Sam Holland

Yes! Both my work, school and volunteer time have been devoted to climate justice issues over much of the last decade. I studied environmental history at university. I'm a committed advocate for safe, sustainable transportation, and a transit organizer. My recent work has involved climate friendly programming like starting the bike valet program, and doing climate and theft prevention grants for the Province. I think that urgent climate action is an essential part of protecting our democracy.
In terms of my personal carbon footprint, I tend to take transit, walk, bike before I drive, although I do use carshare from time to time.

My top environmental priorities are transitioning to low carbon home heating and transportation options; increasing safety, especially for those using sustainable modes of transport; and facilitating climate adaptation by growing tree cover, building needed infrastructure, and restoring our watershed.

Climate emissions in Oak Bay come from two main sources— home heating and transportation. Home heating is the simplest to tackle; I support replicating Saanich's extremely effective heat pump loan program, which allows residents to get low cost loans to install heat pumps and pay them off through property tax. Adding heat pumps is also a climate adaptation measure, as they also protect residents from extreme heat.
Transportation emissions are more complicated to address; they must be tackled from both ends. The District needs to legalize and encourage more small businesses so that residents can walk and roll to more of their daily needs. Oak Bay also needs to facilitate more attainable housing near existing services and transit. This will likely require a review of the Official Community Plan, a new zoning code, and tactics like pre-approved building designs. I also support building out a complete walk and roll network, so that everyone can get around safely and efficiently.

Oak Bay has to balance this densification with the restoration of the Bowker Creek watershed and increasing tree canopy in the District, which I will discuss more in the next question.

To me, protecting our urban forest and restoring the Bowker Creek watershed are essential climate adaptation measures. Regarding Bowker Creek, I support the full daylighting of the creek. We have already seen significant improvement in seasonal flooding as a result of partial daylighting, and this work should be continued. We should also be improving the watershed, through the creation of a municipal rain garden program to filter and better manage runoff. I also support municipal action on increasing permeable surfaces, such as with the creation of a charge for impermeable surfaces.

I also support rapidly expanding tree cover in areas without many street trees (Henderson, Willows, and the Landsdowne slope in particular have areas with relatively few street trees). As noted, the District can not meet its tree cover goals with existing public land alone. While I support strong tree protection bylaws, trees on private land will always be more vulnerable than trees in protected parkland. To me, this underscores the importance of expanding parkland across Oak Bay, including smaller neighbourhood parks, and in the longer term, possibly taking parts of the Uplands and Victoria Golf Clubs into municipal ownership for restoration. This approach is one of the only ways to permanently protect and expand endangered ecosystems in Oak Bay.

Previous councils have unfortunately concentrated development near the Bowker Creek floodplain, while limiting the types of housing options that can be built anywhere else. I support bringing more housing options to neighbourhoods across Oak Bay, while enhancing our urban ecosystem.

$70,000 doesn't go very far these days. Probably the most efficient way to spend it on community health and safety would be quick-build intersection improvements on a few of the most dangerous intersections in Oak Bay. People need to feel safe walking and rolling before they are willing to do it preferentially over driving (and intersection safety improvements benefit drivers too).