Sue Ellen Fast

Woodfibre LNG is a concerning development for our region and the planet.

I have asked questions during presentations by industry and senior government leaders, multi-day consultations for the Oceans Protection Plan, and other opportunities for input and advocacy for a climate-safe future and healthy local environment. I served ten years on the BC Municipal Climate Leadership Council until 2025: communityenergy.ca/bcmclc/

I submitted a nature-based solutions response to the province’s CleanBC review in 2025. My suggestions included adding to or aligning core priorities and goals of CleanBC with the high potential mitigation options shown in Figure SPM.7 from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report WG3: Overview of mitigation options and their estimated ranges of costs and potentials in 2030.

Because it looks like we know what works right now; e.g. wind, solar, stop deforestation and ecosystem restoration, sequestration using agriculture, and various efficiencies. 

I have been deeply involved in community life on Bowen, contributing to and leading various projects and committees, including chairing, and including the Bowen Island Conservancy. Recently I have been serving democracy at council meetings and committees for Bowen and on the Islands Trust, and Islands Trust Conservancy board. I advocate on Bowen Council for completing the cross-island multi-use trail, and since the mid-90s I have served on the various iterations of what is today the Bowen Parks Environment and Climate Action Advisory Committee.

Personally I prefer getting around by e-bike, regular bike, transit, walking, ride-share and car-share over driving. We use a heat pump and fly very little.

Right now we have a rare opportunity to involve BC Ferries or to illustrate what an electric ferry service could look like. On September 21 Bowen Council heard an update from the CEO of CIRQL Ferries, who is planning three round trips per weekday from Bowen to downtown Vancouver on an electric passenger vessel for walk-ons and cyclists. I hope to continue pursuing this, as one step.

Also I understand that the Queen of Capilano has potential to be adapted for electric or partial electric service, and I would continue advocating for this.

Gabriola Island currently has two electric ferries that alternate on a 20 minute run similar to Bowen’s. What can we learn from this example? Continuing to meet with BC Ferries at annual Union of BC Municipalities conventions and other occasions to support electrification of the fleet generally is also worth doing, in my view. While maintaining a positive relationship of course, which is my main mode of working with others.

And with BC Hydro, who are likely responsible for supplying the substantial electricity needed to quickly charge electric vessels for BC Ferries. Who pays to increase the supply and extend it to the shoreline? Continuing to advocate for increased funding from the federal government to support these needed changes is another step I would suggest to Bowen and to Islands Trust Council.

Finally, I will continue to learn about the rapidly changing global supply and costs of energy alternatives, including through the CEA's excellent climate leadership program.

First off, I would educate residents about the risk of LNG fires.

A lit cigar or a pilot light on a stove or furnace can be hot enough to ignite a leaking cloud of LNG spreading invisibly over the water’s surface on a windless day, should a leak occur. How many homeowners know this? From what I have learned, an LNG fire in the hotter drier summers forecast with climate change is more of a risk than an explosion.

Under the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG), LNG is classified as a liquefied flammable gas.

Updating BIM’s 2018 Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, which includes LNG Carrier Risk under the marine accident heading, is another action I would take immediately. Through my participation on the Emergency committee for over ten years, including a stint as chair, I have seen how plans like this not only focus local folks and resources, but also inform and involve the province.

Requesting updated TERMPOL (Technical Review Process of Marine Terminal Systems and Transshipment Sites) recommendations from Transport Canada with like-minded local governments around Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound, a UNESCO Biosphere Region. With expansion plans, what will this mean for ferries?

Whales and other returning marine life should be considered, as underwater noise and whale strike were not part of the original environmental assessment. Now whales have returned. What will shipping LNG traffic at whatever level mean for them, especially as they use sound to detect their food?

I led a conversation with Tourism Minister Anne Kang and other Bowen council members during this year’s Union of BC Municipalities convention about the need for more revenue tools and fundraising programs to manage the numbers of people who want to visit our island, especially during peak season.

A walkable but congested village centre, businesses filling public bathroom needs, thinner vegetation on sensitive trampled shorelines, full buses and ferries, extra demand on roads and culverts, garbage, sewer, water and worker housing - the pressure is building.

The MRDT is a good start, but there are limited ways those revenues can be used. In the meeting I offered an example of another revenue tool applied on an island in New Zealand; a visitor levy, which only the province could enact.

Publicizing Bowen as a “Walk-On Island”, with a heritage of forested trails but limited parking and no gasoline on weekends is another way I would address the impacts of growing tourism. Extending the Multi-Use Path would help too. I would explore the new BC cycle tourism association for ideas. Managing demand in these ways is something we can do right away, while also reducing carbon emissions.

I will continue applying my background in optimizing the visitor experience in parks and greenways to this issue, in addition to my ideas about ferries above.

In November 2025 I voted to adopt the updated 2025 Climate Action Strategy, along with every other member of Bowen Council on the advice of staff and the Parks Environment and Climate Action committee, which I have been on since the 1990s in one form or other.

Besides advocating for BC Ferries to transition to a zero emission fleet and other actions to reduce emissions, it includes the following strategies to increase Bowen’s resilience:

Protect built infrastructure, including from stormwater runoff during more frequent and intense storms. Larger sturdier culverts to replace aging culverts, for example, help to avoid road closures. The five-year financial plan includes appropriate financing.

Increase protection from droughts; through our recently adopted water conservation bylaw, for example, for those served by municipal water systems. And the Grafton Lake Watershed Management Plan currently being developed, and working with the province to protect island residents on well water. Personally I advocate for forests on crown lands to be protected in a "sponge island" vision.

Increase protection from wildfire; protect and enhance regenerative agricultural practices; and protect and enhance natural systems and carbon sequestration are also in the strategy. Find it and the Community Energy and Emissions Plan at https://bowenislandmunicipality.ca/parks-recreation-culture/climate-action-program/.

Social infrastructure is needed too, so I have supported building the community centre, and the multi-use pathway, and all sorts of collaboration, and more - so that residents and future generations can avoid skyrocketing costs and enjoy opportunities to thrive in a healthy green protected future.