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Amy Schwartz

Health Policy Research and Operations Research Assistant

Amy Schwartz is the Green Municipal Fund Lead for Transportation at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is recognized as an organizational leader and impact-funding strategist with a strong commitment to community-led development. Her work focuses on creating and managing funding pathways that have resulted in over $500 million in investments aimed at clean energy and transportation projects across Canada.

Professional Background

  • Current Role: As the Green Municipal Fund Lead, Schwartz oversees initiatives that support municipalities in developing sustainable transportation solutions.
  • Previous Experience: She has held various roles related to sustainable energy and public health policy, including serving as a Senior Strategist for Sustainable and Renewable Energy. Her experience also includes project management and consulting in adventure tourism, urban planning, and community development.

Achievements

  • Co-founder of UnleashSurf, a company catering to remote-working surfers.
  • Directed high-profile projects to enhance inclusivity in Nova Scotia.
  • Recognized as a Top 50 Emerging Leader in Atlantic Canada by 21inc and awarded the Agent of Change by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

Community Involvement

Schwartz is actively involved in social initiatives, including leading a refugee sponsorship group that successfully brought three Venezuelan refugee women to Halifax.

Her diverse skill set enables her to tackle complex challenges while fostering innovative solutions in her field.

Highlights

May 27 · linkedin

Recommendations from this great report are below. The report is clear that failure to establish a new funding model for transit could have implications on reducing emissions from transportation and affordability.

The Federal Government should:

  • Establish a tripartite national commission tasked with developing a new model for transit operating funding that includes commitments from the Federal Government. Unlike some other G7 countries, Canada does not dedicate operating funding or give options to use capital funding for operations.
  • Provide subsidies for operating costs of new transit capital projects funded by the new Permanent Transit Fund. Public transit responds to and helps to fulfill Federal mandates such as affordability, immigration, economic growth through employment mobility, and action on climate change when Canadians take transit every single day.

The Provinces and Territories of Canada should:

  • Work with transit agencies to identify solutions to operating funding shortfalls and adopt necessary legislation that allows them to use alternative revenue tools.
  • Provide ongoing operating funding support to transit agencies as they take an increasing role in fulfilling provincial mandates. Public transit responds to and helps fulfill Provincial mandates such as housing and healthcare when Canadians take transit every single day.
  • Advocate on behalf of transit systems and municipalities to the Federal Government to establish a tripartite national commission tasked with developing a new model for transit operating funding.

Municipalities and Transit Agencies should:

  • Investigate the operating costs of new transit expansion, and increase public transparency.
  • Hire or assign staff that are tasked with prioritizing new expansion projects, and advocate for operating funding and legislation for new revenue tools from senior government partners. This also would enable to build collaborative relationships with senior government officials as well as highlight the cases for investment.
  • Explore alternative revenue tools and build the business case for using them to fund transit operations using a defined set of objectives. This report had six particular objectives, but they could vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
  • Dedicate revenue generated from new funding tools to public transit operations. The level of local government funding support and investment in public transit varies from coast to coast when compared against other expenses.

https://lnkd.in/e7xzs2wV

Thanks for Matt Pelletier for sharing this with me

May 24 · linkedin

A bit late on this post: A hearty thanks to Clean Foundation and Ruby Swartz for inviting me to share career ideas with the most incredible young leaders at the Clean Leadership conference last week! (And for gifting me this nifty mug!) If you want to add some big brains, uplifting ideas and horsepower to your org get yerself a Clean Intern next summer!!!

Related Questions

What are some of the key projects Amy Schwartz has led at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities?
How did Amy Schwartz's role at the American Institutes for Research prepare her for her current position?
What is the UnleashSurf company about, and how did Amy Schwartz start it?
Can you provide examples of the clean energy and clean transportation projects Amy Schwartz has funded?
What challenges has Amy Schwartz faced in her career, and how did she overcome them?
Amy Schwartz
Amy Schwartz, photo 1
Amy Schwartz, photo 2
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Experience

Health Policy Research and Operations Research Assistant at American Institutes for Research (June 2023 - Present)

Education

Bachelor of Arts - BA, History at Bates College (2019 - 2023), Poly Prep Country Day School (2015 - 2019)

Location

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada