Squamish councillor Jenna Stoner was recently elected to the executive board of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) by her municipal peers.
UBCM is an annual convention that pulls together local governments and establishes a forum for the members to engage with the provincial government about concerns the municipalities face.
An executive board helms the organization and, for the upcoming year, Stoner was elected into the position of third vice-president after serving one year as director-at-large.
“It’s always a vote of confidence when you get voted in by your peers to represent on an executive body,” Stoner said in a phone interview after the 2023 convention ended. “It was definitely empowering in a lot of ways that they put their trust in me through that election.”
In terms of what the position entails, Stoner explained it will be part of her responsibility, along with the rest of the executive team, to drive home some of the points established at the convention.
“I get to help shepherd some of the direction that we get from the membership at convention throughout the year and actually action into implementation,” she said.
The executive board will meet several times throughout the following year until the next convention in September 2024.
Speaking of some of the actions sought by municipalities, the District of Squamish put forward three resolutions of its own, which were all endorsed at the convention by the members.
Two of those resolutions related to large infrastructure projects and their impacts on local housing and public safety.
For example, the resolution related to public safety requested “that provincial regulation of temporary workforce accommodation be expanded beyond basic servicing and environmental requirements, and that monitoring, evaluation and accountability be expanded for specific recommended mitigation measures to minimize impacts on local communities including but not limited to gender-based violence.”
Essentially, as Stoner explained, the District wants the province to review how it assesses large infrastructure projects and hopefully take the impacts on housing and community safety into account early on in the approval process. These resolutions stemmed from the District’s experience with both the Woodfibre LNG and FortisBC projects in town.
“We don’t think that the [Environmental Assessment Office] process adequately reflected the potential impact that [those projects], one, will have on housing and two will have on community safety,” said Stoner.
With these two resolutions being endorsed, the province now has to respond to the resolution in the coming months.
Yet, speaking candidly, Stoner said it is unlikely that this resolution would resolve Squamish’s current problems.
“This probably isn’t going to solve the issue that we’re facing today,” she said. “This is really about taking a forward-looking approach and hoping that other communities don’t have to go through this same process.”
Still, earning the endorsement from the convention gives Squamish some advocacy leverage.
“It also enables us to more solidly go into other advocacy efforts and say that we do have the backing of all local governments in the province,” she explained. “It’s not just us, as Squamish, who’s kind of raising this flag.”
With Stoner’s election, the Sea to Sky Corridor has been well-represented on the UBCM executive board as Whistler councillor Jen Ford served as president over the last year. Ford now moves into the role of past president for the upcoming year.
City of Coquitlam councillor Trish Mandewo was acclaimed UBCM president.
Director Art Kaehn, of the Regional District of Fraser Fort George was acclaimed first vice president.
Coun. Wesly Graham of the City of Cranbrook was elected vice president.
For more information about UBCM, please visit ubcm.ca.
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