Vancouver has the capacity to create sustainable environmental change but lacks the influence and dollars to turn green dreams into reality, according to Mayor Gregor Robertson.
"We have a governance structure that's well over a century old," Mayor Robertson said Thursday at green business summit GLOBE 2010. "We don't have the tools to effectively finance and drive the change and that's where I'm most worried right now -- that we're totally reliant on a provincial and federal government who have a lot of other things to manage, and an incredible array of responsibilities, and they can't focus in on what cities need on a daily basis."
Mayor Robertson cited the need to grow rapid transit infrastructure within Vancouver as an essential element to reaching his goal of being greenest city in the world.
Vancouver is on a short-list of future rapid transit projects but both the province and federal government have indicated their next priority is to build rapid transit connecting northeast Burnaby to Coquitlam.
The benefits of rapid transit Mayor Robertson desires were underscored by Peter Busby, a Vancouver-based architect and advocate for building sustainable communities, who joined the mayor during a panel discussion on the future of cities.
Busby argued Vancouver residents could significantly drop their greenhouse gas emissions profile if dense communities with essentials services were built.
"Unfortunately, its going to take a Herculean effort to change zoning patterns in the western world because there are so many entrenched positions [but] the models are there in Vancouver."