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Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh) First Nations (Vancouver) – More than 65 organizations have signed on to a 6-point open letter calling on Premier David Eby and the BC NDP government to immediately reallocate infrastructure funds away from highway expansion toward public transit and active transportation.

Signatories include the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST), HUB Cycling, Sierra Club BC, Stand.earth, Wilderness Committee, David Suzuki Foundation, University of Victoria Students’ Society, and the Amalgamated Transit Union.

“An author of this week’s IPCC synthesis report said ‘misaligned finance is holding back progress.’ And BC’s transportation budget needs a major realignment to fit with our provincial climate targets,” says Eric Doherty, a transportation planning consultant and member of Climate Justice Victoria. “It makes no sense to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on urban highway expansion while doing consultation on a plan to reduce traffic 25% by 2030. We can’t afford years of talk and pave.”

The letter urges the BC government to demonstrate its commitment to emergency-level climate action, human health and wellbeing, and equity and affordability. 

“The Clean Transportation Action Plan cannot be just about the ridership in big urban centres, but must deliver reliable and accessible public transit to and from First Nations and small towns,” said Chief Marilyn Slett, Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “Providing safe and affordable transportation services is essential not only to reduce transportation emissions, but also to act on the Calls to Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.”

The first recommendation in the letter is to “Make affordable, accessible, and convenient electric public transit within and between all communities a top priority.” 

The open letter also calls for prioritizing funding for projects that reallocate road space from cars to transit lanes, protected bike and roll lanes, and pedestrian priority spaces.

“Investing in active and public transportation infrastructure is key, not only to face the current climate emergency, but to create enjoyable communities and achieve mobility justice for all” said Pablo Zacarias, Executive Director of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST). “People are ready for change. We have a growing population of seniors who no longer drive, families that are choosing to bike to school, and the younger generations that are just not interested in owning a car.”

The definitive IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on climate mitigation states that “transformative changes in the transport sector. . . are needed to meet climate targets”. 

“It isn’t enough to just switch from fossil fuel cars and trucks to electric vehicles; BC’s Clean Transportation Action Plan must be transformative,” said Shelley Luce, Sierra Club BC’s Director of Campaigns. “It will take a lot of electric buses, bus lanes and protected bike and roll lanes to reduce traffic by 25 percent in only seven years.”

“Rapidly electrifying the transportation sector, including trucks and buses, is essential as we build safer, cleaner, more sustainable communities,” said Logan McIntosh, SAFE Cities campaign director at Stand.earth.” And that’s exactly what we hope to see as part of BC’s Clean Transportation Action Plan.”

Additional groups can sign on to the open letter at bcclimateemergency.ca/sign-on until March 31. The BC government is accepting input on the proposed Clean Transportation Action Plan from groups and individuals until April 5.

The full letter with a list of endorsing groups can be accessed here.

Contact Information:

Eric Doherty, Transportation planning consultant and member of Climate Justice Victoria
250 818 8223, eric@ecoplanning.ca

Shelley Luce, Director of Campaigns – Sierra Club of BC
604-774-5730, Shelley@sierraclub.bc.ca

Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh) First Nations (Vancouver) | February 28, 2023: It is good to see the BC government spending more in a host of urgent program areas. And the BC Climate Emergency Campaign is pleased to see some modest increases in investments in climate action. However, with the release of BC Budget 2023, it is clear the provincial government remains a long way from spending what it takes to confront the climate emergency.

With respect to climate spending and investments, BC Budget 2023 highlights include:

• As per federal guidelines, the carbon tax continues to increase by $15/tonne, until it reaches $170 in 2030. However, BC Budget 2023 significantly enhances the offsetting Climate Action Tax Credit, increasing the dollar amount and expanding it to cover more households. The credit will now go to many more low and middle-income people, such that a majority of British Columbians will be receiving more from the credit than they pay in the carbon tax. With these reforms, the BC government has transformed the BC carbon pricing system from a regressive tax into a progressive one, enhancing tax fairness even as we charge more for carbon pollution.

• $100 million over three years in active transportation, a welcome move.

• $40 million will be spent on electrification of commercial vehicles over three years.

• Spending of $1.1 billion over three years ($300 million of which is new spending) on climate adaptation and community resilience infrastructure.

