With voters headed to the polls in one week, Burnaby council and school trustee candidates have been graded by local environmental groups when it comes to climate.
Force of Nature, Burnaby For Our Kids and BROKE (Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion) proposed seven questions to each candidate to find out commitment to policies and addressing climate-related issues.
The groups say responses were graded on the following criteria:
- Demonstrated knowledge of climate issues
- Demonstrated knowledge of existing and required climate-related municipal policies
- Presentation of relevant and feasible solutions to address climate-related needs in the community
- Demonstrated record of putting forward climate-related motions (for incumbents)
- Sense of climate urgency
- Willingness to learn and collaborate
- Personal action/commitment
- Demonstrated understanding of climate justice
- That responses were distinct personal perspectives, not boilerplate
Council candidates
- Alison Gu - Burnaby Citizens Association: A+
- Joe Keithly - Burnaby Green Party: A+
- Tara Shushtarian - Burnaby Green Party: A+
- Reah Arora - Burnaby Citizens Association: A
- Carrie Mclaren - Burnaby Green Party: A
- Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo - Burnaby Green Party: A
- Scott Van Denham - Independent: A
- Maita Santiago - Burnaby Citizens Association: A-
- Daniel Tetrault - Burnaby Citizens Association: A-
- Pietro Calendino - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Antara Deb - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Sav Dhaliwal - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Martin Kendall - Independent: B+
- James Wang - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Heymann Yip - Indepdendent: B
- Konstantine Roccas - Indepdendent: B-
- Deborah Skerry - Independent: B-
Ken Arnold (Independent), Gulam Firdos (Independent), Mona Grewal (One Burnaby), Mike Hillman (One Burnaby), Richard T Lee (One Burnaby), Richard N. Liu (One Burnaby), MichaelAngelo Robinhood (Independent), Brea Huang Sami (One Burnaby) and Tom Tao (Independent) did not respond.
School trustee candidates
- Peter Cech - Burnaby Citizens Association: A+
- Harinder Parmar - Burnaby Green Party: A+
- Jen Mezei - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Mikelle Saskamoose - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Kristin Schnider - Burnaby Citizens Association: B+
- Paul Kwon - Independent: B-
- Spenser Sproul - Independent: B-
Jeff Courson (Burnaby Green Party) and Rocky Dong (Independent) did not respond.
Full candidate answers can be found online.
