Suzie Mah

As a current school board trustee, I support the Vancouver School Board's Sustainability Plan. Schools, as integral parts of our communities need to do it's share in mitigating climate change. We have many ageing schools that are not seismically safe and when we do rebuilds or retrofits we need to look at ways to make our schools more energy efficient and less reliant on fossil fuels. I am also a strong advocate for free transit for teens and if we were to implement free transit, students would be less reliant on their parents driving them to and from school. Finally, I strongly believe in using our school spaces to create more green spaces. I would commit to pushing for school gardens at every school site as well as enhancing our tree canopies on school grounds. Many children and youth live in towers and have little access to natural playspaces. We need to create these for the generations to come. On a personal note, I have installed a heat pump in my home and I am also purchasing a hybrid vehicle to reduce my carbon footprint.

If we can go towards eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels, that would be good.

I am running for School Board so I would not have decision making power to restore full funding but I fully support the need for having the Sustainability Office. If we believe in mitigating climate change and doing what is right to preserve our planet, we must fund the coordination of the city's climate action plan.

I am in support of a moratorium on AI data centres. As an incumbent running for school trustee, I helped write our political party's (COPE's) platform position on the introduction of AI into our schools. Please see the following:● COPE will put a pause on the use of GenAI and chatbots.

● COPE will engage and consult with stakeholders and the broader community to implement a technology audit with a specific focus on the use of AI in schools.

● COPE will engage and consult with stakeholders and the broader community to create VSB policies and procedures to address the concerns below:
■ Safety and privacy for students
■ Impact of AI usage on learning outcomes
■ Impact of AI usage on student mental health
■ Equity of technology resources
■ Need for transparent and robust consultation with stakeholders and community on AI usage and adoption in schools.
■ Impact on the use of and validity of results when AI is used for public engagement and consultation.
■ Impact on climate and the environment of AI usage and adoption
■ Lack of student AI usage policies and procedures
■ Lack of staff AI usage policies and procedures
■ VSB practises potentially in conflict with proposed Federal Bill C-34, The Safe Social Media Act

Accomodating growth and responding to the impacts of climate change should be interconnected. First of all, it's the people in this city who need to have a voice in what they want to see in their communities. A transparent process for this must be in place. Careful planning of infrastructure - the needs for a complete community, must be decided upon first before building density. Infrastructure such as transit, schools, libraries, childcare and eldercare, small businesses, parks, community centers, and health care faclities, must be there to support the density. When we build, we must build "green" and make sure that we use renewable resources.

The unhoused and those who live in poverty suffer the most in our climate emergency. Cooling stations, shade trees, shelters that utilize renewable energy and efficent "green" heating and cooling are ways that we can taking care of our most vulnerable populations.