Dana Taylor, the newly nominated West Vancouver - Sunshine Coast - Sea to Sky Country federal candidate, says recent wildfires in the Sea to Sky are a call to action on climate change.
Taylor witnessed the fire along Highway 99 on Sunday, he said, in a press release sent out Sunday night.
"The fire is uphill from the Sunset Marina so as it burns will go up hill and hopefully not put any residents in danger and cause damage to structures."
A small fire also sprang up in Squamish over the weekend on Powerhouse Springs Road. And there was a blaze south of Port Mellon on the Sunshine Coast last week that is still being mopped up.
All three fires are within Taylor's riding and were sparked in the last week.
"We are fortunate to have our firefighters keeping us safe. They need our support. We can help them by taking the underlying causes of these fires seriously," said Taylor in the release.
While individual forest fire cannot be directly attributed to climate change, many wildfire experts say the conditions that make it easier for fires to ignite and spread can be traced back, at least in part, to climate change.
"I've seen June turn from a soggy month in the rainforest into a period of drought. This dramatic change in climate has happened within... 20 years or less. The older generation cannot simply stand by and have summers turn into forest fire and smoke seasons. That is not the legacy we want to leave for young people and coming generations," Taylor added.
Taylor said measures are required to "rapidly decrease the use of fossil fuels and switch to renewable, emission-free sources of energy."
