Vancouver City Council narrowly passed a motion on July 20, with Mayor Kennedy Stewart casting the deciding vote, to spend over $600,000 - taxpayer dollars - for a city lawsuit suing “big oil” for selling gasoline and heating fuels that cause climate change.  This is a big mistake because:

1. It’s not a city jurisdiction or responsibility - any lawsuit should be done by the federal and provincial government as in other cases;
2. At a time of rising crime and 4 stranger attacks a day, crumbling roads needing repair, homelessness, opioid overdoses, and other community needs, spending over $600,000 to hire lawyers on a hopeless wild goose chase is crazy;
3. Even if the lawsuit were somehow successful and “big oil” had to pay millions in damages to Vancouver, what would happen?  Gasoline prices in Vancouver would go up to cover the costs!  We pay for a lawsuit, then pay more to fill our vehicles? Brilliant.
4. Major corporations like “big oil” can spend millions of dollars fighting this in court - and their best argument will be that Vancouver residents buy and use gasoline and other fossil fuels themselves to drive their vehicles!  In April 2022, Vancouver retail sales of gasoline totalled $341 million alone.
5. The Mayor and many Councillors voting in favour are hypocrites who voted for the Broadway Plan to build hundreds of concrete high-rise towers that create Greenhouse Gases and use massive energy for heating and cooling up to 40-storey skyscrapers!  And they tried earlier to cut the Vancouver Police Department budget by $5.7 million despite rampant street crime!

So tell Vancouver City Council to immediately reconsider and drop this waste of taxpayers’ money now!