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Canadian Publications Mail Product Volume 26 Number 22 November 13—November 26, 2014 $2 at Selected Retailers Sales Agreement Nº 40020421

Photo: Martin Blakesley Fall beauties. Multi-million-dollar picnics on Burnaby IPCC report says cutting carbon Mountain- Patrick Brown emissions is crucial - Natalie Dunsmuir urnaby residents have been staging were served on respondents via Facebook. The ontinued greenhouse gas emissions Heralded by many as the most important ‘picnics’ on Burnaby Mountain to block court hearing started on Wednesday, will increase ‘the likelihood of severe, assessment of climate change ever composed, Kinder Morgan survey crews from November 5. pervasive and irreversible impacts’ on the IPCC report is the work of thousands of carryingB out geotechnical work for a proposed Why The Public Action peopleC and ecosystems, states a November 1 scientists and more than 30,000 scientific pipeline tunnel through the mountain. The Kinder Morgan crews have been trying to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change papers. It comes just a over a month after the On October 31, Kinder Morgan initiated investigate the feasibility of boring a tunnel (IPCC) report. The report is the first to address UN Climate Summit and the Global People’s legal action against several local residents and through Burnaby Mountain from their tank not only the many causes and effects of climate Climate March which saw hundreds of action group Burnaby Residents Opposing farm on the south side of the mountain to their change, but also to state that reducing carbon thousands of citizens from around the world Kinder Morgan Expansion in order to obtain marine terminal on the north side. This is part emissions is economically affordable and marching to demand action. an injunction barring the ‘picnics’. The of rerouting the Trans Mountain Pipeline crucial for mitigating global warming. The report has been commended by dozens company is claiming $5.5 million in direct Expansion, and is an attempt to avoid pipeline The IPCC report sets difficult goals and of high-profile activists and politicians. Bill costs for every month’s delay in the survey construction through adjacent Burnaby comes up with solutions to meet them. The McKibben, a climate-campaigner from work, plus $88 million per month in lost residential areas. It apparently requires that lowest cost option for avoiding dangerous 350.org, commented on it with the words, ‘For revenue. they remove some trees and drill two boreholes climate change—the rise of global scientists, conservative by nature, to use Kinder Morgan’s action has been on property owned by the City of Burnaby, and temperatures 2ºC above pre-1900 levels— ‘serious, pervasive, and irreversible’ to describe characterized as a typical SLAPP suit (Strategic designated by the City as park and would be for carbon emissions to reach their the effects of climate falls just short of Lawsuit Against Public Participation). In a conservation area. peak in 2020 and then begin to fall—reaching announcing that climate change will produce novel move, it appears that some legal papers zero by the end of this century, the report states. BURNABY MOUNTAIN, please turn to page 2 IPCC, please turn to page 3

