(00:01):
Well, I mean over my head no one told me trying to keep my footprints all as harder than I thought it could be. I'm in over my head, what do I really need? Trying to save the planet oh will someone please save me? Trying to save the planet oh will someone please save me?

(00:25):
Welcome to in Over my head. I'm Michael Bartz. Well, this is another edition of Planet Saving Superstars where I talk to everyday folks who are doing great environmental work. My guest today is Alison Gu. Let's meet her. Welcome to In Over My Head Alison.

(00:40):
Thank you so much, Michael.

(00:42):
So you are a city councillor in Burnaby British Columbia and you became a councillor at the age of 24, which I find super inspiring cuz you were such a young person. So tell me about your journey into politics.

(00:55):
Yeah, so I would say my background is in climate activism and organizing. I was super involved in the climate strikes that started, I was back in Montreal at the time and the first climate strike that kind of came about was thanks to a lot of student activism that came from the history of Quebec strikes and fighting against higher tuition. So that legacy kind of followed through with the climate strikes and then climate strikes kind of took off across the country. And so I was really involved in that organizing. I was super involved in like youth climate mobilization efforts. And then the I P C C report came out, which was that big UN climate scientist report back in November of 2019 or 2018 that essentially said we have until 2030 to make massive sweeping changes in order to limit or prevent runaway climate change. And that timeline really hit home for me. I've been involved in environmental advocacy and more recently climate justice organizing since I was 15, 16. And that really hit home, the report really hit home the timeline that we're in and I kind of got frustrated because I was like, it takes so long to convince these politicians to do something and to do something at the scale and at the urgency that the climate requires of us. And so maybe I need to stop spending my time trying to convince people and actually go into politics myself.

(02:28):
Yeah, and I love that you saw that challenge that we have and those goals we have to reach. And you decided to take action to do something, especially in politics, which can be very, like you said, slow-moving and arduous. And so what was it like as a 24-year-old getting into politics?

(02:44):
It was a lot of extremes. So on the campaign trail, I'd have people who would only vote for me because of my age because our city council was and still is to some extent quite a bit older and not representative or reflective of the age demographics of our city. And then the other extreme was people completely trying to tear me down and you don't have any experience. How old are you? Are you 18 yet even can you vote for yourself yet? And having my voice or authority when I brought up policy issues or issues that I wanted to advance, people saying that that was too naive cuz I was young, I could never get that accomplished and kind of trying to slow things down by decreasing any legitimacy that my issues or my voice had.

(03:33):
And you're kind of proving those people wrong now cuz you've been elected, you've been reelected and you've been working on some of these policies. So yeah, tell me about some of the work you've been doing.

(03:41):
Yeah, so on climate change, there are a couple of big motions that I did that I'm proud of. The first one was we received a report that was slating a section of one of our largest intact forests that remains for development. And this section of the forest was one of the most important sections because of the topography of the forest. It's quite a steep slope down and it's right next to the brunette river, which is the river that tmx the pipeline is going to be running alongside. And a lot of the forest that was alongside the river previously is no longer intact because of pipeline construction and the way that just torn down all the trees. So it's really important because as we see more of these torrential rains and these downpours water gets flushed into our rivers and creeks and streams and it increases the turbidity of that water and increases that volume of that water.

(04:44):
So it can mean that habitats are very easily destroyed by how quickly the water is running into the sides of the banks. My emotion to protect all of the forests was passed and that work is going to be continuing. Another piece of work that I passed in my first term was around transportation. So cycling and active transportation is a huge way that municipalities, one can help fight climate change. But two are fully in jurisdiction out. So one thing that you'll hear often from people who follow local politics, they will say, you know, municipal governments have to stay in their lane. Fighting climate change is not something that is in a local government's jurisdiction, but that's not true because infrastructure, roads, streets, street design and generally urban planning of infrastructure as well as housing is a huge way that municipalities can help fight climate change.

(05:41):
In Canada, municipalities can influence about 40% of the country's emissions and the biggest way that that happens is through personal transportation. So because we've created all of these cities and suburban areas that are reliant on automobiles, we create a lot of carbon emissions and a really important way that not only helps to fight climate change but also helps to create more enjoyable, lively, thriving cities, is by designing our cities for people. Again, not just designing them for cars and building housing where people work and play and also making it easy for them to get to their grocery store or their gym or wherever it is they're trying to go to buy bike or public transit or another form of active transportation. The motion that I put forward was to expand the cycling network implementation by improving connectivity to sky train stations. So that's our rapid transit and by ensuring that we have safe routes to schools to make sure that kids can travel by bike and to end something called orphan lanes, which comes as a result of our development paying for cycling lanes. And it means that a lot of partial lanes are created, which is pretty unsafe.

