Riley Thompson

I have yet to volunteer or advocate directly for climate action. I am incredibly supportive of protecting our climate and am a firm believer in anthropogenic climate change. I do try and reduce my personal carbon footprint, my partner and I share one vehicle, I ride my bike as much as I am able, I am a consistent recycler and implemented a recycling program at one of my previous jobs. I also thoroughly support the 3 R's by reducing my single use garbage, reusing and repurposing what I can, and recycling whatever I cant.

Aside from that I'm an apprentice electrician. A lot of what I do every week is the physical work of the energy transition; EV charger installs, service upgrades to support heat pumps, and the electrical work that lets buildings run on electricity instead of gas.

In building my platform I tried to highlight two areas of improvement in the local climate picture; our organics waste stream, and the economics of solar on city-owned buildings. If you read my platform I would like to continue the work on the Campbell mountain composting program, and if that takes too long I would like to explore other options to get a green bin program in Penticton.

In short, I am supportive of protecting the environment and I take small steps, but honestly I could and should do more.

First and foremost we can conduct a comprehensive study on the Lake-to-Lake route to determine successes and failures. As we all know there has a been a strong public backlash to the recent active transportation initiatives. I believe that in order to regain public support and continue building eco-friendly transportation infrastructure we need to take a look at the work that has been done and identify design choices that work for the whole community.

Secondly, Transit. I would advocate to the province/BC Transit to electrify our buses. BC Transit has said they want to electrify BC's entire fleet by 2040 I would like to begin the work to accommodate that transition. Which means we would need to develop the charging infrastructure needed to house and operate electric buses. I would also like to reevaluate our current transit schedules. Our ridership is less then optimal and that has much more to do with scheduling and consistency then anything else. I believe that by talking with riders we can determine if there are some routes that are just taking up resources without actually making transit more convenient.

My focus for 2026–2030 would be turning its broad goals into specific, dated targets with a public progress report, which is the gap council identified in 2022. I'd prioritize actions two ways: by where the emissions are, and by what can realistically be delivered this term.

Waste is the first action I'd push. Organics are roughly 40% of what we landfill by weight, and the regional composting facility is rezoned, designed and grant-funded, with the curbside food-waste contract now being negotiated. I'd hold the contract to its schedule and set the household collection fee at a level residents can afford. If we are unable to move forward with the current plan to complete composting I would reach out to
Net Zero Waste who presented an alternate composting plan to council in January 2025.

Transportation is 55% of our emissions and BC Transit plans to electrify its fleet province-wide by 2040, and Penticton isn't in the current rollout. I'd advocate to move us up that timeline, and begin preparing the depot charging infrastructure the switch will require.

Buildings are 30%. The programs already exist; the Home Energy Loan Program, EV Ready Homes, and Green Build standards. I would focus on a communication and engagement campaign to increase uptake in these programs rather then starting something new.

Most of what makes a city resilient is unglamorous maintenance. Knowing that I would start with the pipes and roads. The city's own budget admits to a $10.4 million a year gap between what we should spend renewing our infrastructure and what we do. Undersized storm drains and aging water mains are the first things to fail when the weather turns extreme. Replacing them on schedule, and sizing new ones for heavier storms, gets us ready for the next one.

On wildfire, Penticton already has a FireSmart program and a Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan from 2022. The job now is following through: keeping the provincial FireSmart grants coming so we keep thinning fuel on the hillsides, and getting defensible space and fire-resistant materials into how we approve new homes at the edge of town.

With water supply is the harder question. We rely on a snowpack-fed system that's just come through four straight drought years and a record-low snowpack this spring. Before we count on it carrying twenty more years of growth, I'd want an updated supply-and-demand assessment under today's drought conditions, expand our reclaimed water network so parks are watered with treated water instead of drinking water, and build on the bulk water agreement with the Penticton Indian Band.

I don't believe we need to balance local priorities with emission reduction and environmental protection. Rather I believe these to be complementary or parallel priorities. While pursing immediate local objectives the environment should always be in mind and considered when pursing those ends. For example, There is a path to increase the affordable housing stock while at the same time maintaining environmental protections. In fact environmental building techniques often lend themselves to affordability by reducing heating/cooling costs or reducing utility bills with water smart appliances and energy efficient appliances.

If elected I will not choose antagonistic paths to achieving goals. Instead I will aim to collaborate and cooperate whenever and wherever possible. At the end of the day we are all in this together. As such I believe that by coming together as a community and as a species we can simultaneously solve the issues of today while working towards eliminating the problems of tomorrow.