[All] Responses from Ward 10 candidate Aislinn Clancy

[Yvonne Fernandes]

Please see the detailed responses from Aislinn Clancy – candidate for Ward 10 in the City of Kitchener.
I strongly encourage those in the group who live or know someone who lives in this ward to review her answers. I believe they are excellent.


Yvonne Fernandes

Community Liaison Doon Pioneer Park Community Association

Former  City  of Kitchener Councillor Ward 4
2010-2018

Follow your dreams of a better world, and keep on trying, even when there seems to be little hope, because it is the right thing to do." Robert Alan



Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10


First I want to let you know that I don't just have thoughts and knowledge but have been extremely active in creating change over the past several years.

I'm an active member of Citizen Climate Lobby, whose mission is to empower citizens to be the change we want to see and shape the dialog at the grass roots, grass tops and government levels through contributions in the media (I've published op eds and LTEs on climate finance and carbon pricing), trained hundreds on how to lobby government representatives and made tens of lobbying calls to MPs, MPPs and Senators all to effect progressive climate policy. I've been a lead in the project neutral initiative "talk climate to me" where expert webinar trainings are delivered to women to encourage them to talk about the climate and feel prepared to shape the conversation. As an active member of Shift Action - an not for profit working to ensure pension plans divest from fossil fuels, we have published, lobbied and organized to bring motions forward. Most recently we had a campaign that resulted in many municipalities in Ontario to speak up to OMERS about their investments in the fossil fuel sector through motions passed in Kingston, Toronto and Brampton. As part of this initiative I lobbied Sarah Marsh, my city councilor to bring this motion to the council in Kitchener, but was unsuccessful. I hope to bring this motion to city council if elected or if not elected, I will continue to push for this important policy. Also, I've been involved in campaigns locally to ensure climate friendly candidates are elected - donating thousands of hours and knocking on thousands of doors on behalf of the planet. In addition to all this, I drive an electric car, I've donated a heat pump to A Better Tent City, we are undergoing a reno that will take us off the grid, I've participated in all of the climate marches, often helping to organize, I've painted murals highlighted in the paper and our family has a core value of reducing our footprint and encouraging others to do the same - every day.


  1.

     *   How will preserving our natural green spaces, wetlands and forests create a sustainable, resilient community?
     *   What are the main sources of Green House Gas emissions in Waterloo Region?
     *   What do you know about the Transform WR report?
     *   How will plans for expansion of the iON help to shape our cities and reduce emissions?
     *   Why is it important to hold the Countryside Line and protect our fertile farmland?
     *   What strategies will be important to create affordable housing?
     *   How do you propose that we work toward reconciliation with our indigenous neighbours?
1. When we invest in green spaces, wetlands and forests we are investing in a livable and resilient planet for our community. As climate lobbyist for the past 4 years, I've been championing with our elected officials various policies that will help to reduce our carbon emissions and ensure livable planet for future generations. Climate change has become the most important factor shaping our planet, its clear that we have work to do. The warming of the planet is causing climate chaos and it is by investing in green spaces wetlands and forests that we can cool our residents, landscapes and living beings. By preserving our green spaces, we can be resilient as we are more able to cool and to absorb storm water, minimizing damage and creating wellbeing.

2. Transportation, Workplace and Homes

3. Climate Action WR report outlines how we can reach our climate targets, without going into specific strategies of how.  It is a roadmap for the efforts we need to make in order to keep our carbon emissions in line with the 1.5 degree target, and in line with our goals (the report writes about 30 by 30, but Kitchener and surrounding municipalities have signed on for 50% by 2030). Its meant to be a road map of targets to incrementally shift our city to becoming more sustainable and emitting less carbon.

4. Our city is very car centric at the moment, meaning public and active transport are not readily utilized by citizens because the infrastructure has been designed for ease of cars as the primary mode of transportation. With the expansion of the ION it will mean that more people will be able to easily use public transportation to get around, and will hopefully reduce our reliance on cars and emissions due to ICE powered vehicles. I hope it will bring more equity and connectedness to residents, meaning those in Cambridge can more easily access work, services and resources around the region, as well as suburban neighbourhood. This expansion could also mean we can intensify more easily within the cities rather than continuing with car-centric urban sprawl.

5. If more building takes place on rural farm land, we are again investing in car centric cities where people have large homes that have large carbon foot prints, we are paving over more of the area increasing temperatures and emissions. We rely on farm land to ensure we have a resilient and safe food supply. If we continue to pave over farm land we will reduce our capacity to feed ourselves and become more vulnerable as we increasingly rely on other parts of the world to feed us. Also, building expanded infrastructure, especially those focused on natural gas, will ensure that we are locked in to raising emissions for decades to come which is not in line with our goals as a city and region.  I would however advocate for sustainable forms of farming and some rewilding if possible.

6. In terms of housing, we continue to build large condo buildings which tend to benefit developers and those investing in real-estate (not as a primary residence). The type of housing we build has not alleviated the increased need for housing and tends to have a high price tag. I believe that we need to partner with developers and set expectations for developers to ensure the supply they provide our city matches the demands and needs we have. I would hope to increase the expectation for affordable housing per development, increase the expectations that developers build in line with environmental standards, I would create policies to punish bad landlords who circumvent the rules to increase rents, evict and gauge re. prices. I would promote adding units to homes where possible and ensuring those units meet the needs of our citizens (affordable). I would encourage the type of tiny homes for the hard to house, as used by a better tent city.  I would lobby other levels of government to ensure that all levels of government are not encouraging bad behaviour but promoting housing policies that benefit middle to low income families.

7. Reconciliation is a journey in partnership and consultation with indigenous peoples. I'd look to the recommendations from the TRC and create action items from those recommendations. Investing in initiatives such as those being offered by AO (donation of land for activities to promote the reclamation of land, tradition and empowerment). I was happy to see our first indigenous artist in residence. Recognizing indigenous people's rights to self-governance could be imbedded in our city. We can utilize a system as happens in parts of Europe where people with lived experience become our front line of the city to ensure that city services are accessible for folks with trauma related to institutions and oppression.

I hope that answers your questions. Sorry for the delay, I work part time (Tuesday, Wednesday and half Thursday) and am a mother of 2 working a campaign at the moment!! It feels like I'm drinking from a fire hose!

All the best and I hope to have earned your support,

Aislinn



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20220915/b42c35fa/attachment-0001.html>