Philip Stojanovski

Council · Burnaby

Burnaby 25 yrs

About

I'm a Workplace Investigator/Mediator and a 25 year Burnaby resident. I want our city to put residents first, instead of approving endless massive expensive towers sitting unoccupied, let's prioritize residents with things they need and can afford.

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. Neutral

✓ 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. Neutral

✓ 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?

While I may not be on any formal committees, I do my part by living a low-carbon lifestyle—like walking instead of driving for daily errands to cut down on emissions and keep our neighborhood clean. For me, climate action is about practical, everyday choices: reducing waste, keeping our local Burnaby streets walkable, and supporting smart community changes that make sense for everyday residents. That also means advocating against endless, unaffordable massive towers that strain our infrastructure and don't match what the community actually needs.

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?

Climate change and the cost of living are deeply connected, but in Burnaby, our approach to growth is making both worse. While I'm all for meaningful climate action—like protecting our green spaces and promoting walkable neighborhoods—we need practical leadership that stops rubber-stamping endless, unaffordable massive towers.

These mega-developments aren't just pricing people out; they are choking our streets with gridlock. When traffic is constantly backed up, cars are idling longer, spewing more pollution into our neighborhoods, and turning what should be quick local trips into frustrating delays. True climate leadership means building communities that work for the people already here—focusing on infrastructure we can actually afford, keeping traffic moving smoothly so we cut down on unnecessary emissions, and ensuring growth matches what everyday residents need.

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

To truly address transportation emissions and make our streets safer for walking, we have to fix how our neighborhoods are growing. Real leadership means moving away from rubber-stamping endless, massive towers that choke our roads with gridlock, trap cars in endless idling, and make local streets unsafe for pedestrians. Instead, I would fight for practical, common-sense policies like investing directly in continuous sidewalks, better crosswalk lighting, and connected neighborhood greenways so people can safely walk or roll to their daily errands without needing a car. At the same time, we need to align new development rules with our actual road capacity so we stop approving mega-towers that gridlock our neighborhoods, increase exhaust pollution, and turn simple commutes into frustrating delays. True leadership means focusing traffic management on keeping cars moving smoothly rather than creating bottleneck traps, which cuts down on idle emissions and keeps local air cleaner for everyone.

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

Within our actual city jurisdiction, we have powerful tools we aren't using properly. We control local street design, municipal land use, and how we partner with TransLink. I would use those tools to stop approving massive, unaffordable towers that gridlock our roads and make bus routes painfully slow. When buses are trapped behind endless traffic caused by over-development, public transit fails. Instead, I would use our municipal authority to prioritize efficient local transit routing, build dedicated and protected right-of-ways where possible so buses bypass local bottlenecks, and ensure new developments actually match local transit capacity rather than overwhelming it. Real transit improvement isn't just about hoping for more buses; it's about clearing the traffic congestion off our streets so the transit we already have can actually move people efficiently.

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

We need to tackle housing, homelessness, and climate change all at once, especially since buildings make up almost 40% of Burnaby's emissions. Look at the 2021 heat dome—691 people died across BC, mostly older folks and lower-income residents in hot, vulnerable neighborhoods who didn't have cooling.
We can fix this by forcing new affordable housing and rentals to be fully electrified without natural gas, which drops utility bills for people who need it most and stops indoor gas leaks. We also need to make sure every home has affordable cooling and air filtration like heat pumps, so people aren't dying in heat waves or choking on wildfire smoke. Instead of approving endless luxury high-rises that just drive up prices and remain unoccupied, we should focus on protecting older rental buildings through energy upgrades and building smaller, practical homes that regular people can actually afford.

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

Parks shouldn't just be grass and trees, we need them to actually help with real problems. Groceries are so expensive right now, so having space for local food would be amazing. And with all the crazy rain and heatwaves we've been getting, using our green spaces to manage water and keep things cool just makes sense for Burnaby. Plus, we can't do this alone; we really need to team up with non-profits here, across BC, and nationwide to share what works and work together.

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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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