Open Letter- Subject: Urgent Opposition to Bill M-216 Regarding Climate Targets, Public Safety, and the Right to a Healthy Environment
By Linda Jeaurond
Jan 15, 2025
OPEN LETTER To:
Select Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Bills
Hon. Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs
Hon. David Eby, Premier of British Columbia
Mayor and Council, City of Pitt Meadows
Mayor and Council, Municipality of North Cowichan
Mayor and Council, Town of View Royal
Mayor and Council, White Rock
Darlene Rotchford, MLA for Esquimalt-Colwood
Cc: Hon. Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr. Howard Njoo
CBC Vancouver News Desk
Robert Barron, Cowichan Valley Citizen
Sam Derksen, Black Press Media
Lauryn Mackenzie, CHLY
Cori Ramsay, President, Union of BC Municipalities
Jessica Clogg, Executive Director, West Coast Environmental Law
Theresa McClenaghan, Executive Director, Canadian Environmental Law Association
Margot Venton, Nature Program Director, Ecojustice
BC Nature
Chair and Board of Directors, Metro Vancouver Regional District
Board of Directors, Planning Institute of British Columbia
Registrar, Engineers and Geoscientists BC
Registrar, Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC
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Subject: Urgent Opposition to Bill M-216 Regarding Climate Targets, Public Safety, and the Right to a Healthy Environment
Regarding the proposed Bill M-216, the Professional Reliance Act, I am writing to highlight deficiencies in climate resilience and public safety that must be addressed to protect the public interest. If enacted as written, I fear Bill M-216 will impair the ability of municipalities to reach provincial climate targets and maintain public safety.
Erosion of Climate Resilience and Local Sovereignty
This legislation creates a direct conflict with the province’s own environmental mandates by prioritizing administrative speed over ecological stability. This while two critical UBCM 2023 resolutions, NR23 and NR73, remain in limbo – despite their focus on mitigating urban heat and reducing human thermal stress. (https://www.ubcm.ca/convention-resolutions/resolutions/resolutions-database). Free air conditioners are a welcome temporary fix, but they are no substitute for the vital cooling power of healthy urban ecosystems.
Democratic implications:
Claims made by proponents that this bill does not weaken public input are inaccurate. While Council may set a vision, a private professional can potentially approve a conflicting technical interpretation, creating a legal vacuum where municipal oversight is bypassed. As noted by the City of Pitt Meadows (https://www.pittmeadows.ca/our-community/news/media-releases/pitt-meadows-urges-province-revisit-bill-m-216-citing-public), this essentially hands control of public infrastructure to private-tier professionals without the safeguards the Province itself previously determined were necessary. North Cowichan Council has rightly described this as a “trend of democratic erosion” where authority is transferred away from public control.
https://cowichanvalleycitizen.com/2025/12/29/north-cowichan-raises-alarm-over-new-provincial-professional-reliance-act/
WHITE ROCK
CORPORATE REPORT:
-staff have significant concerns regarding the implications for the City, and more broadly for local governments across the Province.
Implications for White Rock
1. Erosion of Local Authority: The bill undermines Council’s ability to ensure due diligence. Peer review is a critical safeguard for complex projects involving geotechnical stability, stormwater management, and environmental protection.
2. Risk to Public Safety and Environment: Eliminating municipal technical review could lead to failures in slope stability, drainage systems, and infrastructure integrity, particularly in sensitive areas like White Rock’s waterfront and hillside neighbourhoods.
Additionally, removing oversight could result in fire suppression and life safety infrastructure not meeting practical operational needs or being placed in locations that do not meet the specific operational requirements of the Fire Department.”
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
Reports from professionals are frequently required as the City has lands in geotechnical and flood hazard areas, a tree protection bylaw, and environmental Development Permit Areas.
https://pub-whiterockcity.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=12204
—If a municipality mandates a 40% canopy cover to combat urban heat, aligning for example with the Metro Vancouver 2050 regional target (https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/Documents/metro-vancouver-tree-regulations-toolkit.pdf) a developer retained professional could still certify a plan that removes significant trees.
By stripping municipalities of the right to conduct technical peer reviews, Bill M-216 leaves heat mitigation and environmental strategies in jeopardy.
