Moncton Wins National Awards For Its Immigration Strategy And Avenir Centre
QUEBEC – The Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) presented the city of Moncton with the Willis Award for Innovation for its immigration strategy and the Environment Award for Avenir Centre on Wednesday.
CAMA presents three awards at its national conference each year, two of them being the Willis Award and the Environment Award. A total of 35 small, mid-sized and large municipalities submitted applications for the awards. Moncton led in the mid-size city category (20,0001 to 100,000 population) for both awards. Four other municipalities won the same awards for the large and small population categories.
“They were awarded these two awards in front of their peers,” said Jennifer Goodine, executive director of CAMA. “CAMA is an association of 650 members, and to be recognized nationally by your peers is quite excellent and they should be pretty proud of the best practices that they have.”
The Willis Award for Innovation is given to programs, projects or services that show “exceptional innovation or meritorious initiative.” It’s granted to communities according to the size of their population.
As one of the few mid-sized cities to have a formal immigration strategy, Moncton plays a leading and coordinating role in bringing together various stakeholders the area of immigration, giving it a reputation as a national leader, according to a press release. That strategy has doubled the bilingual city’s number of incoming immigrants between 2013 and 2017, and immigration now represents the top source of population growth for the municipality.
Its next immigration strategy for 2019-2024 is being developed currently.
Working with its regional partners, the city led the creation and implementation of the strategy that also covers Dieppe and Riverview. Its key actions include starting the Greater Moncton Local Immigration Partnership; holding newcomer and international student employment fairs, which has filled more than 270 positions; hosting of welcome events for newcomers and international students; and creating the city’s first immigration grant for innovative projects to implement the strategy further.
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Moncton also won the Environment Award for Avenir Centre and its adjacent plaza and skating oval as an energy-efficient, multi-use sports facility and community gathering space. The centre was designed to be 45 per cent more energy efficient than the National Energy Code, and it meets Green Globe Standards.
Avenir Centre, which costs more than $110 million to build, was constructed on a space that was formerly a shopping mall and occupied by the Canadian National Railway before that.
Environmental assessment of the site showed the presence of soil and groundwater impacts at concentrations above applicable environmental guidelines. So, it required on-site risk management measures including a soil vapour mitigation system to prevent the movement of potentially harmful vapours from impacted soil and groundwater to the indoor air.
By doing so, the city avoided excavating the land and transporting impacted soil, thus preventing significant Greenhouse Gas emissions. The downtown site was chosen in line with the city’s plan to revitalize and densify the downtown core.
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