(07:01):
Speaking of active transportation, you are a cyclist and you did a, a bike trip, a rather long bike trip related to climate action and walking your talk. So tell me about the bike trip you did.

(07:12):
Yeah, so in 2017 I cycled from Ottawa to Burnaby against the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline and at the same time raising money for indigenous land defenders that were fighting the project in court. And the project was kind of for a couple of reasons. One, it was a demonstration of how far away the decision-makers were from the communities that were being impacted. So Ottawa of Burnabee took about seven and a half weeks by bike, which is a big distance and shows just how detached the high-level policymakers are. Then I was wanting to help actually make a tangible difference too, not just the symbolic trip of activism by raising money for indigenous land offenders because it was a way for settlers to show up and actually put their money where their mouth is. But at the same time, fighting these projects in court is one of the best ways to slow them down or to kill them and to ensure that indigenous nations are leading that work like they have been for time in memorial.

(08:15):
How was that biking from Ottawa to Bebe just physically? Was that something you'd done before?

(08:20):
No, it wasn't and it was something that after doing that trip, I firmly believe that anyone can do a long-distance bike trip as long as they have the time. part of the biggest limiting factor and I trained a little bit, but you end up just training on route. It was really beautiful and enjoyable and probably one of the most incredible things I've done in my life.

(08:41):
And you also were raising money for this lawsuit. What was the outcome of that? How did that go?

(08:47):
Yeah, so they actually won their court cases and the Squamish Nation won the court case and got sent the project back into the hands of the provincial government to require more stringent environmental criteria and I did some advocacy and lobbying around making sure that the provincial government here in BC actually did make those requirements more stringent.

(09:10):
So in your work in Burnaby, you've worked a bit on housing and equity as well, which I find interesting. Tell me a bit about some of that work.

(09:18):
Yeah, so especially in municipal governments, I really strongly believe that housing justice is climate justice, and social justice is climate justice. When we look at the impacts of climate change, especially in kind of our urban areas, who is most affected? It's people who don't currently have homes to live in. It's people who are low income, people who have disabilities or intersections of vulnerabilities that make them more susceptible to heat waves. Being able to exit an emergency in a timely, safe manner. All of those intersections mean that municipal governments can tackle climate change with the lenses of equity and housing. Oftentimes when it comes to mitigating climate change, that comes with this idea that we should be building complete communities because when you don't approve housing in urban areas, what ends up happening is that housing gets pushed farther and farther and farther out, which means that forests get further raised down, streams get paved over, grasslands get paved over, and it also means that we're then pouring a ton of investment and literally concrete into building highways and infrastructure to get people from their homes to their workplaces. And in all that you're creating emissions and at the end of the day, the person who lives in that sprawl housing, cuz that's the only thing they can afford, then creates a ton of GHG emissions per year trying to travel from their community to their workplace or to wherever they socialize or play. And that all means that we have a more disconnected society because people aren't interacting the same ways that they would if people are on bikes or on public transit. And at the same time, we are making climate change worse in the process.

(11:13):
Yeah, and so have you put any motions forward with housing and equity in Burnaby?

(11:18):
Yeah, so, so far my motions on housing have kind of been, they, I, I mean I guess they're not completely unrelated to climate, but I prefer a motion on purpose-built rentals and purpose-built rentals. One of the biggest reasons in my opinion that we're seeing the price of housing where it is today, especially on rents, is because we stopped building rentals that are rentals forever. In the 1960s, before the 1960s, the federal government had very good incentives and financing programs to build these types of housing. And now they're mostly the most affordable units that remain partly because of their age and partly because there's nothing else that stays rental forever. So when we have private landlords who own units for investment purposes and then they rent it out, they're much more incentivized to evict people if they see that the market changes and they can charge suddenly charge a lot more.

