What Does Environment Canterbury Do?

This article provides some information for voters in the upcoming local body elections about what Environment Canterbury does. 
It is part of a series of four posts (linked below) that introduce the duties of the councils that we are voting for in this year's local body elections.  

What does the city council do?
What do community boards do? and 
What do District Health boards do?
 

The Environment Canterbury Annual plan  outlines how the council will spends its money.  The budgeted work is divided into 6 work portfolios.

1) Freshwater Management

The Canterbury Regional Council looks after water quality and water quantity in our rivers, lakes and aquifers. They are guided in this by the Resource Management Act and by guidelines in National Policy Statements put together by central government. Doing this water work also needs the Council to work with Zone committees Ngāi Tahu, local councils, health boards, central government, and Canterbury communities.

2) Biodiversity & Biosecurity

Regional councils have a duty to protect and restore our native ecosystems and to help with managing both plant and animal pests. There are four main focus areas for this portfolio – regional biodiversity, braided rivers, wetlands and biosecurity

3) Hazards Risk and Resilience

This is all about civil defence and being ready for major events.  One of the most important parts of this in Christchurch has been developing stopbanks to protect the City from flooding from the Waimakariri. 

4) Transport and Urban development

This is Environment Canterbury’s largest budget item and most of it is spent on providing bus services in and around Greater Christchurch and Timaru. Public transport services also depend in part on Central Government policy and funding. These govern how bus services are procured and contracted out as well as what subsidy is available to users of bus services.
The Regional Council must also work with City and District Councils. The City council in Christchurch provides bus stops, bus lanes and facilities like the central city bus station and the Riccarton facilities. These things can make a big difference to how comfortable bus travel is.

5) Air Quality

The regional council looks after air pollution and they have made a significant difference to air quality in Christchurch particularly during the winter months. This work continues and through it they help people with insulating their homes and replacing wood burners with clean burners or heat pumps.

6) Regional Leadership

This portfolio is about building and maintaining relationships with other councils, with communities, with Ngai Tahu and government agencies and it helps to enable the work in the other portfolios.