An Equity-Focused Review of the City of Vancouver's Draft Climate Emergency Action Plan (conducted by the Toronto Environmental Alliance)

Opportunities to Improve Equity:

• Indigenous peoples:
  • Acknowledge First Nations communities and their traditional unceded territories
  • Consider distinguishing Indigenous communities from equity-deserving communities to acknowledge their unique experiences and the specific obligations of the City to recognize their needs
• Centering equity:
  • Place greater emphasis on the significance of equity throughout the plan from the very beginning and continue to integrate it throughout
• Centering justice:
  • Demonstrate justice in the process, from design to implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and re-design
  • Whose voices are missing from the plan? How are people with disabilities, newcomers and refugees, seniors, LGTBTQ2S+ people, and youth being engaged when deciding the City's priorities and solutions?
• Acknowledge the past:
  • Explicitly acknowledge the harms historically enacted by the City on equity-seeking groups to understand the ongoing impact of systemic oppression and inequality
• Acknowledge the people:
  • Rather than describing people in generic terms like "renters" or describing areas as "dense," name the specific cultural group being described or use language such as "racialized"
• Translate:
  • Offer translations of all support tools, advice, services, and incentives for residents, community groups and local businesses
• Advance benefits and prevent harm:
  • Move beyond the bare minimum (seeking to avoid harming marginalized and vulnerable groups) and go further by identifying ways to specifically benefit those groups and advance equity

The review identifies further opportunities to centre equity, such as:

• Addressing transportation inequities
  
• Deepening the Complete Communities Framework
  
• Ensuring that public EV investments have co-benefits
  
• Preventing tenant displacement and prioritize investments in low carbon existing buildings
• Addressing social and economic factors in Scope 3 emissions
• Supporting inclusive & green economic development

Additional details can be found in the review.