Caroline Parker
Council · Bowen Island
- Neighbourhood:
- Deep Bay
- Years in the community:
- 17
About
I am a 17 year resident with extensive community involvement and a professional background in law and policy. For my Candidate Profile, please see https://bowenislandmunicipality.ca/our-government/2026-election/candidate-profiles/caroline-parker/
Policy commitments
Buildings
We all want healthy, affordable, and comfortable homes. These policies will help to lower energy bills, cut pollution, and improve indoor air quality.
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Incentivize electric heat pumps and air filtration systems.
No response
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Incentivize renewable energy, battery storage, and smart-grid technologies in new and existing buildings to improve energy security.
No response
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Scale up energy retrofits for existing homes, businesses, and public buildings.
No response
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Implement a 'right to cool' bylaw to protect tenants during extreme heat events.
No response
Climate Justice
Our community is already experiencing the harmful impacts of climate change caused by fossil fuel pollution, and taxpayers are on the hook to upgrade and repair critical infrastructure.
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Endorse the fossil fuel treaty and commit to phase out fossil fuels.
No response
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Pursue available legal options to recover a fair share of the climate costs facing our community from fossil fuel companies and other big polluters.
No response
✓
Collaborate with Indigenous peoples as partners in the stewardship of the land, air, and water, and work towards reconciliation.
Supportive
Ecosystems
The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat all rely on healthy ecosystems. Nature can also help protect our community from extreme weather by controlling floods, protecting shorelines, and cooling neighbourhoods. Access to nature improves the health and well-being of residents, and supports biodiversity.
✓
Protect and restore ecosystems, which are essential to human survival, health, and economic well-being.
Supportive
Land Use
We envision vibrant, walkable communities that protect nature and improve food security.
✓
Build affordable homes near jobs, schools, shops, and transit.
Supportive
✓
Upgrade critical infrastructure for heat, fire, flood, and storm resilience.
Supportive
✓
Increase food security by supporting local agriculture and community gardens.
Supportive
Transport
Connecting neighbourhoods through public transit and active transportation networks will cut pollution, improve public health, and make our communities more affordable (and fun!).
✓
Advocate to improve regional public transit between communities.
Supportive
✓
Build bike and roll networks that are safe for everyone.
Supportive
✓
Expand EV charging infrastructure.
Supportive
Watersheds
Climate change, increasing populations, and overconsumption threaten our water security. Healthy watersheds and forests are critical to support clean drinking water, stormwater management, climate resilience, and biodiversity for future generations.
✓
Protect and restore watersheds as vital municipal infrastructure.
Supportive
✓
Develop and implement a water security plan.
Supportive
Zero Waste
Zero waste policies reduce pollution, keep waste out of landfills, build resilient local economies, and safeguard public health by shifting society away from a disposable culture toward a sustainable circular economy.
✓
Support the development of a circular economy to eliminate waste and improve resilience.
Supportive
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Implement bylaws to eliminate waste from new buildings, renovation, and demolition projects and to use existing buildings as efficiently as possible.
No response
✓ Supportive
~ Neutral
× Opposed
– No response
Climate action
How have you contributed to climate action in your community through advocacy, past work, advisory committees, volunteer work, and/or reducing your personal carbon footprint?
For me the first step was education, then knowledge-sharing. Learning from Fire Weather author John Vaillant, Brett KenCairn of https://naturebasedclimate.solutions, https://regrow.wwf.ca, and https://www.xerces.org, for example, inspired me to informally advocate for EVs, heat pumps, pollinator gardens, native plants, and regenerative vegetable gardens within our community. I switched to an EV in 2024 and use climatehero.org to help find more ways to reduce by own carbon footprint. With my teenage daughter, who is passionate about climate change, I volunteered for the Climate Cafe at Bowfest recently. She and I attended a Climate Readers' Retreat last year that deepened both our understanding of and our commitment to climate solutions.
Questions for Bowen Island
The ferry to Bowen Island is the largest source of climate pollution. What steps would you take to advocate with BC Ferries to invest in an electric ferry service?
It's my understanding that driving off the island is now the #1 source of climate pollution, followed by ferry pollution, then driving on the island, then houses. The recent presentation to Council about an electric passenger ferry service from Snug Cove seems feasible and is something I would strongly support. To the extent that provincial or federal incentives are available for electric heat pumps and air filtration systems, I would strongly advocate for those. While I have no specific advocacy plan for BC Ferries, I would welcome the opportunity to advocate for electric ferry service if there appeared to be some chance of success.
