengths and create a better and more sustainable future by diversifying and adding value to our agricultural production by improving market resilience along with reducing environmental impacts. The Mayoral forum for some time now has consistently advocated for a multi modal freight network that increases the regions resilience to natural disasters and efficient movement of freight, currently more than 90% of freight tonnage moves by truck.
Mitigation and adaptation to focus on the changes in weather patterns underpins the priority to measure the impacts of more frequent droughts, flooding, coastal erosion and increased fire risk.
The three waters reform – Central government is working with local government to review service delivery and funding arrangements for the economic regulation of 3 waters services. Our council has accepted the first tranche of funding that provides the stimulus to deliver water services to our communities we will keep you well informed as we progress this huge piece of work.
For further information you can see our website: http://canterburymayors.org.nz.