This Webinar was held Wednesday March 24th, 7:00 PM

Perspectives from the Inside. Three elected officials will share their unique perspectives on the challenges and urgency of prioritizing the climate agenda for local government.

Laura Dupont is a two-term Port Coquitlam City Councillor and President of the Lower Mainland Local Government Association. A member of Metro Vancouver’s Climate Action Committee since 2015 and a member of Canada’s Climate Caucus, Laura is also engaged in consensus-based watershed governance as a member of the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable.

Alison Gu is currently the youngest Burnaby City Councillor and only the second woman of colour to ever serve on Burnaby’s Council. Elected on the mandate of climate justice, affordable housing, and racial justice, Alison believes we must especially centre the voices of Indigenous, Black, and racialized individuals when building the solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change while creating a more just and equitable society. Alison will focus on the ways that local government can enact change and how citizens can help.

Rik Logtenberg is a councillor in Nelson, BC and is the founder of Climate Caucus, a national network of local elected leaders, as well as Earthnet, a social network for climate action. Rik will be speaking about strategies for inspiring fellow Councillors, staff and the community to embrace change.

Our moderator will be Nadine Nakagawa. Nadine, a New Westminster City Councillor, organizes the Feminist Campaign School. The school program is intentionally designed to provide knowledge and skills to people who have been historically excluded from civic leadership because of their race, gender, sexuality, disability, socioeconomic status, class, or a combination of these and more. The training program includes sessions to support campaign staff to run campaigns that intentionally respect the lived experiences, individual and collective wisdom, and produce top results.