On March 15, 2022, the Village of Pemberton (VOP) declared a climate emergency in response to a local youth-led climate action petition. The declaration, though largely symbolic, detailed the human and financial costs of letting climate change run rampant. The Village has seen devastating flooding and forest fires in the years since.
"The impacts of climate change are obvious,” said Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman. “[The declaration] gave us something to rally around.”
Directly following the declaration, the Village of Pemberton published a Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP), which charts a path towards net-zero emissions by 2050 through six “big moves.”
Those six areas of climate action include: providing alternate forms of transportation, electrifying transportation, exceeding provincial energy efficiency standards for new buildings, decarbonizing existing buildings, reducing and diverting waste and ensuring climate action becomes part of the VOP’s regular decision-making processes.
Three years after Pemberton’s climate emergency declaration, Pique spoke with Richman about the work the Village has already done and what’s still to come on the climate file.
Shift beyond the car
The transportation sector accounts for a significant share of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, Canada’s transportation sector produced 28 per cent of the country’s emissions.
But in Pemberton, where public transportation is limited compared to larger municipalities and where people often have to drive out of town for work or supplies, that figure jumps to 83 per cent, according to a 2022 emissions audit included in the CCAP.
“It is the single biggest point of attack for us to reduce emissions in our valley,” said Richman. “So our local transit system continues to grow. We continue to invest in it, to find ways to make it more effective.”
In 2024, the Route 99 commuter added 1,500 hours of transit between Pemberton and Whistler.
Future transit growth will be aided by the next phase of the VOP’s multi-modal hub. Most of the hub’s first phase was completed in 2024, offering carpool parking, a washroom and picnic tables. Phase 2 will add a bus exchange and electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, along with other amenities, pending a successful grant application.
A loftier goal is an oft-discussed regional transit system that spans the entirety of the Sea to Sky, from Mount Currie and Pemberton to Vancouver. Richman cited the social, economic, medical and, of course, environmental benefits of the hypothetical route.
“You could pull a bunch of cars off the road,” he said. “That would be a huge, huge win. We're all pretty stubborn on this one. We want to see this through.”
It's not just about increasing public transportation; the CCAP calls for encouraging different modes of transportation, in part by expanding walking and cycling infrastructure to help reduce emissions from commuting.
“The best example right now is our Friendship Trail, which takes you from the village right through the Industrial Park,” said Richman. “And we want to complete the last segment so it goes right into Mount Currie, so we've been in discussion with [Lil’wat Nation] on how to connect it up so it's most appropriate for their members.”
He also singled out the Ridge and Sunstone developments for future connections.
“We're doing our best to connect the different pockets of our community with downtown,” said Richman. "So we want to improve transit to [those areas] as the community grows, as well as alternative ways to town so we can reduce that traffic.”
Electrify transportation
Another way to cut into transportation emissions is to swap out internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with EVs.
EVs produce fewer emissions than ICE vehicles, even when the electricity is derived from fossil fuels. That’s partly due to EVs’ generally superior energy efficiency. And Canada’s renewable energy profile means emissions gains from EVs are more potent. As of 2021, 89 per cent of energy in B.C. comes from hydroelectricity.
But when it comes to EVs, one concern remains—range anxiety; concern that a vehicle will run out of juice between charging stations. For Pembertonians, that concern is exacerbated by the gulf between municipalities; it wouldn’t do to get caught on the Sea to Sky highway with a dead car.
“We've expanded our charging infrastructure,” noted Richman. “We've got some on Aster Street and [near] the Community Barn. We have chargers at our community centre, and we'll be putting some in at our multi-modal hub.”
Another idea is to install chargers along the Sea to Sky highway to negate that range anxiety. Richman said not to get overly excited about those stations moving ahead in the immediate future.
“We have to compete for grants for all these things,” he said. “Whether it's chargers along the Sea to Sky highway, whether it's the expansion of our multimodal hub, we don't have the funds within the village.
“So unfortunately, we're out there competing with our fellow communities for a finite amount of money.”
EV adoption in Pemberton is trending up, year-over-year, despite some volatility, with 2024 seeing record numbers of new EV registrations in the Village.
Step up new buildings
The B.C. Energy Step Code was added to the provincial building code in 2017. The policy established energy efficiency standards for new construction. The minimum step new construction is required to meet moves up every couple years, reaching net-zero energy-ready buildings by 2032.
As part of the CCAP the VOP opted to move ahead of the province’s timeline; while the rest of B.C. is currently at Step 3 of the code, the Village now sits at Step 4—which demands new construction be 40 per cent more energy efficient than a 2018 baseline reference.
“We went to Step 4 well before anybody and it's a tough one,” noted Richman. “We all know about the affordability issue in our valley, in our corridor. So every time you add building requirements per square foot, construction costs go up.
“But after vehicle emissions, building emissions is one of the highest, so we went for it,” he added. “And we've considered, at times, ‘do we go back a little bit in certain exceptional circumstances to make sure that people can build homes themselves?’ But we stuck to it because we feel it’s important.”
The VOP recently considered stepping back to the third step as part of a series of housing initiatives, with the goal of accelerating the construction of new units by making it less expensive.
Decarbonize existing buildings
The Step Code addresses new buildings; but existing buildings, particularly older buildings, account for some of the biggest losses in energy efficiency. That’s why the CCAP singled out supporting energy retrofits and fuel switching in buildings.
The hurdle is that the VOP doesn’t have the financial resources to subsidize homeowners and businesses making the necessary renovations to make their spaces more energy efficient.
“For us to have a rebate program where we refund or help support financial people to get heat pumps or new doors or all those sorts of things … It's just not feasible,” said Richman. “Which is really unfortunate, but there's no way that that is within our budget.”
So, the bulk of efforts here are to educate residents and builders on what provincial programs are available to help make their home or business more energy efficient, using resources like Better Homes B.C. and Better Buildings B.C.
Close the loop on waste
Landfills are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. When organic materials decompose in landfills, they release methane—a planet-warming agent 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
That potency is why the CCAP set out to divert organic waste away from the transfer station in the Industrial Park. The station is managed by the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD), but, like most SLRD services, is paid into by the VOP. Richman said the Village has collaborated on educating people on what should and shouldn’t go into the station, in an effort to divert organic, methane-producing material.
“I think we still have a lot of ground to make up," he said. "But if you compare the numbers from about five years ago, our diversion rates are absolutely much better than they were, but I want to see them keep improving.”
Organizational leadership
If you’re a regular attendee of Pemberton’s council meetings (which at least one report suggests you probably aren’t) or a local reporter for Pique Newsmagazine, you’ll notice a section in every bylaw report, study or other material presented to council by staff; a consideration of how every municipal policy shift might affect the climate.
“We're trying to put this everywhere in the work we do,” said Richman. “On every single report that comes to council, there is a section, whether it's applicable or not.”
Richman adds that the Chair of the Next Generation, acknowledged at the top of every meeting, is a reminder of council’s duty to work towards making a safer, cleaner future for Pemberton; a mandate that includes addressing climate change.
The Village of Pemberton’s climate strategy can be read in full here.
