The three major-party candidates for Powell River-Sunshine Coast gathered Oct. 6 for Sunshine Coast Conservation Association’s environmentally themed all-candidates meeting at Roberts Creek Community Hall. Candidates kept it cordial –– clapping for one another’s questions –– while throwing the odd barb within their two-minute allotted answering time.
The following are condensed and paraphrased questions and answers to some of the questions asked at the meeting.
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA)
Asked how the parties intended to uphold DRIPA or if they intend to repeal it, BC Conservatives’ Chris Moore said they are “committed to strategic and collaborative return of lands to the First Nations.” He said there’s been a lot of mixed messages in adopting UNDRIP, exemplified in the handling of the dock management plan (DMP) and that there’s still a large segment of the community who felt there wasn’t enough inclusion moving that forward. “Absolutely 100 per cent DRIPA we keep, unless DRIPA gets in the way, and then we have to possibly reinterpret DRIPA.”
BC Green’s Chris Hergesheimer said the journey (of reconciliation) is not easy and it is uncomfortable. “This is our journey, and we are in it together. And I want you to understand that while it gets complex, and while we are in the muck, I won't leave you.” He said there is not an option to go backwards.
BC NDP’s Randene Neill said the BC Legislature unanimously passed DRIPA and that the BC NDP is completely committed to DRIPA. “There are 204 First Nations in B.C., so it's not a blanket policy. Each nation and each community has to talk to each other to figure out what's best for them.” She added that the DMP did see shíshálh Nation and dock owners come together to sign a plan.
Public transportation
Asked how candidates would support safe, efficient and affordable green public transportation, Hergesheimer said a cornerstone of the BC Green Party’s platform is public transit and said they’re going “fast, free and frequent” on the Coast. “It's costing between $9,000 and $14,000 a year to operate one vehicle, versus $1,000. This is a way to build resilient communities tackled climate mitigation and put money back in people's pockets.”
Neill pointed to a pilot project on Vancouver Island, Health Connect, which drives people to appointments –– and allows other people on when there’s space –– which she said “we deserve here on the Sunshine Coast” with the large senior population. She also pointed to active transportation and the need to widen road shoulders for bikes and scooters.
Moore said the issue is right across the province since the loss of Greyhound and “it’s not acceptable.” He also said he wants to see the realignment and readjustment of Highway 101. “The highway is not acceptable in many, many areas.”
Old growth forests
Candidates were asked if they support the old growth strategic review, released in 2020.
Moore said he was surprised the NDP hadn’t moved the 14 steps forward over the past seven years and that he would “bite into it big time.”
Hergesheimer said he hadn’t yet read the plan but that his party says, “Trust the science and the science is bulletproof right now, that if we don't take immediate action around the protection of our forests, we are going to lose vast amounts of biodiversity, and this is going to cost us in so many ways." He added that the BC Greens are committed to a moratorium on old-growth logging.
Neill said the BC NDP just renewed its commitment to enact the review's 14 recommendations and added that the recommendations are not easy and take time, the first four having to do with public engagement and understanding, creating a paradigm shift. She also pointed to the province's recent protection of Clayoquot Sound.
All electric buildings?
Asked if they support the requirement that all new buildings be all electric instead of hooking up with fossil gas, Neill acknowledged the need for housing and infrastructure to support said housing. Pointing to rebates for solar panels, heat pump programs and limited access to natural gas above Halfmoon Bay, she said, “I'm completely in agreement that we can work making all of our new homes fossil fuel free.”
Moore was a firm “no.” He’s been in the industry a long time and said talking to local builders, the introduction of “Step 5” in the BC Building Code will introduce tens of thousands of dollars per build. “There are other solutions that we can look at,” he said, but that full-hydro is not the way. “We don't have the hydro capacity number one, to put all these heat pumps in.” He added that their focus is on getting the pricing down on (new) housing.
Hergesheimer leaned into optimism. “We forgot that anything is possible. We forgot that the story of building and industry and everything is a story of human ingenuity.” It won’t happen overnight but said it can be part of an “optimistic, joyful, creative transition” and that they would have the electricity to do it if they would “stop giving it at discounted rates to LNG plants.” The BC Greens are committed to a fossil fuel free BC, he said.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
Candidates were asked if they’d oppose the approval of new LNG facilities and associated pipelines and whether they think approval should be rescinded for any yet-to-be-built terminals.
