Mauricio Curbelo

Council · Saanich

Saanich - Gorge Tillicum 6 yrs

About

I'm a civil engineer + MBA building a life in Saanich. I’m running because I believe Saanich councillors should be independent, politically moderate, and have a track record of serving the community.

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.

✓ Incentivize electric heat pumps and air filtration systems. 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

✓ Implement a 'right to cool' bylaw to protect tenants during extreme heat events. Supportive

Climate Justice

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.

~ Endorse the fossil fuel treaty and commit to phase out fossil fuels. Neutral

~ Enact a moratorium on AI data centres to protect our energy and water resources. Neutral

✓ Pursue available legal options to recover a fair share of the climate costs facing our community from fossil fuel companies and other big polluters. Supportive

✓ Collaborate with Indigenous peoples as partners in the stewardship of the land, air, and water, and work towards reconciliation. 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.

✓ Protect and restore ecosystems, which are essential to human survival, health, and economic well-being. Supportive

✓ Expand and protect tree canopy, parks, and green infrastructure to cool neighbourhoods, clean air, and manage stormwater. Supportive

✓ Prioritize native tree planting in all areas, especially those with low tree cover, higher population densities, and more vulnerable residents. Supportive

✓ Create connected urban greenways for people and wildlife. Supportive

Land Use

We envision vibrant, walkable communities that protect nature and improve food security.

✓ 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. Supportive

✓ Expand EV charging infrastructure. Supportive

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.

✓ 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.

✓ 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?

Through my involvement in the Gorge Tillicum Community Association, I've been an advocate for a greater diversity of housing and transportation options. We should thoughtfully grow our community so that workers don't have to commute from elsewhere and add to traffic and emissions, and we should make non-car transportation options viable - reliable transit, safe bike routes, and connected sidewalks. A particular highlight for me was fighting to restore the frequent Route 11 bus to the Gorge - and winning - after BC Transit briefly canceled it in 2023.

I also served on the Saanich Heritage Foundation, helping preserve Saanich's historic buildings. This work arose out of my experience restoring my own home, including the work of improving the energy efficiency of an 1895 building while preserving historic character and original elements.

Questions for Saanich

What are your top priorities for the next 4 years to address climate and environmental goals in Saanich?

Ensure Saanich builds enough housing to prevent people from having to relocate to the westshore for afforability reasons - especially young families - while ensuring new homes fit appropriately into neighbourhoods.

Provide a variety of transportation options to Saanich residents: continue to build out the Active Transportation Plan (60% of which isn't even active transportation, but rather, necessary roadway infrastructure upgrades) and begin infrastructure work associated with the Road Safety Action Plan.

Address as best as possible our $51M annual infrastructure replacement deficit. Gradually replacing aging infrastructure with modern, climate-ready alternatives is a key climate mitigation action we can carry out at the municipal level.

How will you apply a climate lens to all your work with your fellow elected representatives, given competing priorities?

Rather than see climate as "its own thing" that needs to compete with other priorities, we should recognize how climate issues cut across our other existing work around housing, transportation, and infrastructure. We already have an opportunity to carry out climate action through the regular work of the municipality.

How will you provide leadership in moving Saanich towards meaningful climate action?

A key aspect of my leadership will be pushing for climate OUTCOMES. For example, Saanich has an award-winning climate plan, while we are unable to meet tree-planting targets or even properly care for recently-planted trees. Too often, we focus on symbolic climate actions (e.g. banning things, making declarations, declaring emergencies) rather than carrying out work which actually makes our community more resilient. Muncipalities bear the brunt of adaptation costs while having little influence over the extent of climate change we end up enduring, so it is important to me to focus our actions on real-life outcomes rather than more report-writing, and this will be my area of focus - on this issue and all others.

Vote4Tomorrow is an independent voter guide to evaluate where local candidates stand on climate and environmental policies that will affect our future.

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