Michael Burnett

I walk, bike, inline skate, or bus everywhere I go, and have done so for decades. I buy locally, when I can. I'm a happy community gardener. I respect and conserve water. I recycle and compost. I live a low resource consumption life, to the best of my ability. I have participated in social justice and climate activism by being active in the anti-globalization movement in the late 90s and early 2000s. I've been tear-gassed and had rubber bullets fired at me for standing with people defending our earth. I chose youth and social change/activism as my dissertation topic. I speak out against climate change denial. I support causes and actions advocating climate action. I educate myself on climate change and recognize the dire situation facing humanity. I support and will advocate for Aware's policy commitments. Public education and awareness are crucial for all life on our planet. Thank you for your efforts. I am grateful to be a part of the unity of our shared vision.

I support and respect Aware's efforts, local expert knowledge, and environment guidance. I agree that Whistler's top priorities should be to prepare for climate-related risks: extreme weather, wildfires, changing environmental conditions, and to make the community aware of the need for change. Respecting these priorities, I will vote in council based on local knowledge and evidence-based research. I will use my facilitation skills to bring people together to voice questions and explore possibilities. I will respect, listen to, and bring resident concerns and ideas to the council. I will collaborate and vote in council to create solutions to these priorities. Whistler's greatest resource is its people. Together we can prepare for and mitigate these climate-related risks.

Having been the executive director of a social services non-profit society, (contracted with the provincial ministry), I understand the challenge for a non-profit to sustain operations and fulfill its mission with insecure funding. I understand how important a strong environmental organization is to a community, and by the nature of its mission, the importance of autonomy to speak out about environmental issues, without fear of losing funding support for doing so. If elected, I will be a friend and ally to the non-profit sector, in general, and to environmental organizations like Aware, in particular. I will advocate for the RMOW to respect and make commitments to community organizations. In any healthy partnership/relationship, respect and commitment are essential. I will vote that the RMOW commit to secure and continued funding for Aware to ensure environmental sustainability, climate action, and community resilience. With secure funding, Aware can focus its attention on achieving its vision.

I believe Whistler's success indicators should go much beyond economic growth and tourism, while respecting that those indicators will always be important in a resort municipality. I believe the heart and soul of a community is its people, their happiness, health, and well-being, their participation, contribution, hope, sense of belonging, and being appreciated. Of equal importance, is the communities livability, environmental flourishing, and respect for and care of the natural environment, her peoples, and her wildlife. These qualitative indicators would influence my decision making most, while respecting the need for a healthy tourist-based economy. Happy and cared for workers would best welcome guests to our home, providing good service--the best invitation to return visits, strengthening our economy.

Whistler is beautiful, a natural jewel of our province, and of our world. I know Aware wants to preserve the natural beauty that is central to our identity, quality of life, and economy. Having experience in community organizations and activism, and having respect for local knowledge and expertise, I recognize that AWARE is the expert in Whistler to be guided by to answer these questions. For me, this relates to your question about partnership, creating and committing to relationships with organizations, like Aware, to ensure that preservation. If elected, I will be a strong advocate for prioritizing that relationship, to protect local ecosystems, biodiversity, and watershed health over the next four years. I promise to be a voice for that shared vision. New people on council can bring new perspectives, passion, voices, and commitment for our community.

With respect, I'm not sure that posing the question as a matter of how to create a balance between growth and development and environmental protection is the best way to think about this. "Balance" suggests give and take, that it's a matter of compromise. But growth and development are intentional human activities, infinite in scope, subject to unbounded imagination. The environment, on the other hand, isn't infinitely plastic, as we know. There is no real compromise, because the environment is the encompassing factor that sustains and makes human life and activity and our infinite imaginings possible. Attempts at compromise, however well intended, acknowledge the degradation of the environment, within the project of managing the degradation. My apology if that sounds pessimistic, but I think it needs to be said in a community that sells nature. We need to think about this practically. That means that the environment has to be the priority. But, I think that when we try to do that, we are going to end up talking about limiting growth. That may be the practical solution to protecting what we can of the environment. This is a politically complex and paramount problem. Canadian scientist and environmentalist, David Suzuki, argues that the biosphere must come first because human society and the economy are entirely dependent on the health of the natural world. I strongly believe him. I am open to learning from and with others about how we can best protect our environment and achieve long-term climate goals.