What actions will you take for the safety of Bowen Island residents if Woodfibre LNG doubles or triples in size, resulting in an LNG carrier passing through Howe Sound every day?
I am not in favour of that type of expansion and look forward to the day when there is a pivot away from LNG toward renewable energy, but as a practical matter, the doubling or tripling of Woodfibre LNG is unlikely to occur within the next 4-year term.
I would focus more on provincial and/or federal incentives to help residents shift away from fossil fuels such as propane (produced from processing natural gas and crude oil).
I would focus more on provincial and/or federal incentives to help residents shift away from fossil fuels such as propane (produced from processing natural gas and crude oil).
How will you address the impacts of growing tourism on vulnerable ecosystems, transportation services, and waste management?
I think summer demand is not entirely inelastic, and could be somewhat mitigated by giving tourists more of the "inside story" about what times of day and times of year are busiest and cause the greatest stress on our ecosystems, transit and waste collection. Living in Deep Bay, I encounter many tourists who are visiting our island for the first time and are well-intentioned and respectful of nature, but who are not at all attuned to the seasonal ebb and flow of people. I also would explore efforts to spread the word among tourists and residents alike when a spike in ferry travel is anticipated because of a particular event. Not every tourist arrives on the morning of Bowfest intentionally.
In addition, one of my concerns about the relationship between tourists and our beautiful environment is the lost opportunity to give visiting schoolchildren and their families deeper first-hand knowledge of the importance of healthy ecosystems and the choices they can make back in their communities to positively impact nature. I would love to see Tourism Bowen Island collaborate with Bowen Nature Club, the Bowen Conservancy, and/or Metro Vancouver (Crippen Regional Park) to this effect.
In addition, one of my concerns about the relationship between tourists and our beautiful environment is the lost opportunity to give visiting schoolchildren and their families deeper first-hand knowledge of the importance of healthy ecosystems and the choices they can make back in their communities to positively impact nature. I would love to see Tourism Bowen Island collaborate with Bowen Nature Club, the Bowen Conservancy, and/or Metro Vancouver (Crippen Regional Park) to this effect.
Bowen Island is vulnerable to many climate-related risks (e.g., intense storms, landslides, sea level rise, coastal erosion, wildfire, drought, and extreme heat events). How will you address these risks to increase our community’s resilience?
Supporting the community's commitment to healthy ecosystems is a crucial part of building and maintaining resilience. Part of deepening that commitment is explicitly analyzing the extent to which particular actions contemplated by BIM would potentially weaken our ecosystems and expose us to greater climate risk, together with economic risk. See, e.g., https://egc.yale.edu/research/eli-fenichel-nature-economic-asset?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_Yale%20Today%20Alum%20no%20Parents_9-21-2026
To increase the chances of an optimal response when an emergency occurs, BIM has bylaw-mandated organizational support for emergency preparedness. I commend BIM's efforts at preparedness (especially for heat emergencies, which we may experience next summer) and the many committed volunteers in our community who are involved with Emergency Support Services (ESS) and the Neighbourhood Emergency Response Program (NERP). It's important to regularly raise the profile of these efforts so that community members link arms at the local level. Islander Don Shafer has written about this dynamic in a thoughtful, thoroughly-researched piece (inspired by Councillor Judi Gedye) and I find this helpful in framing how I would support ongoing emergency preparedness efforts if elected: https://donshafer1.substack.com/p/preparedness-begins-with-people-rethinking
To increase the chances of an optimal response when an emergency occurs, BIM has bylaw-mandated organizational support for emergency preparedness. I commend BIM's efforts at preparedness (especially for heat emergencies, which we may experience next summer) and the many committed volunteers in our community who are involved with Emergency Support Services (ESS) and the Neighbourhood Emergency Response Program (NERP). It's important to regularly raise the profile of these efforts so that community members link arms at the local level. Islander Don Shafer has written about this dynamic in a thoughtful, thoroughly-researched piece (inspired by Councillor Judi Gedye) and I find this helpful in framing how I would support ongoing emergency preparedness efforts if elected: https://donshafer1.substack.com/p/preparedness-begins-with-people-rethinking
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