Erik Minty talks about his background and why he decided to run for Port Coquitlam City Council in the October 15, 2022 election.

Erik has lived here for 25 years since receiving a degree in Engineering from Simon Fraser University. He appreciates the ‘small-town feel’ and sense of community in Port Coquitlam. Erik has volunteered in the soccer community and raising funds for cancer research and has a passion for public service.

He is running in the municipal election to address missed opportunities with respect to climate change. He first became involved politically with the BC Green Party.

Port Coquitlam has a Climate Action Plan in the works and Erik feels the two main climate-related risks are flood plain management and negative effects on mental health. Providing more green spaces and community gardens may alleviate mental health issues and food insecurity. Much attention during extreme weather events rightly goes to vulnerable people. However, Erik feels that opportunity exists for neighbours to help neighbours, with facilitation from the city.

He would use a collaborative approach with his fellow Council members by establishing a culture of trust and using his experience in team-building. Erik would like to see community town-halls where constituents can bring questions and comments and stay engaged and informed. Low voter turnout may be a result of disenfranchisement due to voters not seeing the change they expected due to lack of transparency and communication.

A lot of healthy, mature trees have recently been lost in Port Coquitlam. Erik feels that some mature trees could be retained by treating them as part of the landscape. Natural asset management provides a way to make informed decisions and to place a value on the tangible benefits of natural features including trees, ditches, berms etc.

Erik says the downtown core has the right amount of density with respect to living and commercial spaces to promote a liveable community. He would like to see opportunities for pedestrianization of streets and a better cycling structure between communities. He feels a conversation and public input is needed regarding bringing sky-train to Port Coquitlam.

Erik’s priorities would include flood plain management, holding town-halls to ensure the public is well informed about major projects, and bringing back open, inclusive committees with more citizen engagement.