Brandon, Man., United Church members working to address the impact of the climate crisis on their community managed to get the city to include their findings in its 2023 Climate Change Action Plan.
Madelyn Robinson, Knox United’s lead contact for a community environmental group called Sustainable Brandon, says the group formed in 2022 in response to the city’s desire to develop a 30-year climate strategy.
Members of Knox United have been trying to address Brandon’s climate crisis for about two decades. Rev. Craig Miller notes that there was already a climate crisis group at Knox when he arrived as the minister in 2012. “They have been creating climate workshops for the congregation, the community and for city planners as long as I have been here.”
But Robinson says the congregation knew they couldn’t address the city’s climate strategy plans alone, so they held three public “faithful climate” talks in 2022.
“The response to our climate talks was extraordinary,” says Robinson’s husband, Quentin Robinson. “A whole community of people came together. Sustainable Brandon includes the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, the Association of Food Forests, conservation groups, city planners and community gardeners.”
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When Sustainable Brandon presented its Climate Action Plan to city council in May 2023, Madelyn Robinson says councillors were initially skeptical of calls for more bike lanes, public transit, solar panels, river clean-up initiatives and wetland recovery. “The city was quite intimidated by our requests,” she says. “They thought we were moving too fast. But they discovered most of the public was more on board with wanting a climate strategy than they realized.”
Subsequent questionnaires by the city revealed that 63 percent of Brandon respondents believed reducing carbon emissions was an “extremely urgent” issue. Seventy-six percent said it was “important” or “extremely important” that the city act on the climate crisis.
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“It still wasn’t easy,” says Quentin Robinson of getting the city on board with their ideas. “There’s a lot of conspiracy theory related to proposing a new city plan. Change is hard for most people. We’re a car-centric city. Having the city move to more density over more urban sprawl changes the character of the city. Change frightens people.”
Madelyn Robinson says Sustainable Brandon is brainstorming what to do next. “There are a lot of differences of opinion on what our priorities should be,” she says. “The climate crisis is simply too big, so we will try to focus on what is doable, here, in Brandon.”
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This article first appeared in Broadview’s April/May 2025 issue with the title “Church’s Efforts Sway City on Climate Plan.”
Sherwood Hines is a writer in Bancroft, Ont.
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