(12:13):
And often these people are evicted unfairly and illegally. And it also means that renters don't have the security of staying in a community for a long time. They don't have the peace of mind to, you know, think that, okay, my kid's gonna grow up here and he's gonna go to elementary school, or she's gonna stay and graduate high school in this community. And that's, that's a huge problem because oftentimes renters are people who can't afford that down payment, who don't have that intergenerational wealth. So from that lens that it is an equity lens. And the motion specifically was also looking at how we can incentivize or encourage or facilitate new purpose-built rentals to be built in missing middle housing. So this is the kind of ground-oriented housing that hasn't really been built because of things like exclusionary, single-family zoning where we only got high rises or single-family homes and not much in between. So that's kind of the essence of the motion. But the motion also looked at how we can encourage co-op housing, new co-op housing to be built and for that co-op housing to be sustainable and long-lasting for generations.

(13:27):
Oh, that's great. And like you said, it's not related to climate directly. I think it still impacts it. Like you talk about just the way we design our cities and how we get around our cities and live and be part of communities. I think it's all good work. So I think that's amazing. If someone wanted to get involved in politics, would you have any advice for them on that journey?

(13:46):
So I think my first piece of advice is that you can be very political, which is what I was, I didn't really have a partisan stripe. I liked a lot of, you know, green policies. I thought that an NDP was strategic in some ways and so I was always torn between those two. So I, because of my political experience had built up a lens of issues-based organizing and mobilizing, that helps me to be able to translate that later on in my city counsellor role in order to actually run. There's a lot of culture of loyalty, politics and partisan politics. People seem to trust you more when you've demonstrated a history of being committed to a specific party or a specific, you know, stripe. And that's not always the case for local politics because it varies across the country. But where I am, my city is very strongly partisan.

(14:50):
So it was a bit of a pushback for me that I had to fight to demonstrate that I don't come to politics because of dedication to partisanship, but that doesn't mean I'm any less strong of a candidate. So where, you know, people feel pressed for time if climate change is a very real-time limitation and restraint, it's helpful in that context to get involved in some form of partisan politics in order for you to run with that party later on. Because it builds trust, it builds networks, it builds relationships and it helps especially young people gain legitimacy in their name. I think the most important thing to keep in mind is to remember the skillset that you wanna develop. And working as a candidate is a very different set of skills than working as an elected official. And unfortunately, it's not always the best-elected official that is good at campaigning.

(15:55):
In order to win that campaign set of skills we have to be working on talking to people, relating to people, meeting people where they're at, and doing what organizers do, which is translating their concerns and their issues into how getting involved in local politics makes a difference. A lot of people underestimate local politics for an avenue of change and making sure you communicate to them, this is why you need to vote, this is why you need to vote for me. And connecting their issues because nobody wants to be lectured about what matters. People know what matters to them, but we need to make those connections. So the biggest thing is being able to talk to people, communicate with people, relate to people, and make people feel that they're heard and understood and that maybe you don't have all the answers, but you'll do everything you can to get those answers.

(16:50):
So that's the biggest skill set for winning an election. Campaigning door-to-door, especially in local politics, is hugely important. The rest of the stuff, can come later and I'm happy to do another podcast on what to do once you've become elected. But I would say critical thinking is the most important thing. Being able to understand issues, apply the lenses that you care about, maybe it's equity, maybe it's climate, maybe it's housing, and then ask good questions and push people to do the right thing. Persuasiveness is really, really important, but you can't get there without that critical thinking lens of how do I communicate this issue? How do I understand this issue and how do I improve this problem?

(17:35):
Yeah, this has been a very inspiring conversation. Alison, thanks so much for coming on the show.

(17:40):
Thanks so much for having me, Michael. I really appreciate it.

(17:43):
Well, that was my chat with Alison. I love that she got involved with politics at such a young age because she, she wanted to actually make a difference and actually make a change. So to me that was really inspiring and meeting people where they're at. As a politician, you've gotta talk to different people from different backgrounds and bring people together. So I thought that was a really good message. Well, that's all for me. I'm Michael Bartz. Here's the feeling a little less, you know, over our heads when it comes to saving the planet. We'll see you again soon. In Over MY Head was produced and hosted by Michael Bartz original theme song by Gabriel Thaine. If you would like to get in touch with us, email info@inovermyheadpodcast.com. Special thanks to Telus STORYHIVE for making this show possible.

(18:22):
I'm trying to save the planet. Oh, will someone please save me?