Jat Puri

My professional experience includes years of policy writing, irregular operations planning, and managing large-scale budgets, with much of that work focused inside the terminal at YVR. Working within an organization that maintains strict climate goals and a roadmap to net-zero operations teaches you exactly what it takes to balance environmental targets with real-world infrastructure demands. When you are writing policies to manage terminal disruptions and ensure business continuity during severe storms or extreme weather events, you quickly learn that abstract theories do not work. Your plans have to be practical, clear, and focused entirely on the immediate safety of people and keeping vital operations moving.

At home, my family keeps things just as practical. We focus on daily habits that make a difference, like cutting down on household waste, conserving energy, and keeping single-use items out of our house. I also spend a lot of time chatting with my neighbors about the real changes they see happening right here in Delta, from unpredictable weather to the rising cost of utilities.

I'm not a career politician, but someone who has spent years managing logistics under pressure, ensuring operational continuity, and asking the hard questions when handling unexpected situations. Real climate action at City Hall means applying that exact same focus to Delta by making sure our municipal plans work, looking closely at how our infrastructure dollars are spent, and keeping our community safe and functional.

Yes, it absolutely does, and we don't have to look far to see why. Delta is unique because we are surrounded by water and we are home to some of the most critical farmland in the province. That means we are right on the front lines. We are already dealing with wilder weather, heavy strains on our local crop yields, and intense summer heatwaves that put our community at risk.

It's a massive financial gamble to just sit back and react to these emergencies as they happen. If we wait for a crisis to hit before we fix things, taxpayers are the ones who get stuck with an inflated bill.

Urgent action simply means being smart and getting ahead of the problem. For Delta, that looks like upgrading our dykes and stormwater systems right now, expanding our tree canopy to cool down paved neighborhoods, and strictly protecting our Agricultural Land Reserve so we have local food security. Taking action today isn't just about the environment. It is about protecting our budget and keeping our communities safe.

Saving water is incredibly important, but I don't support rushing into a mandatory water meter rule without doing the math first and talking to residents.

Right now, roughly 70 percent of Delta homes don't have these meters. Forcing everyone to get one all at once means a massive up front cost for buying and installing the equipment. Our Delta First team is fully committed to transparency and watching how every single public dollar is spent. Before the city commits to an expensive project for homeowners, we need to see a clear, public breakdown of the costs and benefits.

In the meantime, Delta should focus on better public education, stronger conservation incentives, and expanding voluntary metering programs. If we do eventually move toward regional standards, it has to be a phased rollout with real protections for low income households. We need to work with residents to save water, and manage cost of living leading to already tight household budgets.

Big corporate polluters absolutely need to be held responsible for their impact on our planet. I will always look at proposals with an open mind, that being said, joining a campaign like Sue Big Oil means committing local tax dollars to a massive, complicated, and likely multi-year lawsuit. Before a city council signs up for a legal battle like that, we owe it to the community to do a full, independent legal and financial review. We need to know the exact risks, the true costs, and the actual odds of winning our money back.

Our immediate priority must be protecting Delta right here at home. Instead of spending local tax money on speculative court cases, I want to see our infrastructure budgets used directly on our community by strengthening our dykes, fixing local drainage, and protecting our farms from immediate climate threats.