By forcing the acceptance of certifications that may reduce urban cooling or watershed integrity, the province may be facilitating a rollback of established health protections.
Ecojustice, May 2023:
The right to a healthy environment will be recognized for the first time under federal law. The legislation establishes a new duty for the government to uphold the principles of environmental justice, intergenerational equity, and non-regression — ensuring environmental protections cannot be rolled back. It also requires the federal government to consider the cumulative impacts of toxins, and their effects on vulnerable populations.
https://ecojustice.ca/news/mps-pass-first-major-update-to-canadas-most-important-environmental-law-in-more-than-two-decades/
Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE) (https://lop.parl.ca/staticfiles/PublicWebsite/Home/ResearchPublications/HillStudies/PDF/2023-12-E.pdf).
——if a heat map should identify a low-canopy area with a high heat signature, could a provincial bill that results in the removal of cooling standards potentially be viewed now as a direct violation of a fundamental human right?
Health Canada and former Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam have emphasized that urban heat islands (UHI) are a significant public health risk that requires local government intervention. Health Canada report Reducing urban heat islands to protect health in Canada.
Skyrocketing heat highlights risks facing B.C. in first disaster report in 28 years
“The B.C. Disaster and Climate Risk and Resilience Assessment (DCRRA), the first in-depth update on provincial risk since 1997… warns that the annual average surface temperature in B.C. is rising much faster than global trends. Since 1948, temperatures in B.C. have increased by 1.7 C, with the greatest warming occurring in winter (+3.2 C). By approximately the 2050s, the B.C. climate is projected to increase by 2.5 C, and by the 2080s, by 4 C, making extreme heat events “likely to almost certain.”
Report:
—-Weakening oversight of climate mitigation strategies at this
juncture seems particularly imprudent.
Critical Regulatory Gaps
The Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC has expressed concerns regarding the shift in liability and environmental stewardship.
(ASTTBC) (https://asttbc.org/bill-m-216-the-professional-reliance-act-overview-and-asttbc-update/)
West Coast Environmental Law:
In order for professional reliance systems to be successful, they must be underpinned by robust standards, rigorous oversight, and meaningful accountability. Where professional reliance is used to replace or bypass government oversight, it is essential that the system includes safeguards to ensure that the public interest—including environmental protection and public safety—remains paramount. Bill M216, as currently drafted, fails to provide these necessary safeguards and instead creates a system where private interests can override public protections.
UBCM President Cori Ramsay:
“This bill expands the definition of a qualified professional, and now you’re getting agrologists and biologists and people who don’t have the same level of life safety experience in approving these types of really important pieces of infrastructure in our communities,”
To address these and other gaps,
Bill M-216 should clearly distinguish who can certify works that impact life-safety,
Include a Duty to Report, “significant harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public or a group of people” similar to Section 58 of the Professional Governance Act (PGA),(https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/18047#section58),
An Independent Technical Ombudsman, to provide property owners with a non-adversarial path to resolve construction disputes without prohibitive legal costs,
Professional Standing for Planners, the Planning Institute of BC warns of serious harm to housing delivery if planners are excluded (https://www.pibc.bc.ca/pibc-institute-news/update-bill-m216).
Planners manage the intersection of infrastructure and human safety, excluding them removes essential ethical accountability.
Conclusion
The rush to implement Bill M-216 is inexplicable given that previous legislation has already significantly increased housing capacity, and major financial institutions report an industry downturn.
Deregulation of this nature has failed elsewhere—notably leading to structural failures in Australia and remediation gaps in Ontario. Municipal governance concerns are growing.
The Town of View Royal has requested a judicial review into the erosion of local government capacity (https://www.viewroyal.ca/assets/Home/Whats~New/2023/2023%2011%2007%20Ltr%20Mayor%20re%20Audit%20Bill%2044.pdf).
I urge you to withdraw Bill M-216. If it must proceed, it is your responsibility to protect municipalities, property owners, and our environment from the consequences of rushed deregulation.
Sincerely,
Linda Jeaurond,
View Royal climate activist and melanoma advocate
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See also:
Index of Articles Related to BC Bill M216 – CRD Watch Homepage
Index of CRD Watch articles concerning the environment/ecology. – CRD Watch Homepage
CRD Watch Homepage 
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