Squamish's morning agenda including an introductory overview of Squamish - A Compact Liveable Community, lead by SSC Managing Director Brent Leigh. This image based 45min presentation was followed by an overview of the Smart Growth on the Ground guiding principles by Amanda Mitchell of Smart Growth BC. These guiding principles have been so important in the communties recent Downtown Neighbourhood Plan (available in PDF form in this site) and pending OCP adoption. The 1.5hr presentation, held in the Adventure Centre theatre, was capped off by an informative tour of the Smart Bylaws Guide (available online at www.wcel.org) as well as best practices law and policy pertaining to municipalities desire to make their bylaws and policies more sustainable with Susan Rutherford of West Coast Environmental Law.

From there, the delegation boarded a bus and experienced a light-hearted visionary styled rolling tour of downtown with municipal Planners Cameron Chalmers and Sabina Foofat.

The entire morning wasn't without its injection of Squamish Logger pride as Mr. Bryan Couture , President of Squamish Days Logger Sports (www.squamishdays.org), treated the entire delegation to his own unique talents in chain saw chair carving. One lucky representative from Washington DC was gifted the chair.

FCM Centre for Sustainable Community Development offers financial services and resources to Canadian municipal governments to improve environmental performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
Their mission is to demonstrate municipal leadership in sustainable community development by working with partners to implement holistic decision-making, planning processes and innovative projects.

From August 17 to August 22, 2008 the FCM Sustainable Communities Mission will bring a delegation of municipal decision-makers on a series of study tours of leading sustainable community development projects in British Columbia.

The delegation will visit sites in the city of Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, the resort municipality of Whistler, the city of Victoria and the Capital Regional District. They will visit Olympic sites such as the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village and the Whistler Athlete's Village.

Through presentations and site visits delegates will have the opportunity to learn about leading land-use and sustainable urban planning practices, green buildings, brownfield remediation, waste-to-energy systems and much more.

The objectives of the Mission are:
- to provide municipal officials with a learning experience that will demonstrate how sustainable community development generates economic and environmental benefits
- to learn how the public and private sector in British Columbia have used policies, programs and technologies to create sustainable communities
- to provide a venue for municipal delegates to exchange information with their British Columbia counterparts about local and national issues related to sustainable community development
- to learn about state-of-the-art green energy installations and sustainable practices in a Canadian context

Through site visits and presentations, the Mission will showcase world-class technologies and practices adopted by British Columbia municipalities. Participants will be exposed to many aspects of sustainable community development including:
- local and provincial energy and environmental policies and strategies
- renewable energy supply and district energy systems
- land-use and sustainable urban planning practices
- site planning, building design, and energy efficiency
- infrastructure design and efficiency
- sustainable waste management practices

Visit the FCM Centre for Sustainable Community Development at

http://www.sustainablecommunities.fcm.ca/files/missions/bc_2008/e-bulletin_21_aug_en.pdf