Housing: The housing crises is a humanitarian issue, grounded in unsustainable, inequitable and unjust social-economic systems. It reflects the increasing gap between the rich and the poor; it is an example of the consequences of an economic system that prioritizes growth and profit over people and environment. We need to adopt full-cost accounting measures that expand economic considerations to include long-term and so-called externalized costs and benefits. At the same time, we need programs to quickly establish low-cost, energy-efficient, well-sited housing options, in consultation with those most in need.

Transportation: This is the second highest contributor to the climate crisis. We need to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel powered vehicles. Initiatives are urgently needed to increase the extent, efficiency, efficacy, and affordability of public transport systems, such that using public transit is preferable to dealing with traffic, parking, and owning a vehicle. As an example of an initiative to reduce fossil-fuel dependence, the Ecology Action Centre’s call to electrify school buses is very supportable. Reducing emissions also supports better health outcomes, especially for school children.

On-going development issues: Well-planned developments are essential for a livable healthy environment. New developments should retain and restore natural land cover (parks, trails, urban forest); provide equitable access to nature for mental and physical well-being, air purification, and carbon sequestration; and include nature-based solutions to climate and biodiversity crises. Development is important but needs to be well planned to maintain and restore a network of connected green spaces throughout the city, for people and nature.

Healthcare: While attention to emergency and critical care is necessary, a shift is needed to also focus on “wellness” outcomes, to reduce the need for health “care” or “cure.” “Healthy-city-healthy-people” approaches provide ways to improve health outcomes by addressing housing, transportation, built environment, and nature-based solutions in ways that also serve to foster equitable access to nature, enhance life-supporting ecosystem services, and confront underlying causes of illness.

Two types of legislation that I would strive to enact are the Coastal Protection Act and Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities. 

The Coastal Protection Act - It is crucial to immediate and long-term protection and management of the coast, both for ecosystems and human communities. Climate and associated changes (e.g., sea-level rise, storm surges, erosion, flooding, increasing storm intensity and frequency) require that we undertake a coordinated province-wide strategy to adapt to and mitigate these changes in ways that are effective and equitable. Roads and other built developments will need to be relocated further inland or otherwise raised up. These relocations and adjustments will need to be made in ways that do not further jeopardize key ecosystems, such as those that support endangered species and habitats, and those that provide key ecosystem services, such as buffering the coast from storm surges and erosion, reducing runoff and flooding, and storing and sequestering carbon. Such coastal protection responses also need to be done in ways that are socially equitable and do not further disadvantage those groups that are often excluded from decision making or bear a disproportionate share of the burden of environmental disasters. The provincial government needs to take a lead role and provide the necessary legal and policy framework to take on this complex task in a highly coordinated manner.

Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities - I am fully supportive of the Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities proposed by East Coast Environmental Law and others. Progressive jurisdictions around the world and in Canada have implemented similar legislation. If enacted, it would enshrine the rights of all people to a healthy environment. It would provide a way for people and communities to hold government to account for things like exposure to levels of pollutants in the air, water, or land that endanger their health. This umbrella legislation would help support other existing and proposed legislation such as the Endangered Species Act Environment Act, and Coastal Protection Act. It would make the provincial government legally responsible for protecting the environment for present and future generations, while respecting and upholding the rights of Indigenous peoples.