drank the kool-aid?

At the Board Meetings July 28, 2023 - MVRD the Mayors and Councillors on the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board approved the action of sending a letter to BC Premier Eby and various Ministries asking that they reform the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) and … urgently enact legislation that regulates greenhouse gas emissions from gas utilities …

Metro had recently unveiled their Climate 2050 Roadmap - Energy in April 2023 which advocates an energy transition from natural gas to electrical, partially by 2030 and fully by 2050.

Transitioning to use of electricity is an essential strategy to reducing emissions and reaching the region’s 2030 target of 45% reduction in emissions from 2010 levels.

On the heels of that comprehensive document (which the BC Government is well aware of) why is Metro now amping-up pressure on the Province for reform and regulatory legislation, in order to hasten that energy transition? What caused this greater necessity?

The letter was instigated by the City of Richmond who have been in conflict with Fortis and the BCUC since 2021 over the costs relating to relocation of natural gas infrastructure because of municipal sewer upgrades. Following determination of the issue by BCUC in favour of Fortis, Richmond legally challenged the matter at the BC Court of Appeals and alleged that a BCUC commissioner was biased. The court ruled against Richmond on the bias issue in November 2022, and the full matter is still outstanding.

It is interesting that Richmond Mayor, Malcolm Brodie, has changed his view regarding Metro’s advocacy role since the Fortis dispute arose. Prior to that, at a MVRD Board Meeting Feb 26 2021, Metro members were asked to endorse something called the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mayor Brodie’s comment about that action included:

What is the mandate of Metro Vancouver? Are we engaged as we’ve always been in the provision of the various kinds of utilities dealing with air quality, water, sewer, solid waste and that sort of thing or are we here to express our world view as to what all of society should be doing on a global level? I believe that it’s time we got back to our core mandates and remember what is the mandate of Metro Vancouver.

Whether we pass this or not I doubt that its going to effectively make a lot of difference. There are other matters on our agendas, both open and closed, that make a great deal of difference and affect us very directly, and I think that’s where we should be putting the emphasis.

But now Mayor Brodie apparently thinks differently and wants Metro to extend its core mandates to include political influence to achieve similar outcomes as the Non-Proliferation Treaty tried to do. During the July 28, 2023 discussion, when several Metro members voiced a number of pragmatic concerns, he expressed his frustration:

All we’re asking for is for alignment with the strategies and actions in the Climate 2050 Energy Roadmap … OK … that’s our plan. What’s the problem there?
  
Despite sobering information presented by Fortis that an electrification-only path would cost $100 billion more than a gradual gas phase-out to 2050, the Metro majority couldn’t see past their various eco-agendas. The request to urgently reform the BCUC and regulate gas utilities has likely now been sent.

Sometime between February 2021 and July 2023 Mayor Brodie and the City of Richmond must have downed a strong cocktail of global concern … and now, after pressuring Metro Vancouver to join their war on Fortis and the BCUC, they are likely hoping their Sewerage and Drainage operational reserves will soon become a lot greener too.