Sara El Rayess
- Neighbourhood:
- Gibsons
- Years in the community:
- 9
About
Policy commitments
We all want healthy, affordable, and comfortable homes. These policies will help to lower energy bills, cut pollution, and improve indoor air quality.
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.
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.
We envision vibrant, walkable communities that protect nature and improve food security.
Connecting neighbourhoods through public transit and active transportation networks will cut pollution, improve public health, and make our communities more affordable (and fun!).
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.
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.
Climate action
Over the last while, I've spent considerable time learning about environmental issues that directly affect Gibsons, including Aquifer 560, our watersheds, natural assets, stormwater and climate resilience.
I do not have an extensive history of climate advocacy, and I don't want to suggest that I do. What I bring is a willingness to learn, listen to people with expertise, look at the evidence, and consider the environmental consequences of the decisions we make.
Questions for Gibsons
Howe Sound is part of our community. We rely on it for transportation, recreation, tourism and our local economy, and we have watched its marine environment recover over many years. A major increase in LNG shipping would affect the same waters used every day by BC Ferries, recreational boaters, commercial operators and wildlife.
An expansion of that scale should require a careful look at what the additional activity would mean for Howe Sound as a whole. We cannot look at one vessel or one project in isolation. Regulators need to consider the cumulative effect of increased LNG traffic and the shipping and industrial activity already here.
Gibsons does not make the final decision on an LNG expansion, but we are one of the communities that would live with the consequences. Our role is to speak up, participate in the regulatory process, work with neighbouring local governments and Indigenous Nations, and ensure the people who live around Howe Sound have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them.
If industrial activity in Howe Sound increases significantly, the people who live here deserve a meaningful say in how that happens.
Compiled & presented by
Vote4Tomorrow is an independent voter guide to evaluate where local candidates stand on climate and environmental policies that will affect our future.