Hergesheimer said no more LNG licences. BC Greens won’t go around shutting down all of the current industry, but no more investment in it. He pointed to a study that says the value of LNG will start to plummet at the end of the decade and called for an end to subsidies to oil companies. “It's time to stop that while our hospitals and our schools and our social services sectors are constantly underfunded and under resourced.”
Neill said the question is hard because she’s an environmentalist at heart and agreed that the value of LNG will drop “but we are here right now.” She pointed to the BC NDP bringing an emissions cap for oil and gas industry and requiring all proposed LNG facilities to pass emissions tests with a plan to be net zero by 2030. She pointed to fast-tracking investments in clean energy and technology and renewables as well as the BC NDP having eliminated the deep well royalty credit.
Moore pointed to coal burning in China and India as a greater issue. “Basic chemistry tells you that fracking produces about 50 per cent fewer greenhouse emissions than coal burning,” he said. “It's the same kind of equation as going to all houses should be on electricity produced by hydro as opposed to electricity produced by natural gas. It's just not possible.” Adding that gas is a step toward a green future.
Sue big oil
Asked if they support suing big oil, Hergesheimer said absolutely, given the “staggering” cost of climate change but that the lawsuit cannot be the end of it. “That is one tool in a toolbox [and] we need to have every available tool out right now to solve this.”
Neill said the BC NDP would “certainly be open to suing big oil.” She pointed to the devastation of the heat dome, atmospheric rivers, stone fruit crops in the Okanagan and said it’s going to get worse. She pointed to B.C.’s history of leading class action suits.
Moore said he’s not interested in suing big oil but he is interested in how to mitigate fire season. He pointed to 19 years firefighting in Whistler and before that in Manitoba. While fires are precipitated by climate change, acknowledged Moore, he also said many are caused by human negligence and called for higher fines and more investment in fire services and better forest management. “We want to create BC forest fire services to be at the same professional level that you would think is of an urban firefighter,” he said.
Climate crisis and affordable housing
“Young people want action to tackle the climate crisis and to create more affordable housing. Do you think these two goals conflict with each other, or are they complementary?” Asked the moderator.
Moore said he sees great opportunity in the matter. Referencing his college days in the ‘70s, and designs such as the Adobe hut from New Mexico, Moore said we have made the housing industry “super complex” with consultants and over-regulation.
Hergesheimer called for youth involvement in such a question. He said his teenagers don’t respond to “doom and fear and gloom,” and instead urged hope and options. He also pointed to friction when it comes to creative housing options, such as mud huts or tiny homes. Another issue he pointed to was the financialization of the housing market and the need to build “resilient pocket neighbourhoods” that are walkable and multigenerational.
Neill pointed to the work the BC NDP has already done removing “red tape in zoning regulations” and bringing in factory homes. She also pointed to solutions like shíshálh Nation’s recent barging in of re-used homes from Port Moody.
Watershed and resource extraction
Asked about the conflict between resource extraction (like logging and mining) and protection of clean water, Neill said she sees it more as an opportunity, pointing to the protection of Chapman Lake within Tetrahedron Provincial Park. “Forestry tenures, selective logging, all of those things we need to ensure that our watershed is protected,” she said, adding that she has signed the Watershed Security Pledge.
Moore said “no logging in watersheds, full stop.” He said he’s worked with Sunshine Coast Community Forest over the years, during his including time on Sechelt council when Lidar technology was introduced to better map the watershed and what areas needed protection. He said he too has signed the pledge. (Independent Greg Reid is the only local candidate who has not signed the pledge.)
Hergesheimer highlighted water stewardship councils as “the core of BC Greens’ work to get control and relationships back into local communities.” He called water “our most valuable resource” and shared amazement he has water piped to his home from a mountain lake for something like $600 a year. He concluded, “We can have clean water for generations to come, and that means choices about what we use it on, and industry ought not be the dominant one.”
Full video on Conservation Association website.
Other questions spanned the province’s draft biodiversity framework, a just transition of jobs, value-added resource use at a local level, mineral tenure, the expansion of the youth climate corps and how to handle a large forest fire on the Coast.
The SCCA also sent out questions regarding watershed security (including their stance on striking a local watershed board), old-growth forests (including reducing annual allowable cut and restoring Coast forests), commitment to protecting at least 30 per cent of Sunshine Coast and water by 2030, and stance on LNG (including in regards to Woodfibre LNG and the Eagle Mountain Pipeline).
Watch the entire meeting on YouTube.
