HomePoliticsVancouver City Council forcing tax payers to fund up to $700,000 on...

Vancouver City Council forcing tax payers to fund up to $700,000 on anti-oil activist group

Vancouver City Council greenlights up to $700,000 on lawsuit against oil firms

City of Vancouver is gearing up to splurge approximately $700,000 of tax payer money to fund a anti-oil and anti-fossil fuel lobby activist group to sue “Big Oil”.

On Wednesday, Vancouver City Council narrowly agreed to Green Party environmental activist Adriane Carr’s member motion to use municipal money to fund a class action lawsuit against fossil fuel companies. This motion was supported by environmental lobby group West Coast Environmental Law’s “Sue Big Oil” because the money would be to fund their campaign to “Sue Big Oil”.

The activism spending motion barley got enough votes in a 6-5 vote.

A vote in favour of the climate activism spending came from climate activists. The ones whote yes are environmental activists for the Green party, councillors Carr, Pete Fry and Michael Wiebe, “climate justice activist” City councillor Christine Boyle and environmental activist Kennedy Stewart as well as COPE councillor Jean Swanson

The votes in opposition to the motion came from ABC councillors Lisa Dominato, Rebecca Bligh, and Sarah Kirby-Yung, NPA councillor Melissa DeGenova, and TEAM councillor Colleen Hardwick.

Carr blames “big Oil” for natural weather damage of the seawall caused by stormy weather. She claims the burning of tax payer money on a “climate change” activist group will recover damage to the seawall or expand its current storm water infrastructure. This radical idea assumes the lawsuit is successful.

“This is a prudent fiscal move. Our city right now is spending about $50 million per year on adaptation, not mitigation, and that means repairing damage made by climate change. We have a lot of money that can be recovered,” asserted Carr during the meeting.

“This is a new source of revenue, and one that could reap us a lot of money back.

However if it is successful, the more municipalities across the country or even the world that jump on board shrink that recovery because oil companies don’t have infinite amounts of money. The more hands in the cookie jar the less cookies there are for each person.

Fry claimed the lawsuit against fossil-fuel companies role in “climate change” is comparable to lawsuits against Purdue Pharmaceuticals and people becoming addicted to OxyContin and overdosing.

The opposition agreed about moving away from fossil fuels but looking at the logic of the idea it misses the fact it will not “eliminate the use of fossil fuels at this time.”

“I agree with the seriousness of the issues of climate change, with increasing temperatures, and that there’s urgency to this matter. We need to move away from fossil fuels, I don’t think anyone at this table disputes that, and that we need to move to cleaner energy technologies and sources,” said Dominato.

“What I wrestle with since this motion was brought forward is I don’t think it’s the right tool in the toolbox… This is not going to eliminate the use of fossil fuels at this time.”

Dominato and Kirby-Yung both said previous City Council measures that are going to be imposed on city residents such as the climate tax. The Climate Action Levy – another tax introduced by Mayor Kennedy and approved by city council in late 2021 is supposed to “fight” climate change. The extra tax is supposed to raise $9 million annually starting in 2022 to pay for various projects under the “Climate Emergency Action Plan

Kirby-Yung slammed the claim the lawsuit’s cost per resident

Kirby-Yung slammed the claim that the expense of the lawsuit for each resident would be less than a “cup of coffee.”

“There have been a lot of ‘cups of coffee’ over the term of this council, and people are struggling to buy coffee beans or food right now,” she said.

Resident area already suffering from skyrocketing inflation which hit a 30 year high of 8.1% just last week. Canadians everywhere are struggling to pay for rent and food to put on the table.

We’re asking readers, like you, to make a contribution in support of BC Rise's fact-based, independent reporting.

Unlike the mainstream media, BC Rise isn’t getting a government bailout and fully independent. Instead, we depend on friendly support of Canadians like you.

A media outlet cannot remain neutral and fair if they have special beneficiaries or government handouts.

This is why independent media in Canada is more important than ever. If you’re able, please make a donation to BC Rise today. Thank you so much.

Jordan
Jordan
Jordan is a casual reporter for BC Rise
RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular