As of 2021, 73.7% of Canada\u2019s population resides in urban environments (Statistics Canada, 2022). Municipalities are important sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and they often are the first to experience the disastrous impacts related to climate change (Affairs, 2019; Dale et al., 2020). In Canada, 653 jurisdictions from all levels representing 100% of the Canadian population have declared a climate emergency (Climate Emergency Declaration, 2024). Municipalities are critically positioned to respond to climate change and other environmental challenges due to rising populations in urban areas, as well as the tangible nature of municipal jurisdictions (Statistics Canada, 2022, see section 1.2). Municipalities, as key actors in local governance, are well positioned to play a significant role in addressing these challenges through the implementation of effective policies and initiatives aligned with the Planetary Health Framework (Statistics Canada, 2022, see section 1.4).<\/p>\n
Under British Columbia\u2019s Local Government Act (2024), municipalities can choose to enact an optional bylaw entitled an Official Community Plan (OCP) (District of Sooke, 2022), which is a long-range (20-30 years) visionary document that guides municipal decision-making. Once an OCP is adopted, municipalities must ensure their bylaws and actions are aligned with the plan. The OCP establishes policies that guide the locations of \u201chomes, businesses and industry, agriculture, and parks and other public spaces\u201d while directly affecting \u201ctransportation choices, housing affordability and options, community character, protection of ecological and agricultural areas, resource management, economic vitality, and financial costs associated with paying for District services such as pipes and streets\u201d (District of Sooke, 2022, p. 18). Once enacted, all Sooke municipal policy formulation and implementation must align with the OCP.<\/p>\n
The OCP applies to the whole Sooke municipal area and \u201csupports areas of mutual understanding between the District of Sooke and the T\u2019Sou-ke Nation\u201d(District of Sooke, 2022, p. 19). The partnership with the T\u2019Sou-ke Nation was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding in 2007 and represents a nation-to-nation relationship in areas of the \u201cprovision of services, land use planning and development, heritage sites and cultural protection, shared and cross-boundary issues, shared services, and economic opportunities\u201d (District of Sooke, 2022, p. 23). T\u2019Sou-ke Nation, as represented by the Te\u2019mexw Treaty Association, is in modern treaty negotiations with the federal and provincial governments since 1994 regarding matters of governance, harvesting, lands, resources and fiscal issues(District of Sooke, 2022).<\/p>\n
The objective of this project is to assess whether and under what conditions the OCP will contribute to planetary health. This evaluation used a theory-based approach relying on a mixed-methods approach, that combined document analysis, focus groups, and questionnaires. This methodology provided a comprehensive understanding of the OCP\u2019s strengths, potential risks, and areas for improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["astridbrousselle","kai-mountfort"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[61,63],"license":[],"class_list":["post-362","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless","contributor-astridbrousselle","contributor-kai-mountfort"],"part":359,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/362\/revisions\/703"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/359"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/362\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}