Community owned energy projects are happening all across Atlantic Canada – episode 4 will feature a panel discussion/interview with Dylan Heide from the Town of Mahone Bay, Gerald Giroux Gaudet from the City of Summerside, Glen Fillmore from St. John Energy (all of which are members of the Maritime Municipal Electric Utilities Alliance (MMEUA), and Ray Robinson from Alternative Resource Energy Authority (AREA). Join us to learn about the importance of locally-owned and operated energy systems, and a few of the ongoing projects across the region! We will begin with an interview/panel discussion, followed by a Q&A.
Dylan Heide – Town of Mahone Bay
Dylan Heide is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Mahone Bay on Nova Scotia’s beautiful South Shore. He formerly served as Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Shelburne Nova Scotia. Dylan has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Dalhousie University. Having grown up in Mahone Bay and working in the municipal sector in Nova Scotia for nearly two decades, Dylan has a passion for small communities and how they tackle big challenges with limited financial and human resources. Dylan also serves as Chair of the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network.
Gerald Giroux – City of Summerside
Gerald Giroux is an experienced electrical engineer with a comprehensive career in various engineering roles since 1992, recently at Summerside Electric since February 2018. Gerald currently serves as the Smart Grid Engineer for Summerside Electric and is responsible for providing technical sales support to customers of the City of Summerside, serving as the municipal services customer operations supervisor, managing the business origination, sales, installations, and support for the City’s smart grid initiative. Work entails marketing and customer relations, managing install teams for energy thermal storage systems, developing programs for customer involvement, developing new services for the smart grid, managing the smart meter system, managing the fibre communication system and overall project management of the smart grid systems. Previous experience includes Engineering roles at Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) focusing on wind turbine research and Digicon Building Control Solutions, engineering for building automation and energy management. Gerald holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Science (Mathematics) from Dalhousie University.
Glen Fillmore – St. John Energy
Bio coming soon.
Ray Robinson – Alternative Resource Energy Authority (AREA)
Ray Robinson, P.Eng. is the President & CEO of AREA. He is an electrical engineer with a career of executive and management experience in electrical utilities throughout North American and the Caribbean, with demonstrated capabilities in major infrastructure developments, project management, asset management and operational transformation. He has also served as a Board member of various organizations including Atlantica Centre for Energy, Atlantic Hydrogen Alliance and Chair of Electricity Canada for several years.
Webinar context:
The world is changing at an unprecedented pace, leaving many individuals and communities with a sense of uncertainty, and in many cases, worry. How do we respond to this rapidly changing world? How do we strengthen our local agency and resilience, socially, economically, and ecologically? With newly imposed tariffs that threaten to worsen the financial realities within our communities, we want to shine a light on thriving examples of re-localization in our region!
Re-localization is a concept and movement with an aim to become more self-reliant in our production and consumption (while reducing reliance on distant supply chains) in everything from energy, to food, to climate solutions, and beyond.
This series will be held on the last Thursday of each month from 12-1pm Atlantic and will explore examples of re-localization across Atlantic Canada.
SAVE THE DATES! Next webinar episodes:
- July 31 – Housing
- August 28 – Farmers’ Markets
- September 25 – Local Procurement
- October 30 – Theme TBD