John Cowan
Council · Penticton
Penticton 2 yrs
About
I am running for city council under the banner of Moving Forward. As a senior citizen with a lot of energy, I have made Penticton my retirement home after along and successful career with the Canadian Pacific Railway.
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.
✓
Support electrification of new buildings.
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.
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.
✓
Expand and protect tree canopy, parks, and green infrastructure to cool neighbourhoods, clean air, and manage stormwater.
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!).
✓
Deliver reliable, frequent, affordable local transit.
Supportive
✓
Advocate to improve regional public transit between communities.
Supportive
×
Build bike and roll networks that are safe for everyone.
Opposed
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.
Supportive
✓
Protect and restore watersheds as vital municipal infrastructure.
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.
Supportive
✓
Support the development of a circular economy to eliminate waste and improve resilience.
Supportive
✓
Implement bylaws to eliminate waste from new buildings, renovation, and demolition projects and to use existing buildings as efficiently as possible.
Supportive
✓ 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?
No not in Penticton as I have only resided here since 2024. but when I resided in the Lower Mainland, I was for many years a huge advocate for recycling, so much so that I was a guest on a number of live open line radio shows with many listeners advocating to the general public that we all need to do our part for the future of the planet and for the betterment for the futures for our children and grandchildren.
Questions for Penticton
Transportation is Penticton's largest source of climate pollution. How can we decrease reliance on gas vehicles and improve how people get around the city using low emission transport (e.g. walking, biking, carpooling, bus/transit, EV)?
BC Transit seems to run a number of frequent bus services in and around the city. Is it sufficient? Not sure. Surveys to quiz the residents would certainly help but we do live in a society, where people insist on using their vehicles. Car pooling certainly helps reduce the carbon admissions but people need persuasion to try harder to leave a better carbon footprint.
Penticton Council adopted a Community Climate Action Plan in November 2021. How will you prioritize actions and set timelines to move the plan forward this term?
First off, Penticton has a Bylaw ( # 2025-01 ) to enforce and when necessary , fine people for unnecessarily idling their automobiles while parked, in excess of three minutes. For the two years I have resided in Penticton, I have never seen this Bylaw being enforced, especially when I see rampant abuse by motorists here unnecessarily idling their vehicles for long periods of time while parked. In the Lower Mainland, this Bylaw ( Vancouver Bylaw # 9344 and Port Moody, Bylaw # 2859 as examples) are strongly enforced by their Bylaw Officers . They should be doing it here as well.
Resilience is about being ready for unexpected shocks. Along with emergency response, what long-term planning measures would you recommend to protect our community from the impacts of increasingly severe weather events and wildfires?
Not sure what we can do to protect our community from "weather events" as this has become a global problem and concern. As per my response in the previous question, if it was enforced to have people stop idling their vehicles unnecessarily , collectively over that time, that would help to contribute. As per wildfires which so many are, "human caused", we as elected officials here have to work harder to lobby both our Federal and Provincial Governments to toughen up punishments for those who are responsible for starting wildfires be it accidental or intentional. City councils do not have the jurisdiction to pass such laws themselves but they need to work harder to lobby our levels of government to change and toughen these laws giving law enforcement more authority to police this huge problem and punish those responsible. Most, but not all fires, in the Okanagan are "human caused" which is horrendous.
How will you balance immediate local priorities—like housing, jobs, and healthcare—with the need to reduce emissions and protect the environment so we can secure a sustainable future for our children?
All of these things need to be prioritized. As a senior myself and with an approximately 30% senior demographic here in Penticton, healthcare is incredibly important and some improvements could be made for sure. We need more jobs here to entice younger people with families to relocate here. So many young people in there 20s and 30s have a strong desire to relocate here from the Lower Mainland as it is a better quality of life, and with more affordable real estate, but they have no source of employment available for them. Diversity within our population base here would be very beneficial. Efforts to entice companies and businesses from other locations to relocate here would be the way to go for sure. Reducing emissions would be tied to my previous answer about proper bylaw enforcement about idling vehicle engines which should be a huge component as well as trying to entice people to either carpool more often or use public transit.
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.
© 2026 Vote4Tomorrow