A not-for-profit advocacy group for cycling and active transportation in Sarnia has offered to pay for city officials to learn and study from global leaders in the field in the Netherlands.
“We sort of know about the Dutch Cycling Embassy as kind of the best globally for all things active transportation and urban planning,” said nuSarnia Foundation executive director Tristan Bassett.
“When we found out that they also offer a work study tour with the opportunity for delegates to come to them and experience their infrastructure and see how it can be done successfully, we knew that would be a significant value add to the work the city is doing.”
Sarnia city council in July budgeted $175,000 for the city’s active transportation master plan to make the city more friendly for pedestrians and cyclists.
The project, currently out for tender, is expected to take until the end of 2023 to complete once awarded, city operations and engineering general manager David Jackson said.
“Once completed, it will be up to this council to approve funding for the suggested projects and infrastructure enhancements” in the plan, Bassett said, in a recorded message to council.
Her group recently offered $2,500 — for travel, meals and lodging — per person for a group, including the mayor, councilors and senior city staff, to head to the Netherlands for three days next June.
The embassy is already used by the city as a consultant on active transportation projects like the Confederation Street pathway, she said.
“To be able to match that (technical expertise) with the cultural and behavioral side of things, where people can tangibly see, touch, feel and experience the outcome of that type of planning, we just felt that was a really important complement to the work that the city is already doing,” Bassett said.
City council unanimously voted recently to support the offer, pending further details and the OK from the city’s integrity commissioner.
count. Dave Boushy was absent.
“I don’t think there” are any issues with accepting; “I just want to make sure,” said Mayor Mike Bradley about checking first. He also thanked Bassett for the offer.
count. Brian White called it an incredible opportunity, comparing it to trade missions politicians and business leaders go on to attract investment.
“I just think it’s a critical opportunity for us to better equip ourselves with as much knowledge as possible,” he said.
Bassett expects about 15 people will go, including community members that the foundation will ask to submit grant applications for the final spots once the number of council members and senior city staff going is finalized.
More details are expected in a report to council Dec. 12, Jackson said
Community applications could open as early as Dec. 13, Bassett added.
“It’s really important for us to not only provide this experience to the elected officials and the city staff, but also the community who’s going to benefit from the work that’s happening here,” she said.
Details will be provided through the group’s Facebook page and a pending website, she said, while the grants provided for community members will be less than $2,500.
“Hopefully, we’ve got an abundance of interest,” she said.
The group is also funding an extra fee of about €8,000 for the work study tour, she said.
All the money is directly from group members, she said.
“There’s a group of local, born-and-raised Sarnia philanthropists who’ve come together to really give back to the community,” she said about the foundation.
Representatives from municipalities in Europe and the United States, some with backing from groups like hers, have also made the trip, she said.
The Dutch Cycling Embassy “run three to four of these work study tours per week,” she said.
The foundation, which has a three-person board of directors, has previously helped fund Bluewater International Gronfondo Youth Spokes and Mitton Village Block Party initiatives, as well as put up temporary dividers along a section of the Colborne Road bike lane, dividing the lane from traffic, and organized Sarnia’s inaugural participation in Park(ing) Day.