riley smith
“As a new councillor it takes a couple of years just to understand how things work, and so once you get the experience…you want to be able to take the knowledge that you’ve gained and follow up on all the things that you’ve done in the first four years, that’s why I’m running again,” he says over the phone.
Zurawski has accomplished plenty in his district, including addressing equity in the historic Black community of Beechville, adding land to the Birch Cove Blue Mountain wilderness area and organizing the city’s science march in 2017.
The Timberlea-Beechville-Clayton Park-Wedgewood councillor says the city’s climate plan, HalifACT 2050 is one of his biggest accomplishments.
“This is being used as a template for municipalities across the country for climate change. It’s the best city climate change plan in Canada, that meets the IPCC outcomes, and it’s going to be affecting everything that we do,” he says.
If elected for another term, Zurawski has some ideas that are also a bit outside the box.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get a consultation committee that will be able to advise city hall on scientific issues and issues of the future that we should be addressing,” he adds.
Going forward, Zurawski says he’s looking at the world through three lenses: environmental responsibility, social justice and fiscal equity. But he says he doesn’t know whether he supports “defunding the police.”
“Well, I don’t know what that means. You know, I’m not into slogans,” he says.
Despite that, he takes a clear stance on the larger issues behind the movement.
“We need to look at everything, the police are not social workers, and we need to establish another way of looking at our society and dealing with the people who fall between the cracks,” Zurawski says.
