NWP city councillor Daniel Fontaine appeared on the Jas Johal Show yesterday to speak about our most recent heat wave and how it is impacting some New West residents. During the 2021 ‘heat dome’ we saw temperatures soar into the 40+C range. The BC Coroner’s Office subsequently reported that over 600 people died province-wide due to the heat. In New Westminster 28 people lost their lives. That resulted in the Royal City having one of the highest per capita death rates in BC.
“What I’m looking at is whether we can use our New West Utility this summer to provide emergency funds to assist with the purchase of an air conditioning unit for low-income individuals,” says Fontaine. “I’m also hoping we’ll be able to support those same people by giving them a break on their utility bills that will result from additional energy use this summer.”
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH COUNCILLOR FONTAINE BY CLICKING ON THE ICON BELOW
The City of New Westminster collected just over $1.9M in a ‘Climate Action Levy” in 2022. This is as a result of a 3.5% surcharge being placed on the electricity bills of all residents. It also collected over $26 million dollars worth of carbon credits in 2022 which was socked away in the Climate Action Reserve Fund. To date, those new funds have yet to be earmarked or spent.
“We have the money in our bank account now to assist residents being impacted by climate change,” says Fontaine. “If we truly consider this as a crisis, an emergency, then we need to use every tool in our toolkit to take action today. Leaving those funds in our Climate Action Reserve may generate some interest revenue, but that is cold comfort to those who are going to swelter in the heat this summer.”
Recent media reports indicate the Province of BC is considering a new program to assist low income individuals to purchase an air conditioning unit. This stems from a set of recommendations from the BC Coroner’s Office which were released in 2022. However, it appears the launch of the program is at least 5 months behind schedule. In a related Vancouver Sun story published today, they state:
“A B.C. government review to consider issuing cooling devices as medical equipment to people most at risk of dying during an extreme heat event is already 5-1/2 months overdue and is not expected to be complete until the end of June…It shouldn’t take this long,” said Isobel Mackenzie, B.C.’s seniors advocate, who was a member of a B.C. coroner’s death review panel that recommended the medical equipment review.