Burnaby council and school board candidates receive climate change report card

Burnaby’s school board and council candidates have received a report card grading their commitment to policies and actions to address climate change.

The report card was published by the Force of Nature Burnaby Team, Burnaby For our Kids, and BROKE (Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan).

The groups sent the survey to all candidates running for council and school board.

The following council candidates responded to the survey:

• Deborah Skerry – Independent

• Martin Kendell – Independent

• Konstantine Roccas – Independent

• Scott Van Denham – Indepenent

• Heymann Yip – Independent

• Carrie Mclaren – Burnaby Green Party

• Joe Keithly – Burnaby Green Party

• Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo – Burnaby Green Party

• Tara Shushtarian – Burnaby Green Party (Shushtarian has been an active Member of Force of Nature but was not involved with the development or grading of the survey, according to the organizations)

• Sav Dhaliwal- BCA

• Pietro Calendino – BCA

• James Wang – BCA

• Alison Gu – BCA

• Daniel Tetrault- BCA

• Reah Aurora – BCA

• Antara Deb – BCA

• Maita Santiago – BCA

The following school board candidates responded to the survey:

• Paul Kwon – Independent

• Spenser Sproul – Independent

• Peter Cech – BCA (Peter has been an active member of BROKE but was not involved with the grading of the survey, according to the organizations)

• Larry Hayes – BCA

• Mikelle Sasakamoose – BCA

• Jen Mezei – BCA

• Kristin Schnider – BCA

• Bill Brassington – BCA

• Gary Wong – BCA

• Harinder Parmar – Burnaby Greens

The Grades

The candidates’ answers were graded based on the following criteria: demonstrating knowledge of climate issues; demonstrating knowledge of existing and required climate-related policies, presentation of relevant and feasible solutions to address climate-related needs in the community; demonstrating a 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; responses were distance personal perspectives and not boilerplates.

A different set of questions was asked of council and school board candidates. For council answers, click here. For school board answers, click here.

When it came to the grades, Alison Gu (BCA), Joe Keithly (Green Party), Tara Shushtarian (Green Party), Peter Cech (BCA) and Harinder Parmar (Burnaby Greens) received an A+.

Out of the nine independent council candidates, five answered the survey. Two of the three independent school board candidates answered.

All BCA party members running for council and school board answered the survey. All Burnaby Greens council members participated and one out of two school board members answered. The entire One Burnaby slate didn’t participate in the survey.

Roslyn Hart, an organizer with BROKE and Burnaby For Our Kids told the Beacon that all candidates were provided with the contact info of the three groups that put together the survey in case they had any questions or concerns but were not contacted.

She noted that some candidates did give similar responses to certain questions and those who provided original answers received a higher grade.