Richmond Citizen's Association new councillor running for Richmond city council
Do you support raising {your municipality’s} community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets to meet or beat the new province-wide standard of 40% by 2030, 60% by 2040 and 80% by 2050 (percentages refer to a reduction below 2007 levels)? [Note that some cities already match the 80% target but lack interim targets, which are crucial to meeting these goals!]
Yes
Will you submit a formal request to council to adopt these targets within one year of being elected?
Yes
Are you in favour of transparent, annual measuring and reporting of [your municipality’s] community-wide emissions?
Yes
Will you submit a formal request to council to ensure transparent, annual measuring and reporting of community-wide emissions, within one year of being elected?
Yes
Will you commit to taking a leadership role in ensuring that city council and staff work with community members, businesses, developers, and other stakeholders to achieve these community-wide targets in a meaningful way and within the specified time frame?
Yes
Describe three steps you will take during your first year in office to uphold this commitment.
Richmond’s district power systems have been very successful economical generators of electricity. We will develop a plan to bring more district power systems online throughout Richmond on city-owned land. Housing is a large part of the urban and suburban environment. We would direct an exploration into solar power and garden roofs for condominium, commercial and industrial developments, in addition to solar panels for townhouse and low density housing developments.
Demolition projects in Richmond are subject to recycling regulations and we would step up enforcement to ensure that recycling rules are being followed. It makes little sense to have a strict residential blue and green bin program, yet dump millions of pounds of demolition materials in the landfill every year.
Richmond Citizens’ would encourage developers to build to LEED Gold or Platinum standards. The City would hold an annual award ceremony to recognize those builders for excellence in achieving those standards. We would further encourage building to LEED standards by offering front-of-line privileges during permitting and inspection of LEED projects.
Force of Nature’s framework emphasizes “five key concepts” of urban climate solutions. What ideas or initiatives would you bring forth to promote, encourage or enforce the reduction of community-wide GHG emissions in each of the following categories: compact communities, multi-modal transportation, renewable energy, green jobs, and circular economy.
Our island city is vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels, and in recognition of this, we need to be environmental leaders in British Columbia. Richmond Citizens’ would implement a plastic bag ban, modelled after the successful bag bans in other jurisdictions such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Montreal, and most recently, Victoria. To mitigate extra costs to our lowest income residents, we would ensure a supply of reusable bags are available for the Food Bank to distribute. Other single use consumables are also extremely damaging to the environment. We would ban polystyrene (Styrofoam) takeout containers and cups, both the use and sale of such, and ensure we communicated to businesses clearly and well in advance of the changes. As we tackle other streams of consumer waste, we will draft a plan to phase out single use plastics. We support increasing our urban forest, not just on city-owned land, but also on personal property. Our current demolition and building practices have led to an average yearly loss of 1,600 trees. Other cities, such as Surrey, have a refundable deposit for replacement trees on personal property. We would set the refundable deposit for a replacement tree at $200, and if the tree is still in good condition after one year, the deposit is refunded. This ensures that replacement trees are cared for in their first year. Trees in commercial areas, typically in parking lots, no longer have access to enough water in the summer due to climate change. We would work with commercial developers to solve the problem so that everyone can benefit from healthy urban trees.