Rosalinda Thorleifson
Council · Coquitlam
- Neighbourhood:
- Coquitlam
- Years in the community:
- 40
About
Lifelong Coquitlam resident from a small business family. 15+ years in marketing and strategy, now strata council president, running for City Council to champion smart growth, housing, and safety for our community.
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.
✓
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.
Neutral
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.
✓
Enact a moratorium on AI data centres to protect our energy and water resources.
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!).
✓
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.
Neutral
✓
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.
Neutral
~
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.
Neutral
✓ 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?
As President of my strata council, I led the effort to implement a comprehensive recycling and organics program for our building, working with residents to improve participation and reduce what was going to landfill. It's a small-scale example, but it taught me how much local leadership matters in getting climate action to actually happen at the ground level, not just on paper.
I haven't sat on an environmental advisory committee, and I want to be upfront about that. What I bring instead is a platform built on practical, achievable steps: a formal management plan for Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, FireSmart initiatives and fire-resistant tree planting across the city, and protecting green spaces as Coquitlam grows. Climate action at the municipal level is about infrastructure, land use, and long-term planning, and that's exactly where my strata and budgeting experience translates directly to council work.
I haven't sat on an environmental advisory committee, and I want to be upfront about that. What I bring instead is a platform built on practical, achievable steps: a formal management plan for Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, FireSmart initiatives and fire-resistant tree planting across the city, and protecting green spaces as Coquitlam grows. Climate action at the municipal level is about infrastructure, land use, and long-term planning, and that's exactly where my strata and budgeting experience translates directly to council work.
Questions for Coquitlam
To be community oriented, new housing development must be integrated with local infrastructure - jobs, schools, shops, transit, walkable nature, green energy. How would you ensure adequate infrastructure to support increased density and population?
Density only works when infrastructure keeps pace, not catches up later. I'd require a "complete communities" standard in development approvals, so rezonings show how they connect to transit, schools, and services before they're approved.
Where the province mandates density in neighborhoods that have never seen it, I see an opportunity: require ground-floor amenities alongside the housing, grocery, retail, a doctor's office, restaurants, so growth actually makes a neighborhood more walkable, not just denser.
I'd also push to reinvest development cost charges locally and transparently, so growth funds the roads and amenities it demands, and continue building out jobs closer to home through my Coquitlam Works platform so density doesn't just mean more commuters.
Council's job is to set real conditions on growth, not approve projects and hope infrastructure catches up.
Where the province mandates density in neighborhoods that have never seen it, I see an opportunity: require ground-floor amenities alongside the housing, grocery, retail, a doctor's office, restaurants, so growth actually makes a neighborhood more walkable, not just denser.
I'd also push to reinvest development cost charges locally and transparently, so growth funds the roads and amenities it demands, and continue building out jobs closer to home through my Coquitlam Works platform so density doesn't just mean more commuters.
Council's job is to set real conditions on growth, not approve projects and hope infrastructure catches up.
Tree canopies provide micro climate benefits. New planted trees reduce overall emissions by breathing in CO2 but take decades to reach mature tree canopy cover. How would you increase city retention of mature trees and establish adequate canopy standards?
Mature trees do work that new plantings can't replicate for decades: cooling neighborhoods, managing stormwater, and absorbing carbon at a rate saplings simply can't match yet. Protecting them has to be a priority, not an afterthought to new planting targets.
I'd push to tighten Coquitlam's tree cutting permit bylaw by reducing the number of trees a property owner can remove without a permit, particularly for larger, established trees, and require replacement ratios that reflect the real ecological value lost, not a flat one-for-one swap. I'd also advocate for stronger penalties for unauthorized cutting, so the fine is a genuine deterrent rather than a cost of doing business for developers.
On the canopy side, I'd support setting a formal citywide canopy cover target, with measurable benchmarks by neighborhood, so we can track retention alongside new planting rather than just counting saplings as a win. Pairing that with FireSmart-aligned, fire-resistant tree planting in higher-risk areas keeps both climate and safety goals aligned.
I'd push to tighten Coquitlam's tree cutting permit bylaw by reducing the number of trees a property owner can remove without a permit, particularly for larger, established trees, and require replacement ratios that reflect the real ecological value lost, not a flat one-for-one swap. I'd also advocate for stronger penalties for unauthorized cutting, so the fine is a genuine deterrent rather than a cost of doing business for developers.
On the canopy side, I'd support setting a formal citywide canopy cover target, with measurable benchmarks by neighborhood, so we can track retention alongside new planting rather than just counting saplings as a win. Pairing that with FireSmart-aligned, fire-resistant tree planting in higher-risk areas keeps both climate and safety goals aligned.
Describe your position on early adoption and implementation of the Zero Carbon Step Code* for new residential buildings? (*introduced in 2023 by BC government to allow cities to limit fossil fuel use in new buildings to reduce CO2 emissions)
No, at this time. I support the direction of decarbonizing new construction, especially given BC's hydro-heavy grid, which makes this a genuinely effective policy, not just a symbolic one. My concern is timing and readiness, not the goal itself.
Squamish and North Cowichan both moved ahead of the provincial timeline and had to walk parts of it back once builder cost data came in higher than projected and heat pump installer capacity couldn't keep up. With affordable housing as a core priority, I'm not willing to add cost pressure to new builds ahead of a confirmed provincial mandate, especially while the province's own 2027 timeline is still listed as TBD.
I'd support Coquitlam adopting EL-4 once installer capacity and cost data catch up, and I'm genuinely open to revisiting this position if that evidence changes.
Squamish and North Cowichan both moved ahead of the provincial timeline and had to walk parts of it back once builder cost data came in higher than projected and heat pump installer capacity couldn't keep up. With affordable housing as a core priority, I'm not willing to add cost pressure to new builds ahead of a confirmed provincial mandate, especially while the province's own 2027 timeline is still listed as TBD.
I'd support Coquitlam adopting EL-4 once installer capacity and cost data catch up, and I'm genuinely open to revisiting this position if that evidence changes.
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