Carrie Mclaren

Council · Burnaby

Burnaby 20 yrs

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.

✓ Support electrification of new buildings. Supportive

✓ Incentivize electric heat pumps and air filtration systems. Supportive

✓ Incentivize renewable energy, battery storage, and smart-grid technologies in new and existing buildings to improve energy security. Supportive

✓ Scale up energy retrofits for existing homes, businesses, and public buildings. Supportive

✓ Implement a 'right to cool' bylaw to protect tenants during extreme heat events. Supportive

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.

✓ Endorse the fossil fuel treaty and commit to phase out fossil fuels. Supportive

✓ Enact a moratorium on AI data centres to protect our energy and water resources. Supportive

✓ Pursue available legal options to recover a fair share of the climate costs facing our community from fossil fuel companies and other big polluters. Supportive

✓ 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

✓ Expand and protect tree canopy, parks, and green infrastructure to cool neighbourhoods, clean air, and manage stormwater. Supportive

✓ Prioritize native tree planting in all areas, especially those with low tree cover, higher population densities, and more vulnerable residents. Supportive

✓ Create connected urban greenways for people and wildlife. 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!).

✓ Deliver reliable, frequent, affordable local transit. Supportive

✓ 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.

✓ Implement water conservation plans and educate the public to conserve drinking water. Supportive

✓ 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.

✓ Implement zero waste bylaws to divert organic waste and recyclables from disposal. Supportive

✓ Support the development of a circular economy to eliminate waste and improve resilience. Supportive

✓ Implement bylaws to eliminate waste from new buildings, renovation, and demolition projects and to use existing buildings as efficiently as possible. Supportive

✓ 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?

Reducing my own footprint - transit, walk, bike(don’t own a car), have a heat pump in co-op unit, conserve & reduce as much as I can. Volunteer with Green Party trying to advocate for climate action.

Questions for Burnaby

Climate change is already driving up the cost of living (i.e., insurance, food prices, strain on our healthcare system). How will you provide leadership in moving our municipality towards meaningful climate action that addresses this issue?

Hard targets and plans collaborating along all city departments to implement adoption of policies that are seen through the climate lens. Without hard numbers and targets policy is too vague and unreachable with too much leeway in implementation.

What specific policies do you promise to fight for to address transportation emissions, including making streets safer for walking and active modes of travel?

Making it Easter to walk & cycle & take transit to lower emissions with less car travel: Ensure every street has a connected, accessible sidewalk within 5 years.
Complete the initial Major Cycling Network outlined in Burnaby’s Transportation Plan within 3 years, and ensure every home in Burnaby is no more than 500 m from a high-comfort bikeway by 2040
Re-design dangerous streets and intersections to ensure safety for all, and achieve zero deaths and serious injuries on Burnaby streets

How will you improve transit in Burnaby, using tools within your jurisdiction as a municipality?

Implement full signal priority on all frequent transit corridors, advocate for bus lanes and queue-jump lanes, so buses carrying dozens of people are not constantly stuck waiting at red lights.
Support quick implementation of TransLink’s updated proposals for more direct and frequent bus service in Burnaby, especially north–south connections.

What ideas do you have to solve housing affordability and homelessness issues and address climate change at the same time?

Utilize the Burnaby Housing Authority to build 1500+ new non-market rental homes annually.
Triple the number of purpose-built rental homes in Burnaby by 2050 to 40,000 and increase non-market housing to 20% of all housing in Burnaby.
Develop a comprehensive Heat Resilience Strategy that identifies vulnerable neighbourhoods and residents.
Expand cooling centres, shade, drinking water and extended cooling-facility hours during severe heat, and explore lending fans and portable cooling equipment.
Implement a cooling bylaw so existing buildings can maintain a safe temperature during increasingly frequent heat waves, with at least one area that can be kept at a safe temperature during extreme heat.

How can we make our parks and green spaces work harder for us in terms of rainwater management, carbon capture and food production?

Treat Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby Lake, Deer Lake, the Fraser Foreshore and our forests, wetlands and streams as essential infrastructure.
Protect conservation areas, ecological corridors, waterways, foreshore areas and important wildlife habitat.
Restore degraded streams, wetlands, riparian areas and habitat, and support salmon restoration where feasible.
Develop a network of neighbourhood resilience hubs providing cooling, clean air, backup power, drinking water, charging and emergency communications.
Make sure neighbourhoods have access to community gardens throughout the city not just in current locations.

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Vote4Tomorrow is an independent voter guide to evaluate where local candidates stand on climate and environmental policies that will affect our future.

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