Burnaby - New Westminster MP Peter Julian hosted a community forum on Building Environmentally Friendly Communities at Douglas College this evening. About 40-50 people showed up to hear Julian and four other speakers, followed by a question/answer/suggestion period. (Disclosure: Though Julian has appeared in several of my blog posts, I am not a member of any political party, and intend to maintain my independence in the future).
This is the first of three forums Julian is hosting on climate change. He said we need fundamental changes at all levels to tackle the issue, from individuals all the way up to the federal government.
The first speaker on the panel was Nicholas Lamm who works on the Green Workplace Program associated with the Environmental Youth Alliance. He spoke about creating green communities within businesses to make change last.
Scott Sinclair, VP of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, said BC is blessed with tremendous renewable energy resources. We could double the energy we now produce simply by tapping renewable resources such a wind, solar, geothermal, etc. He said his organization is working on a plan for a fossil-fuel free GVRD. The plan would cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2025. The main way to achieve this would be by eliminating the use of natural gas for heating (replacing it with heat pumps, solar, wind, etc.) and the use of gasoline for transportation (replacing it with electricity). He said communities need to be redesigned for walking, cycling and transit.
Next came Tom Lancaster, Manager of Advisory Services, SmartGrowth BC. He pointed out that urban design is still centered on cars. He said at least 13 homes per acre are needed for a functional transit system, and on average we are nowhere near that density. We are still not building the right kinds of cities -- we need to create nodal town centers.
Last came Jonathan Cote, a New Westminster city councillor. He talked about a Green Action Plan that he and other young municipal councillors from all over BC are working on. He said a lot of mistakes have been made in designing the GVRD and that we continue to separate where we live from where we work, shop and play. We cannot be afraid of density. He said industrial land is important, and that New Westminster should ensure it remains industrial. He said it is critically important to engage the public. Last, he pointed out that municipalities are called upon to do more and more, but their revenue sources are limited to property tax for the most part.
Julian wrapped up the presentations by insisting that the Gateway Program that centers on twinning the Port Mann bridge is a bad decision. It basically rewards communities for adding to suburban sprawl and continues to focus transportation on cars.
The ensuing question/suggestion period came up with many suggestions for achieving greener communities. When an audience member complained about how many businesses and amenities New Westminster had lost or was losing -- a Canadian Tire, a Zellers, its only movie theater, a community theater, etc. -- meaning people would have to drive more, Cote pointed to neighbouring Burnaby's Big Bend big box developments (he also decried the Big Box-ification of his city's Queensborough area). As a Burnaby resident, I silently cheered, for Burnaby really screwed up on these developments that are completely car oriented and are sucking commerce out of the Kingsway corridor and the nearby Edmonds Town Centre -- undermining the city's own community plans.
Posted by Paul at March 7, 2007 10:00 PM