Getting from here to there isn’t just a concern on the ground, it is also about potholes and obstacles in policies and regulations.
When the province announced their desire to establish a Clean Transportation Action Plan (CTAP), the elected officials from this region quickly rallied their concerns around the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) debate table, worried that decisions would be made in warm, urbane Victoria that would be binding on the wintery, widespread rural north.
The provincial government announced themes they want the new CTAP to address. They want to see less distance travelled by pollution-emitting vehicles, for example, and a shift to greener transportation modes. They want to see cleaner fuels used by the transportation sector. They want to see an increase is zero-emission vehicles in active use.
The collective RDBN response was, how is that going to work in a climate and geography like ours? The lack of a functional bus or skytrain system, the lack of charging stations or hydrogen fuelling sites, the cost of transition to such vehicles, and their inability to perform reliably at -40C were all alluded to.
There was also worry over unintended consequences, like hurting the area’s already fragile food security or hitting the financial viability of vehicle operators who might have to expensively switch technologies.
Christina Ianniciello, executive director of the Clean Transportation Branch (under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation), met on-screen with RDBN directors to have a dialogue about these issues.
While most delegations make presentations to RDBN in the range of 10-20 minutes, the directors and Iannicello talked together for about 45 minutes.
Fraser Lake mayor Sarrah Storey started the discussion with the concern that northern landscapes were already paying a massive environmental price for the dams necessary for the so-called “clean” energy of the province, plus the enormous mining requirements all over the world to try to satisfy the hardware needs (batteries and other components of electric vehicles) of so-called “green” transportation.
“The solutions I’m hearing, like ‘you should get a heat pump’ when that’s not going to work in the north, or wind energy with its problems… I doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense right now… I don’t see (the targets) being possible. I want to protect our environment just as much as anyone else,” but she saw no environmental answers in the proposed environmental solutions on offer in the CTAP.
Director Stoney Stoltenberg (Smithers, Telkwa - rural areas) said he has had a hybrid (gasoline and electricity fuel combination) for 17 years, and reports from personal experience that the battery performance drops in the local winter by about 40 per cent, but even still he is getting another one because he appreciates the vehicle performance that much.
He added, though, that he had to drive more than 100 kilometres just to attend the meeting, and that was the northern reality.
“This is a big deal, for us in the north, mainly because our life is much different from that in the south,” echoed director Chris Newell (Houston, Granisle - rural areas). “I can’t think of many people up here who own an umbrella, just like down there, not as many people own a snow shovel. Things up here are a long ways away. I don’t believe this is realistic for our situation, and a lot of times things get forced upon us. A better way would be willing adoption. If it is just a better choice, people will adopt it. But we’re really not there yet. I don’t think we should throw our arms up and say ‘we can’t do anything to help’ but the north definitely needs to be looked at differently; rural life needs to be looked at differently. I don’t want to see us forced into something.”
Burns Lake mayor Henry Wiebe pointed out that the provincial graphics showed idealistic scenarios - no cold temperatures, no snow - and depicted the ideal options as bus, bike and walking, none of which were possible in rural living conditions.
Director Michael Riis-Christianson (Burns Lake’s rural areas) said “most of us wants to do what’s right so pour planet is liveable for our grandchildren but at this point, the technological solutions are either not appropriate or financial beyond my reach, like for a lot of British Columbians.” His concern was that CTAP would “further disadvantage rural and remote residents, or penalize them for where they live.”
Ianniciello said as far as she knew, the goals were being mandated into the affected industries, like the auto manufacturers, not the British Columbia consumer. Also, policy implementation had built-in review and ongoing consultation.
She also challenged the RDBN directors to come up with solutions that were northern. If rural residents couldn’t realistically participate in some or any of these options, what would be helpful, from the north, to drive down climate change emissions?
Some of the directors followed that up with several suggestions like infrastructure improvement support, sensible mass transit between communities, better trail systems (provincial financing needed), and others.
At presentation’s end, the directors voted to continue with the CTAP consultation process, and also lobbying efforts at the North Central Local Government Association through to the Union of BC Municipalities to keep northern realities more closely in mind than seems to be the case so far.