Derrick O'Keefe

School Board · Vancouver

Vancouver 30 yrs

About

I’m a parent of two school-aged kids, a renter, a union member, a community advocate, a writer and researcher, a long-time COPE member, a volunteer basketball coach, and a life-long activist for climate justice and the public good.

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 electric heat pumps and air filtration systems. 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.

✓ 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.

✓ 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.

✓ 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. 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?

I have been an activist my entire adult life. I was a leader in the anti-war movement and have been active as a volunteer, organizer, and staff person with various Vancouver-based environmental organizations.

I was working for the Wilderness Committee during the earlier years of the fight against the TMX pipeline expansion, and have always participated in climate actions and in movement building. I am particularly interested in seeing greater connections made between our housing and climate justice movements.

I am a renter and public transit user. I have zero investments in the stock market and am actively committed to fighting for a post-capitalist world. As a democratic socialist, I believe the solutions to the climate crisis must be collective and must take care not to harm working class and poor people.

Questions for Vancouver

What is your position on gas hookups for new buildings?

I have opposed ABC's repeated efforts to roll back and overturn the ban on gas hookups with new buildings. COPE is committed to restoring climate leadership in Vancouver around building standards.

Will you vote to restore full funding for the Sustainability Office? In your view, what is the role of the Sustainability Office?

As a School Trustee I will support all sustainability-related programs. And, yes, COPE is fully committed to reversing all the cuts to climate and sustainability at City Hall and all levels of our municipal government.

What is your view on a moratorium on AI data centres, given the natural resources they require?

COPE support a moratorium on AI data centres in Vancouver, and I support the call for a moratorium on AI chatbots in Vancouver schools.

Given the “controversy” of the Villages Plan, how do you envision accommodating the population growth of the City while dealing with the impacts of climate change?

We need to adding affordable housing of all types throughout the city and connecting every new development with fast and accessible public transit and multi-modal transportation infrastructure.

What is your plan to create climate safeguards for all of Vancouver’s inhabitants, including the unhoused population?

We need to stop criminalizing poverty in Vancouver and tackle the crisis of hoarded wealth by the super-rich. There is a great deal of fearmongering about the unhoused, and I will always push back on this poorbashing. COPE will reverse the ban on new supportive housing, expand the city's network of public washroom, and push for greater mental health care funding and service delivery.

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Authorized by Doctors for Planetary Health - West Coast, registered sponsor under LECFA, doctors4planetaryhealth@gmail.com

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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