Dave Thompson

Many ways throughout my career. A few examples:

Moved Council motions, e.g.:
- making Victoria the first city to implement Zero Carbon Step Code
- Establishing rapid bus lanes
- Connecting Victoria bike-and-roll lanes to Saanich lanes

Moved CRD board motions, e.g.:
- Directing staff to increase climate action ambition
- Directing staff to coordinate transit flow and speed improvements across municipal boundaries.

Brought, sponsored and spoke in support of UBCM resolutions calling on the province to, e.g.:
- Increase climate action funding for cities
- Enable a class action suit against oil companies for the municipal costs of climate change
- Provide cities more tools to reduce emissions from buildings.

Advocated to federal government, e.g. for electric shore power for cruise ships.

Advocated for and supported policy development at City and CRD and publicly for, e.g. more parks, trees in underserved areas of Victoria, for blue-green corridors and linear parks, reining in regional sprawl that kills forests and local food production.

Co-founded neighborhood association Climate Action Group.

Trying to bus and bike more and leave the car at home, and switched to a PHEV (next up is EV or car-free).

Priorities:
1. Reducing fossil fuel burning that causes climate change - an existential threat. EVERY place must do its part. Emissions can be reduced through electrification and transportation alternatives, which I continue to advance through many policy and budget motions at Council and CRD and my own advocacy (examples in responses to other questions, and https://davethompsonvictoria.ca/welcome-and-blog-navigation/).
2. Preparing for climate impacts, which are worsening. I will continue to bring motions and advocate for adaptation, e.g. more trees, parks, green spaces (especially in urban core heat islands where populations are vulnerable) and other nature based solutions, and heat pumps, cooling stations, infrastructure hardening, managed retreat, social infrastructure, etc.
3. Education - the need to inform the public and overcome misinformation, climate denialism, action delay, fossil fuel promotion, etc.

How I respond when environmental protection is presented as conflicting with housing or economic growth includes gently pointing out facts:
1. A cleaner economy can create good, green jobs, e.g. https://columbiainstitute.eco/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Green-Jobs-David-Thompson-UPDATED.pdf
2. New homes and economic activity can be in the right places, i.e. developed areas rather than forests or farmland, where people can meet their needs locally, e.g. https://davethompsonvictoria.ca/leveraging-regional-growth-to-mitigate-climate-change/
3. “Trees versus homes” is a false dichotomy and we can have both, as Victoria has demonstrated by adding over 8,000 homes in ten years, while growing our tree canopy by an area equal to over 100 soccer fields. Our recent OCP updates encourage more contiguous growing space for trees.

Successive Councils have already made policies and investments to retain mature shade trees, expand canopy in heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods, improve public cooling and drinking-water access, and ensure all at-risk residents receive protection, and more can and will be done.

As far as specific policies and investments go, I would do the thing that is actually effective: bring a council motion directing staff to report back on status, past actions, and potential policies, costs, funding sources, and recommendations to achieve goals, and take it from there. Our Parks and Engineering staff teams are experienced and expert in these areas and related ones (infrastructure locations, etc.).

This is how it actually works in every functional city; Council sets goals (service level expectations), and staff make recommendations on how to implement it. (Council members leading with implementation ideas often get it wrong, and slow down goal achievement.)

Successive Councils have already made many changes to bylaws, development standards and approvals to retain mature trees, Garry oak ecosystems, wildlife corridors, adequate soil and permeable ground to obtain progress toward the 40% canopy target. That's why Victoria has made progress toward the 40% target, which target Council also established. This has been done by Council setting goals and service level expectations, and directing staff to find the means to implement them, as explained in the above response (this is how the council/staff relationship works in every functional city). Our recent OCP update expanded contiguous planting zones for trees, and established blue-green networks and linear parks, for example - all of which were staff proposals responding to council direction.

I would continue this effective strategy, ramping up Council’s goals and expectations, calling on staff for the implementation, and approving budget dollars as needed.

Interestingly, within the Questions for Victoria section, this question suggests necessary emission reduction (mitigation) needs to be affordable and accessible, but the above two questions regarding necessary adaptation do not. Buildings and transportation are the two largest sources of GHG emissions, with waste a distant third at 7%. To close the gap, we must substantially reduce fossil fuel consumption in buildings and transportation.

For buildings, since we eliminated fossil fuel heating in new buildings (my Zero Carbon Step Code motion), we need to reduce emissions from existing buildings. We have started that work with benchmarking and monitoring and some tax reductions for clean energy system retrofits, and we have advocated to the province for regulatory options (I sponsored this resolution at UBCM). Heat pumps are cheaper to run than fossil fuel furnaces.

For transportation we need to continue our policies and investments in electrification (e.g. we require EV charging stations at new buildings, and invest in public chargers), and mode shift, e.g. my motions supporting bus lanes and transit coordination between municipalities, and expanding protective infrastructure for people who use active, low-carbon, and more affordable transportation (their feet, wheelchairs, bikes, mobility scooters and the like).

I would, as explained in the two questions above, bring a motion to direct staff to assess status and efforts to date, and provide analysis and recommendations to further this work and achieve the goals.