October 2025 EAC Minutes

Meeting date:	October 9, 2025	Meeting time:	1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Location:	Microsoft Teams	Prepared by:	Brenden McBain
In attendance:	Wendy Avis Brenden McBain Hayley Hoikka Bijan Pourkarimi Babak Behnia Olivia Hui Mark Guerin Jessica Low Rene McKibbin Andrew Green Derek Jennejohn Tissari Hewa Ranasinghage Alex Chee Yu Yeung	YVR, Climate and Environment – Chair YVR, Climate and Environment City of Vancouver City of Vancouver Citizen Rep City of Richmond City of Richmond Citizen Rep Musqueam Indian Band / YVR Transport Canada Canadian Wildlife Service (ECCC) Environment and Climate Change Canada Metro Vancouver (Stand in) Air Canada Air Canada
Guests/Presenters:	Levi Higgs	YVR, Climate and Environment
Regrets:	Myrka Manzo	Air Canada
Secretary:	Brenden McBain	YVR, Climate and Environment

Meeting minutes

1. Introductions & welcome

Wendy welcomed the committee and shared the meeting etiquette. Wendy acknowledged that YVR is on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people and the importance of the 30-year agreement in place to support our relationship. Wendy welcomed members, ran through the meeting agenda, and encouraged participants to share their comments and questions as well as taking breaks throughout the meeting.

Wendy introduced Andrew Green, who will be filling in the Environment and Climate Change role for a one-year term. Andrew Green is Head, Clean Aviation and Rail, with Environment and Climate Change Canada. His group works closely with Transport Canada on decarbonization and air pollution reduction strategies and policies for the aviation and rail sectors. Andrew has thirty years’ experience serving the public and the environment with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, Metro Vancouver, the Washington Department of Ecology and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Wendy also thanked Derek Jennejohn, Alex Yeung, and Tissari Hewa Ranasinghage, who were standing in on behalf of their respective organizations.

2. Review of previous minutes

No comments or questions were raised regarding the draft meeting minutes from the May 29, 2025, meeting. As such they will be adopted as final and posted at yvr.ca in English and French. There were no action items from the meeting.

3. Airport Authority updates

Wendy updated the committee on the busy summer period up over 4% from the prior year and 1% busier than 2019. A peak day of over 91,000 passengers was noted for August 11th.

On the community front Wendy announced shared that over $120,000 through the Haul for Hope, a fund-raising event that provides free travel and accommodation services for healthcare patients living in rural areas. Twenty-four teams challenged each other in pulling a WestJet Q400 plane, six of which were made up of YVR employees. We had over 70 YVR employees who stepped up to challenge and fundraise a combined total of over $45,000.

Wendy reported that Air Canada and CUPE reached a tentative agreement in August, ending the strike and lockout that had halted Air Canada’s mainline operations at YVR, affecting over 750 flights and more than 70,000 passengers. She noted that while other flights continued, the scale of the disruption was unprecedented in nearly three decades. Every part of the organization felt the impact. Wendy acknowledged staff and teams across YVR for their professionalism and resilience, emphasizing that their efforts minimized operational and passenger impacts and demonstrated YVR’s strong leadership in the industry.

Wendy shared the success of the large annual exercise held in the summer to ensure YVR maintains high emergency response standards. Nearly 200 participants from 20 different agencies were involved at YVR and around the Lower Mainland. This exercise was for security with our crash on airport occurring next year, which alternate. The exercises help us prepare for upcoming events and trial situations that may occur. Next year we have FIFA, so some of the work was based around that.

4.Update on Development Projects at YVR

Wendy gave an overview of near completed North Runway Rehabilitation project as well as shared the three public informational videos explaining the project, coordination, and engagement with stakeholders. Brenden shared updates on planned repair work on the north runway approach piers to mitigate corrosion as well as two new hangars proposed by Signature Aviation in the south airport.

Ethan Gao presented the Sea Island Conservation Area (SICA) east dike project, detailing the construction of new the new dike, drainage work, and the alignment with federal authorities and Musqueam as the project was developed, with a completion target of 2026 to align with supporting funding for the project.

5. Waste Reduction Month at YVR

Brenden provided an overview of three different engagement and education campaigns active at YVR this fall:

Waste Wars – award winning program to promote excellent back of house sorting within our food & beverage providers.
Race to zero waste – a new internal campaign to engage employees and promote sorting and zero waste mindset
Travel Clean – Another new campaign focused on supporting passengers during our busiest summer yet. Our Comms team has been busy promoting content on social media.

Brenden also shared the viral sustainability content from a partnership with Marce la Recicladora, a leading content creator focused on recycling, sustainability and environmental issues in Latin America. Through her creative and accessible videos, she has connected thousands of people to the importance of adopting sustainable practices, transforming recycling into a popular conversation and motivating her followers to take action. With an authentic and educational approach, Marce not only raises awareness but also collaborates with companies, organizations, and communities to drive real change.

6. 2025 Strategic Energy Management and Net Zero Projects at YVR

Levi Higgs provided the annual update on energy management projects at YVR to the committee, including the strategic energy management plan, recent energy trends, and key projects like boiler replacements, geo exchange system, renewable fuels and continuing to develop our EV charging network.

Several questions were raised by the committee including if the Airport Authority including how the Airport Authority would balance and transition the boilers to the ground heat exchange system once constructed.

7.Sustainable Aviation Fuel Updates

Wendy provided an overview of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)’s role in low carbon flight for different types of distances and sizes in the coming decades. She discussed the YVR SAF strategy and our three-tiered approaches to advocating for the SAF market, supporting SAF update and enabling SAF production. Wendy reviewed the SAF Opportunity studies completed in partnership with the BC Government as well as the Low Carbon Jet Fuel Incentive Program offered at YVR which is projected to cut 125,000 tonnes of CO2e. The Air Canada Leave Less campaign and SAF promotion during FIFA World Cup in 2026 were two exciting opportunities for continued development in SAF.

8. Round table and discussion

Brenden provided updates from Rene, who had to leave early, on restoration work and invasive species management (knotweed & fire ants) in the Sea Island Conservation Area.

Babak from the City of Richmond discussed ongoing updates to the city's official community plan, particularly regarding the continued refinement of the environmentally sensitive areas (ESA) and ground truthing boundary conditions.

Jessica from Transport Canada mentioned that the remediation work for Lot S30, in the south terminal area, is largely complete and successful. A risk assessment is still underway.

Derek mentioned that Metro Vancouver was working with the Airport Authority to relocate the air quality monitoring station closer to Flight Path Park.

Haeley from the City of Vancouver updated the group that the City of Vancouver draft Official Development Plan was out for review and consultation, building off the Vancouver Plan.

Andrew mentioned that SAF may be influenced by a greater focus on ‘climate competitiveness’ in advance of the fall budget release.

Mark highlighted the Musqueam’s work on the resident geese population and the impacts on erosion of sensitive habitat and overconsumption of vegetation.

9. Upcoming meetings

Wendy proposed new meeting dates for 2026, suggesting February 5th, May 14th, and October 15th, to better align with the airport's reporting schedule and annual public meeting.

Thursday February 5th 1-3 pm
Thursday May 14th 1-3 pm
Thursday Oct 15th 1-3 pm
Summer tour – TBD

Next meeting date: Thursday, February 5, 2026, at 1 p.m.