B.C. tops Pacific Northwest in longevity, well-managed cities: environment study

British Columbians live longer,
consume less energy and live in
better-managed cities than their
counterparts elsewhere in the
Pacific Northwest, says a book
being released today by a
U.S.-based environmental group.

Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun

Northwest Environment Watch
(NEW) says Greater Vancouver is
doing a better job of containing
population sprawl than Seattle or
Portland, and that residents can
expect an extra two years of life to
enjoy their surroundings.

"British Columbia boasts the longest
life expectancy, and the largest
gains in lifespan, of any part of the
Northwest," says the book.

The average B.C. lifespan rose to
80.4 years in 2000, up from 76.2 in
1980, NEW calculates in a new book
titled This Place On Earth 2002,
Measuring What Matters.

The situation continues to improve,
with the book’s authors calculating
that a baby born in 2002 can expect
to outlive by two months a baby
born in 2001.

Lifespans in the U.S. Northwest
rose from 75.4 to 78 years over the
same period.

"The simple answer is that there is a
major difference in the health care
systems between the two
jurisdictions," NEW research director
Clark Williams-Derry said Tuesday.

"Canadians have access to health
care, cradle-to-grave health care,
that most Americans do not."

Williams-Derry notes that
"Canadians tend to live longer than
Americans — that’s right across the
country. Americans in the Pacific
Northwest tend to live longer than
other Americans, but somebody just
across the border can expect to live
even longer."

Founded in 1993, NEW studies
environmental, economic and
lifestyle issues in a region that
includes British Columbia,
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and
parts of Montana, California and
Alaska.

This Place On Earth 2002 is the 13th
book published by the non-profit
Seattle-based group.

Other topics have included
everything from taxes and
transportation to urban design.

This Place On Earth 2002 looks at 10
quality of life indictors ranging from
health and population to energy
consumption and salmon
productivity, using data gleaned
from sources ranging from satellite
imagery to the CIA.

NEW’s motive is to come up with an
alternative to the traditional gauge of
economic growth, gross domestic
product, for measuring quality of life
improvement and decline.

The book argues that even an earthquake or a destructive act of terrorism creates the illusion
of progress — the GDP would record it as an economic upswing because it prompts
increased spending and manufacture of goods to achieve recovery.

"It only tells about growth in economic production, not in economic satisfaction or quality of
life," the book says.

Across the Pacific Northwest, almost 10 hectares of land is lost each day as urban
development creates more impervious surfaces such as parking lots and rooftops.

Those surfaces degrade fish habitat by lowering water tables, raising stream temperatures
and washing potentially deadly chemicals off roadways and into waterways.

Relative to Seattle and Washington, Greater Vancouver suffered the fewest losses to this
type of sprawl.

Urban development and growth in Greater Vancouver is expanding at the rate of 1.6 hectares
per day, compared to four hectares in Seattle and 3.2 in Portland.

Since 1986, only Greater Vancouver managed to direct a majority of its new residents to
areas well-served by transit — compared to our neighbours, we’re winning the battle to
contain growth in urban and suburban town centres and crimp the expansion of auto use.

In Seattle, more than 60 per cent of population growth has been into areas with little or no
transit service. In Portland, 54 per cent of growth has sprawled outside the urban core.

Greater Vancouver, by contrast, contained all but 20 per cent of population growth in areas
well-served by transit.

As a result, the over-all share of people living in high-density neighborhoods in Greater
Vancouver increased from 49 to 57 per cent since 1986.

A side benefit of concentrated growth is that Greater Vancouver’s motor vehicle fleet grew
slower than that of its neighbours — although the book noted a steady decline in purchases of
small, less-polluting cars.

Forty years ago in the region there were two people for every car. Now, there’s an average
of 83 vehicles per 100 people.

Idaho, with its large rural population, has the most motor vehicles per capita, with 95 per 100
residents. In Oregon the figure is 89/100, in Washington it’s 85/100 — and in Greater
Vancouver, it’s a comparatively low 70 vehicles per 100 people.

The book suggests the lower figure arises because of lower spending power in Canada and
because Greater Vancouver and other large B.C. urban centres are more accommodating to
transit and pedestrians.

But it warns that the average size of a vehicle in B.C.’s motorized fleet of 2.8 million cars and
trucks is increasing, with sales of big cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles on the verge of
overtaking more fuel-efficient and less-polluting small cars.

In over-all energy consumption, British Columbians use about 25-per-cent less energy per
person for transportation — reflecting the benefits of containing urban sprawl.

The average British Columbian uses about 20 per cent less energy to heat and power his or
her home — which is generally smaller in size than its U.S. counterpart.

But energy consumption by businesses and factories is higher in B.C.

That’s because the province’s economy is reliant on energy-intensive industries such as pulp
mills, which push consumption 40-per-cent higher than the rest of the Pacific Northwest.

"It’s always nice to have some favorable comparison with other places — and Portland and
Seattle, Washington and Oregon, are among the best U.S. areas as well," said Greater
Vancouver regional district policy and planning manager Ken Cameron.

But Cameron said progress is relative, noting that Greater Vancouver still lacks the
high-volume transit service available in such cities as Toronto.

"If you look at these three areas in any kind of a global context, compared to where European
cities are, or even some Canadian cities, we still have a considerable distance to go."

Cameron added that the region has "fallen somewhat short" of the growth management
targets it set for itself in 1996, particularly in failing to move more jobs into regional town
centres.

But he said the situation should improve as the new regional transit authority, TransLink,
proceeds with its plans for transit and transportation upgrades in the region.

© Copyright 2002 Vancouver Sun

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