Business Owner and Community Volunteer Wants a More Livable Coquitlam

Harvey Su knows all about pride in one’s community, especially during this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. With a cold can of Molson Canadian in one hand and a warm BBQ chicken drumstick in the other, he and his two daughters cheered on their favorite team, the Canucks, from their Coquitlam home.

He is also immensely proud of his city of 17 years.

“Coquitlam is surrounded by culture, the forest, and nature. I like the location. It’s quite convenient,” says Harvey. “Coquitlam is a very diverse community and very nice.”

He is also a community builder and wants the best for his city, including making sure Coquitlam is well-prepared to handle extreme weather, particularly the heat.

“Climate change is affecting B.C. Last year’s wildfire season marks B.C.’s most destructive on record,” says Harvey. “You can see the average temperature increasing every year; it’s hotter. When I immigrated to Canada in 1999, I thought it was so cool. I still saw snow on Grouse Mountain. I sent a picture back to my parents in China, and they were surprised.”

Harvey is the kind of contributing community member most cities dream of having.

He is the president of the Westwood Plateau Community Association, a director of the Riverview Horticulture Centre Society, the president of the Golden Maple Culture and Arts Association, and the founder of the West Coast Express Expansion Association. He also recently helped organize a fundraiser to support rebuilding a local school that burned down.

Harvey also runs an education service company and has recently gone back to school to pursue a Master of Business Administration. 

On top of all this, he has a passion for politics and you’ll regularly find him advocating for the city to adopt proactive approaches to problems for his community. 

“In my opinion, our government is a little bit reactive,” Harvey says. “So we need to invest in the infrastructure first and then move people in. Build it, and they will come.”

There is one project for Coquitlam that Harvey is particularly passionate about.

He believes that expanding a rapid transit train called the West Coast Express would allow more people in Coquitlam to commute to their jobs in Vancouver, lowering time spent on transit and improving packed highways, and helping to address the high cost of living that comes with living in the lower mainland.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer to expand the West Coast Express service because the current gas prices are so high,” says Harvey. “If we have this service, then it will encourage more people to use public transit and leave their car at home. That will help reduce the emissions and also help clean the air.”

Clean air is important to Harvey. He loves spending time outside going for walks with his daughters and his dog. He wants the air to stay clean for his daughter and their future — when they have children, or pets, of their own.

Harvey also worries that with more unpredictable weather, like the 2021 heat dome and even this past summer, people will be uncomfortable and even unsafe in their own homes.

“A lot of Canadian buildings are not built for this kind of extreme weather. For example, a lot of high rises don’t have air conditioning. It’s unliveable, in my opinion.”

Harvey is invested in making Coquitlam a nicer, more comfortable place to live for everyone.

That’s why he supports Coquitlam’s goal to reduce as much pollution from both vehicles and buildings as possible and supports the City’s vision to become carbon neutral by 2050.

He’s heard the current City Council debate the adoption of a Zero Carbon Step Code that would require his municipality to make all new developments carbon neutral by using energy-efficient technologies like heat pumps. And although he understands that this isn’t something that can be done overnight, he thinks it’s a good idea.

“Adopting the Zero Carbon Step Code complements the energy step goals by reducing emissions while improving energy efficiency. I definitely support this,” Harvey says. “We need to be mindful that adopting this code will increase building costs. But in the long run, these additional costs will be offset by the lower energy bills. I think it’s more comfortable and healthier to live in a high-performance home.”

Communities that have already adopted the Zero Carbon Step Code in B.C. have stated that installing heat pumps in new buildings only costs developers 1% more, yet they save their residents and the people they represent, significantly on energy bills. And unlike inefficient and costly baseboards, or polluting gas furnaces, heat pumps also provide both heating and cooling—a crucial feature as our weather becomes increasingly unpredictable and extreme.

While Coquitlam hasn’t had wildfires threaten its parks or buildings like other cities across the province and country this summer, Harvey sympathizes with other communities across the province facing yet another record-setting year of smoke and evacuation orders and worries about his daughters and their future. 

Still, he remains hopeful that if we come together to support each other and policies that will help us, our families, and our communities now and in the future, we can address challenges as big as pollution and climate change. 

“I think we can deal with it. We will find a way for sure.”

Authorized by Neighbours United, registered sponsor under the Election Act, info@neighboursunited.org