Staff Report: Current Law & Urgent Action ~ A workshop on Local Government & Climate Change

by Jen McCaffrey

On March 6, 2009 the Centre for Global Environmental and Natural Resource Law at UBC's Faculty of Law hosted a one-day workshop at Robson Square. The workshop was focused on actions available to local governments in BC to address the impacts of climate change.

With a mandate to support sustainable real estate and land use in BC, the Real Estate Foundation has not traditionally been involved in targeted greenhouse gas reduction projects.Nevertheless, the Foundation recognizes the connection between climate change and land use decision-making and in this regard has supported many initiatives throughout its 21 year history to help land use practitioners achieve more sustainable land use decision-making. Our participation in the March workshop is part of the Foundation's ongoing interest in better understanding how we can support CIT partner communities to meet sustainable land use goals.

One of the common concerns for many speakers was the human inclination to address issues in isolation - in this case concerning climate change - in effect creating a climate change silo. The issue is real, and must be addressed; but we should be mindful of the need to maintain a broad view of all the pillars of sustainable development and tackle the challenges in a holistic manner in our communities.

The day opened with Dr. John Robinson looking at climate change on a global scale and how this translates to the BC setting. He expressed strong support for the provincial government’s climate change policies to date, particularly regarding the carbon tax. He wanted to dispel what he called the "erroneous information" being produced by the media about BC’s climate change policies, saying we have the best and most innovative suite of policies in the world right now to address climate change. Nevertheless, Robinson argues the current policy suite still won’t enable BC to achieve the 2050 targets set by the provincial government. He calls for “transformative change,” arguing that we should use public policy to achieve a new economy that meaningfully incorporates sustainability principles. In his view, the world will never achieve the necessary changes required to reduce our GHGs if we continue to focus on individual behaviour change. In addition to promoting a new kind of economy, the kind of transformative change needed also requires cultural change at the institutional level.

Alan Osborn and Lois-Leah Goodwin of the provincial Ministry of Community Development presented on current department initiatives including

• Community Energy and Emissions Inventory reports (CEEI) are now available to assist local governments with establishing greenhouse gas targets, policies and actions in official community plans or regional growth strategies. a measure community GHG emissions. The 2007 CEEI Reports offer high level estimated community energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from on-road transportation, buildings, solid waste and land-use change and are publicy available to anyone interested in tracking local government GHG emissions.There are some concerns about whether the methodology can be applied consistently and fairly in every community. Recognizing this concern , the CEEI's will follow an iterative process each year.

• Guide to Green Choice: a guide to help local governments with decision-making on settlement patterns, transportation planning, and sustainable economic development

Sean Pander of City of Vancouver and Russ Fuoco of the District of Saanich talked about what has been accomplished to date in their communities to address climate change. The formula for success is familiar: a combination of political will at the top and staff interest internally to drive the necessary changes – the institutional change referred to by Dr. Robinson. Nevertheless, local governments continue to struggle with lack of staff and financial resources. Questions from the audience also indicate there is continued desire for a step-by-step how-to guide: how to get started, how to build support, how to implement the kinds of changes achieved in Vancouver and Saanich. Participants said case studies are good, but detailed first steps are also valuable in understanding what to do first and how to make change happen.

Alex Boston of HB Lanarc Consulting was very positive about the broad scope of options available to local governments to mitigate and adapt to climate change. He reiterated some of Dr. Robinson’s message, saying that communities need to think beyond climate change, to engage all components of sustainability. He noted that most projects that have been successful in reducing GHGs or adapting to the impact of climate change were not motivated by concern about climate change. Rather, these projects, such as Smart Growth on the Ground, were motivated by some broad set of interests, often around the desire for better quality of life. With this in mind, he urged communities to think local and act local to find the right solutions for their community. Communities also need to look on the ground- not up in the clouds- for climate change solutions, primarily in our choices about settlement patterns.

Deborah Curran of Deborah Curran & Company and UVIC Faculty of Law was also very positive about the broad scope of bylaws and regulations already available to local government to reduce GHGs. From a long list of tools, she highlighted biodiversity conservation and sustainable water management as important adaption tools, the latter encouraging an important shift to watershed-wide zoning measures. Curran also noted the barriers to change that typically arise, and spent some time discussing how to tackle institutional and individual resistance to change. Her preferred methods: fostering collaboration and establishing meaningful and long term engagement with stakeholders.

Cheeying Ho of the Whistler Sustainability Centre provided an overview of the City of Whistler’s Whistler 2020 award winning strategy plan. She also talked about the purpose of the newly established Whistler Sustainability Centre. This non-profit consultancy is working with interested communities that would like to draw on Whistler’s expertise in sustainable resort development and sustainable tourism.

Jason Emmert manages the Community Assistance Program at Smart Growth BC (SGBC). He put forward the importance of connecting infrastructure financing to land use planning and sustainability goals. He noted that traditional infrastructure financing is an exclusively economic evaluation without consideration for environmental factors such as GHGs reduction targets and the cost of carbon emissions. SGBC will soon be releasing a report with recommendations on this subject.

Donald Lidstone of Ratcliff & Co, and the Law Institute of UBC wrapped up the conference with a detailed look at options available to local governments under Bill 10 and 27 and within their Official Community Plans. This was a very dense presentation and I won't be able to do it justice here in a summary. Nevertheless, the message was good - there are lots of existing legal tools available to local government and its' worth reviewing Lidstone's presentation for full details.

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JEN McCAFFREY is a Grants Officer with the Real Estate Foundation of BC.

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