• Overall spending on CleanBC programs (BC’s climate plan) will increase by $44 million over three years, although half of this increase comes in the third year (2025/26), while spending on Emergency Management and Climate Resiliency will increase by $85 million over three years. This split speaks to an overall trend, namely, that as the reality of the climate emergency becomes ever present, the government is recognizing that it must boost spending with respect to both climate mitigation (actions to reduce GHG emissions) and adaptation (measures to prepare for climate impacts and boost community resilience). But it is spending more on climate adaptation than on climate mitigation measures.

• The BC government will boost spending for BC Transit from $111 million this past year to nearly $500 million in 2025/26.

• Over the next three years, the government will invest $1.2 billion in the Broadway Subway; $1.5 billion in the Surrey/Langley Skytrain extension; and $1 billion in other transit infrastructure. In 2023/24, these combined initiatives will come to $1.2 billion of spending.

• Interestingly, revenues from “natural” gas fracking is expected to trend down slightly over the next three years.

Overall 2023/24 spending includes:

• $101 million for the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness; 

• $306 million for CleanBC ($295 million from Budget 2022 plus an additional $11 million added in Budget 2023); and

• $1.2 billion on transit infrastructure.

Combined, this represents spending of about $1.6 billion.

Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern has recommended governments spend two per cent of GDP on climate action and mitigation infrastructure. For BC, with GDP forecast to be $400 billion this year, this translates to about $8 billion per year. However, Budget 2023 provides only about $1.6 billion in climate-related spending. These expenditures are roughly one-fifth of what is recommended to spend what it takes on the climate emergency.

As the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has noted: “Accelerated timelines for action accompanied by higher levels of investment in buildings, transportation and clean technology should be a top priority. In addition to reducing our emissions, the 2021 extreme weather disasters (which we estimate cost the province between $10.6 and $17.1 billion) highlight the need for major infrastructure investments in dikes, fire suppression and other adaptation measures to increase BC’s resilience. The better our infrastructure is today, the less must be spent to address tomorrow’s climate disasters.”

With respect to adaptation funding, the BC government recently announced $180 million to communities and Indigenous nations to prepare for disasters and emergencies related to climate change (in addition to the $369 million previously put into the fund). That’s welcome. But last year a Vancouver Sun investigation found “at least $13 billion is needed to protect communities from an expected increase in climate-fuelled disasters.” 

QUOTES:

“$100 million for active transportation over three years is a welcome small step. But this is pocket change compared to the billions budgeted for highway expansion in urban areas,” said Eric Doherty of Climate Justice Victoria and the Better Transit Alliance of Greater Victoria. “Highway expansion makes traffic worse, and increases greenhouse gas pollution. We need to reallocate these billions from highway expansion to public transit, walking, rolling and cycling infrastructure.” 

“The $11 million a year in new spending in this budget for CleanBC, to fund a pilot program to transition fleets to zero emission vehicles, is a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the challenge we face,” said Sven Biggs, Canadian Oil and Gas Program Director for Stand.earth. “We should be making generational investments to rapidly scale-up renewable energy systems, build climate-resilient housing, expand public transportation, create good jobs in sustainable industries but instead we’re continuing to spend billions on handouts for extremely profitable oil and gas companies.” 

“The time for incremental action on climate is long gone; the BC government must enter real emergency mode and demonstrate that it takes this existential threat seriously,” said Emiko Newman, Coordinator of the BC Climate Emergency Campaign. “The fact that Budget 2023 allocates merely one-fifth of what is recommended to climate-related areas indicates that the province has yet to treat the climate crisis like an emergency.” 

“It’s good to see this year’s budget boosting investments in the public sphere and public services, most notably housing. And the budget communicates concern for a future riddled with climate disasters. But it applies a set of solutions that don’t match the scale of the intersecting crises,” said Anjali Appadurai, Director of Campaigns with the Climate Emergency Unit. “While investments in climate resilience and transportation are very positive, we need to see a multifold increase in investments for a large-scale energy transition. This will require spending on mass building retrofits and clean energy expansion — but it also means spending on social programs that draw the public into a shared sense of hope for a safer and more equitable future. It means putting in place programs like a Youth Climate Corps and building up our social safety net, which is part of the necessary preparation for the climate disruption to come.”