Mary Wagner

I have been active in the climate community since my youth, starting an environmental club at my high school. I later participated in Nature Kids Club with my daughters. Today, I am active with the South Island Climate Action Network, the Westcoast Climate Action Network’s local government team, and am a member of the Climate Caucus for elected officials across Canada. I also volunteer with FireSmart, Green Team, Bilston Watershed Habitat Protection Association, ReImagine Westshore and the new WISE group.

Personally, I have reduced my carbon footprint by living in a townhouse, choosing a vegetarian lifestyle for animal rights, to reduce my footprint and conserve water, driving a fully electric car, and walking whenever I can.

As a councillor, I specifically asked that a Climate Action Plan be included in the Strategic Plan and advocated for and supported actions including hiring a climate planner and adopting Emissions Level 4 of the Zero Carbon Step Code. I have served on the City of Langford’s Sustainable Development Advisory Committee and am now Chair. I immediately put forward a motion requiring electric heat pumps in every new multi-unit building; they are now required in all new builds.

This council overhauled the Official Community Plan to focus strategic development along transportation corridors, strengthen climate-resilient building standards, and embed targets for transportation mode shift and greenhouse gas reduction.

At the CRD, I serve on the Climate Action Task Force, Regional Parks Committee and as a water commissioner, speaking up for climate action at every opportunity.

Absolutely, I am committed to climate initiatives such the Zero Carbon Step Code, and I look forward to new initiatives recommended by a new Climate Action Plan! I was a champion for climate action at the City of Langford before being elected, and I have been extremely vocal about the importance of the Zero Carbon Step Code including at the City, in the community, at the CRD, and at conferences where I advocate to other local governments, as well as the Provincial and Federal Government.

In Langford, I have also championed improvements to living landscaping requirements including increasing the % lot coverage of landscaping and stopping the use of artificial turf on public lands, and championed tree canopy protection and replacement through the new Official Community Plan, the Urban Forest Management Plan and Design Guidelines for new builds. As already mentioned, I paved the way for heat pumps to be in every new building ahead of the adoption of the ZCSC, and I continue to look for ways to embed climate action into everything we do at the city, including advocating for transit improvements, implementing our new award-winning Official Community Plan, working collaboratively throughout the Capital Regional District for improved regional transportation, and bringing the Climate Action Plan currently under development to life, supporting a future where businesses and residents can thrive and we avoid the future costs of climate change.

The recovery of climate-change-related costs from polluters is an important tool to lessen the related burden on Langford’s taxpayers. As Langford has not had a Climate Action Plan or other significant plans such as asset management in the past, it will take some time to implement and transition our city to a more modern way of doing business. In general, we can make sure we green the City as a corporation, continuing to electrify our fleet, improve our public building efficiency and reduce our own emissions footprint. Our new Procurement Policy creates a strong framework for ensuring anything we buy at the city factors in benefits like reducing environmental impact, reducing future flood, fire and heat risk rather than just going with the lowest bid as had been done previously.

I have been advocating to the Province to improve its regulations and have supported initiatives such as through the Union of BC Municipalities to put pressure on the province and businesses to go green or pay for the damages they are causing that pass costs on to municipalities. In the future, we should explore the viability of initiatives such as the Sue Big Oil campaign to try to recover costs and continue to push the province to properly implement a polluter pays strategy.

If re-elected to Langford Council, I will be able to directly vote on matters related to implementing Langford’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) and advocate for its rapid integration into city processes. Properly funding climate initiatives and providing staff to carry out the work is critical. I will push to ensure specific CAP initiatives are included in a new Strategic Plan created by a new council. I also believe every staff report should identify the climate impact of a decision, with rigorous tracking to ensure we stay on target.

The CAP is well laid out, and I will advocate for both quick wins and long-term actions during a second term. High priorities for me include implementing a natural asset management plan, developing a food security strategy, and beginning its implementation.

Tying climate action to financial decision-making will be key. The CAP, for example, identifies integrating climate risk into asset management and capital planning. We can also use existing resources and plans to accelerate implementation. For example, the initiative “Strengthening wildfire resilience policies and development standards” can be tied to continuing FireSmart Langford and implementing the Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan.

As one of Canada’s fastest-growing communities, Langford should integrate climate resilience into development permit guidelines, with detailed requirements in a Climate Action Development Permit Area.
I will continue working with the CRD, municipalities, non-profits and community groups to leverage climate action and support a climate-resilient future.

In addition to my strong track record on climate action in the past, I am working with the new organization WISE (Westshore Initiative for Sustainable Ecosystems) that is bringing together leaders from around the Westshore region and planning a Bioregional Summit in 2027.

I am a strong believer in taking action today as well as following long-term planning to improve our future and to help mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change that we are already experiencing. Every dollar we spend today can come back ten-fold in future cost savings. Taking climate action is the right thing to do and the cost-effective thing to do. All levels of government need to make climate action a top priority and weigh other decisions against how much they support meeting our climate targets.

We can save in future repair and recovery costs as well as reduce health care costs by reducing climate impacts such as heat events, flooding that can lead to mold issues and wildfire smoke.

The new CRD Climate Action Strategy should be implemented and at the local level each decision should be assessed for whether it is helping us meet our OCP and Climate Action goals.

I am proud to have been endorsed by the Young British Columbians for Better Governance and to be working for a future that recognizes our responsibility to the environment and puts climate action at the forefront of our decisions and actions.