Business View Magazine | January 2020

253 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 MUNI C I PAL I TY OF THE DI STR I CT OF DIGBY , NOVA SCOT I A Digby, explains, “ Over the last eight years we’ve been working on a myriad of projects including the anaerobic digester and installing wind turbines for the municipality. We converted 859 street lights to LED which will save $1 million in operational costs over 20 years, and the region also provides access to five electric vehicle charging stations. We are in the process, now, of installing five weather stations for climate- related purposes. They will have functions involving barometric pressure and wind speed, and solar sensors, but, more importantly, we’re installing tidal sensors to give us a sense of sea level rise in five areas that are prone to sea level changes and incoming tides and floods and erosion. It’s quite an aggressive opportunity for us to predict the future effects from climate change.” MacAlpine adds, “With regard to the tidal gauges, the Council felt this was important to do because we have a lot of communities in the municipality that are at risk because of rising sea levels. We’re seeing the impact of climate change – especially in Bear River, where the bottom of the bridge connecting the community is already under water at high tide. So, we have to pull together the evidence to, hopefully, get higher government agencies to make investments here to help mitigate the impact on communities.” In another nod to sustainability, a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program was implemented, where the municipality will finance, through residential property taxes, the installation of energy-efficient upgrades to homes, including windows, doors, insulation, heat pumps, and electric thermal storage units. In terms of services, the Municipality of Digby is a great place to live and grow. It has superb recreational facilities, including a municipal arena, a swimming pool, several sports fields, a