Participating Candidates:
Roozbeh Farhadi (Liberal)
Raymond Bhushan (NDP)
Rizwan Khan (sitting in for Richmond Hill Green Party candidate, Hasen Nicanfar)
Absent:
Daisy Wai (PC)
NEWS RELEASE
Richmond Hill All-Candidates Debate on Environment and Climate Change highlights community concerns ahead of the Ontario Election on June 2nd
Candidates commit to driving change in top voter priorities and community-level issues that are interconnected with a healthy environment.
RICHMOND HILL – On Thursday, May 12th, members of Target Climate and DRAWDOWN Richmond Hill hosted the first ever Richmond Hill All Candidates Debate on Environment and Climate Change. Organizing efforts were supported by GreenPAC’s ONDebate initiative to effectively spotlight critical connections between global warming and other priority issues.
Candidates were empowered to “deep dive their responses” about solutions needed to address problems facing Richmond Hill and beyond. While questions touched on affordable living for seniors and education needs for youth, there were also specifics about the controversial use of Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) currently affecting municipal decision-making about neighbourhood density.
Participant candidates included Roozbeh Farhadi (Liberal), Raymond Bhushan (NDP), and Rizwan Khan (sitting in for Richmond Hill Green Party candidate, Hasen Nicanfar). Incumbent Progressive Conservative MPP Daisy Wai originally expressed interest in attending, but informed the disappointed organizers the day before the event that she had scheduling constraints. Several of the 60 or so registrants who attended and participated through the Q&A were left asking why the PC party's views were not being represented...
“The candidates were engaged and well-prepared,” according to organizers Liz Couture and Esther Collier. “It was encouraging to see these issues being taken seriously by the three party representatives, particularly since polls indicate that most Canadians want governments to do more about the climate crisis”. Discussion revolved around mitigating carbon emissions using building retrofits, alternative transportation, and innovative waste management solutions. They expressed clear commitments to protect the Greenbelt, cancel Highway 413, reinstate electric vehicle incentives, expand transit, and fund renewable energy for a sustainable, resilient, and liveable future towards the end of the 21st century.
You can watch this debate in full at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwFFRJoWeyk
ABOUT ONDEBATES
A project is coordinated by GreenPAC. Visit ondebates.ca for more info and a list of local debates.
ABOUT DRAWDOWN RICHMOND HILL
A citizen group working on carbon emissions reductions using DRAWDOWN.org solutions.
Contact LizCouture@hotmail.com
ABOUT TARGET CLIMATE
A citizen group working with youth, residents, and experts to host networking meetings on climate targets.
Contact Esther Collier, targetclimatecchange@gmail.com
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