Rebecca Hasdell

Across my 20-year career in public health research and policy, I have worked on how food access, housing, and income security initiatives can deliver co-benefits for climate resilience and healthier communities. This includes some of Canada’s first research into how the grassroots Transition Town movement can improve community health, and how environmental not-for-profits can reduce inequities while building the resilience communities need for a changing climate. As part of my commitment to turning research into practical action, I have led provincial and federal investments in local food infrastructure programs to reduce the environmental impact of our food system, and developed guidance on how housing can be designed to improve health and build resilience to a changing climate. At a personal level, I use cycling as my main form of transportation because it is one of the healthiest, most efficient, and lowest carbon emission forms of transport, and grow my own food. These actions keep me grounded in how policy needs to make that easier for everyone in our city, and not just those with the time and space to do it.

Buildings are one of the biggest contributors to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions at the local level where municipal governments has levers through our building bylaw to make an impact on meeting climate targets. I do not support the reversal of the ban on natural gas for heating and cooling in new builds, and would also unpause the Energize Vancouver program (paused in May 2026), which requires large existing commercial and multi-family buildings to track and report energy use.

I would restore funding for a cross-departmental sustainability office to ensure that we are connecting the dots between initiatives that are already happening across the City. Its role should be to ensure that the city is using its levers in what we build, how we invest, and how we move around the city are advancing the City’s climate targets.

As a public health researcher, I have heard real concerns about AI hyperscale facilities operating in our communities without proper oversight. While the city can inform siting decisions through zoning of specific industries, we have a responsibility to work with provincial and federal partners to ensure appropriate impact assessment is conducted for major projects. This includes providing feedback to the BC Environmental Assessment Office and the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada on project-specific reviews that reflect the concerns of our citizens, and advocating for comprehensive environmental projections of new facilities that transparently account for their energy and water usage, as well as the possibility of environmental exposures to sound, light and air quality emissions, especially when facilities are powered by diesel generators. I would advocate that the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada utilize existing tools such as the Strategic Environmental Assessment to conduct a sector-wide assessment of these technologies to support future zoning decisions at the municipal level, and to explore ways in which these facilities (if build) are done so to minimize environmental impacts and impacts on rising energy costs that risk worsening affordability for our residents.

Vancouver is a growing city, and how we grow will shape our neighbourhoods and our climate impact for decades. That means building complete communities that include childcare, transit, green space, and the services people need so that density does not come at the cost of liveability, and community-based planning that gives neighbourhoods a say in the types of services they need as they grow. Including more types of housing options in parts of our city that have undersubscribed school, parks and other capacity, as well as access to transit, is needed to accommodate a growing population, and to give people housing choice at different stages of their life.

Safe and secure housing is the starting point to mitigate the increased risk faced by unhoused or underhoused residents during climate-related events. I support reversing the ban on new supportive housing so we can replace unsafe units and build housing with the services that people need to connect to health and other supports. We also need to ensure our public infrastructure is accessible during emergencies by extending the hours at libraries, community centres, and other public buildings during heat and smoke alerts so that cool, filtered-air spaces are available when people need it.