is at these SERIOUS COFFEE locations — look for the ‘Island Tides’ yellow boxes outside or racks inside! Sidney—Beacon Avenue Nanaimo—VI Conference Centre Parksville—Heritage Centre Mall South Duncan—Sun Valley Mall Nanaimo—Beaufort Centre Courtenay—Southgate Centre, Cliffe Avenue Nanaimo—Crnr Island Hwy @ Hammond Bay Rd Duncan—Cowichan Commons Mall Port Alberni—Shoppers Drugmart Plaza, 10th Ave Nanaimo—South Parkway Plaza Mill Bay—Island Highway @ Frayne Rd Nanaimo—Hammond Bay Rd CO-OP Campbell River—Willow Point Village www.islandtides.com Page 2, Island Tides, November 13, 2014 BC offshore schools expanding world-wide A school in India and a school in Japan are the two latest international schools approved to offer the BC curriculum, Premier Christy Clark announced on Thanksgiving Day. ‘Today’s announcement is a testament to the quality of the BC curriculum and the regard it is held in internationally,’ said Clark. ‘BC’s students continue to excel against the best education systems in the world and it is no surprise that our diploma is highly sought after.’ The SBRS Gurukul School is located just outside Chandigarh in the Punjab, India. It is anticipated that it will begin offering the BC offshore school program in spring 2015. The Bunka Gakuen University Suginami Junior and Senior High School is located in Tokyo, Japan. It is anticipated that it will also begin offering the BC curriculum in 2015. The two new schools bring the number of BC offshore schools to 43. Schools wishing to offer a BC program must go through a rigorous application and inspection process before they can become certified; all criteria must be met to the satisfaction of the Ministry of Education. Programs in BC offshore schools are inspected annually to ensure that program standards and requirements are met, and that they continue to be met. These standards include teaching the BC curriculum in English, employing BC certified teachers and principals, and using provincial graduation examinations. Currently, more than 10,200 students are enrolled in BC Photo: Martin Blakesley offshore schools in China, Egypt, Thailand, South Korea, Qatar and Colombia. The Ministry of Education costs associated with Even Stump Man has had enough rain. offering these programs are fully recovered from participating international schools, the BC government says. 0 Carr talks about urban (re)development Climate justice in BC ertainty for developers, and more and upgrades of older rental buildings through multi-storey, low-level construction— property tax rebates, and by tying increased lessons for transformation these were the key messages City density to character home retention through Natalie Dunsmuir Councillor and Green Party of Vancouver rezoning. C ‘But first and foremost we need as a city to The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), working leader Adriane Carr delivered at the Urban define ‘affordable’ realistically, then bring in a alongside the BC Teacher’s Federation (BCTF), has recently Development Institute’s Meet the Candidates 1.888.296.8059 new way to achieve affordable housing for launched a new curriculum for grade 8-12 students. The project, www.wintonhomes.ca panel discussion on October 7. everyone—including people like local ‘Climate Justice in BC: Lessons for Transformation’ is designed Winter special: Save 15% or more ‘It’s an honour to be hosted by such a to get high school students and their teachers thinking critically Now until January 31st construction workers, dry wallers, painters and respected, non-partisan association especially electricians, and for our city’s emergency about climate change and climate justice. since we are polling so strongly,’ says Carr. workers like police and firefighters, over 75% The lessons tie in to the current BC curriculum’s learning Recent polling by Insights West places the of whom currently live in the suburbs where outcomes and subject matter, and can be taught from various Green Party in a virtual tie with the two other housing is more affordable.’ The successful subjects. In fact, the first module of the eight-part curriculum tells teachers how it can be connected to Science 10; Science and parties currently represented on City Council, model the Green Party of Vancouver is looking Technology 11; Sustainable Resources 12; Social Studies 8, 9, Vision Vancouver and the Non-Partisan at is the Whistler Housing Authority. Carr and her fellow Green Party City 10, 11; Civic Studies 11; Geography 12; Social Justice 12; English BUY | RAISE | MOVE | LEVEL Association. Language Arts 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Communications 11, 12; Applied ‘In terms of housing affordability, we can Council candidates also want to see a more BUY RECYCLED HOMES level playing field and more certainty for Skills 11; Business Education 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; and Home Increase Square Footage build new housing in the classic model that the RAISE developers. Economics: Family Studies 10, 11, 12. In other words: climate Subdivide Your Lot! construction industry in BC is so good at, and MOVE ‘We need to pick up where the CityPlan justice deals with the majority of the aspects of our lives. LEVEL Repair Foundation Issues that’s multi-storey, low-level construction,’ process of the 1990s was stopped and get a new CCPA and the BCTF have launched a website, says Carr. ‘We need to move on from teachclimatejustice.ca, that offers free classroom-ready www.nickelbros.com Vancouverism towers as the be-all and end-all, city-wide plan in place that includes 1-866-320-2268 cumulative impacts—we haven’t had one since materials and lessons developed by teacher Ryan Cho. The to multi-storey, low-rise, three-to-four-storey materials are designed to ‘help students engage with the two construction that is an ideal model advocated 1927. We need a new way to engage citizens with collaborative decision-making to increase great inconvenient truths of our time: climate change and rising by Patrick Condon and UBC’s Design Centre inequality.’ for Sustainability. It can accommodate the the buy-in, and reduce the conflict. ‘And we need to level the playing field with The eight modules work together to immerse teachers and city’s growth at lower per-unit cost and not students in climate justice. They discuss our food systems, • harvesting systems disturb the charming character of our development charges so they are standardized, not negotiated, so costs are predictable for all transportation, and waste, as well as examining fracking and • design • installation neighbourhoods, plus we have the expertise LNG within the context of British Columbia. The last three • service developers—large and small,’ says Carr. and this wonderful local sustainable material— modules discuss and brainstorm new concepts and solutions. VISIT OUR WEBSITE! wood—right in our own backyard.’ ‘Longer term, we need to look at expanding what development cost levies can fund, as Teachers are encouraged to get their students involved in new BOB BURGESS Spreading out density with smaller, lower climate initiatives such as ‘Youth4Tap’, the program that tries buildings along more major routes would also stipulated in the Vancouver Charter, and 250-246-2155 to reduce the consumption of bottled water in schools. correlate with a city-wide comprehensive replace Community Amenity Charges (CACs) [email protected] ‘If you’re a teacher looking to include climate justice concepts www.rainwaterconnection.com public transportation pattern similar to the old with one cost-levy charge to help fund the into your classes, a student hoping to learn more about streetcar grid system with which Vancouver infrastructure and amenities we need in every Experience Counts! sustainability and equality, a parent who wants to equip your started, rather putting all the ‘transit eggs in a neighbourhood.’ children with the skills to meaningfully address the important Broadway subway basket’. Urban Development Institute is a non- issues of our time, or a community member interested in a Roasting Fancy Coffee Carr also notes that it is critical to protect partisan, national non-profit association of healthier and better-informed democracy—this is for you,’ says for mail orders since 1982 existing affordable housing. That can be the development industry and its related CCPA. 0 achieved with tools like energy-saving retrofits professions. 0

$20,000 on the first day, mainly in small amounts. BURNABY MOUNTAIN from page 1 On November 4, over forty local, national, and international groups released from Thetis Island to you The National Energy Board (NEB) has ruled that the City cannot block the an open letter in support of the Burnaby Mountain Caretakers and BROKE. www.potofgoldcoffee.com Kinder Morgan work on the basis that the City owns the property. The ‘These caretakers and residents should not be facing an injunction or a constitutional question of whether City of Burnaby zoning and land use bylaws multimillion dollar lawsuit by a corporate energy giant. Given the federal can be overruled by the NEB still remains to be settled. government’s failure to respond to residents, to indigenous communities at the Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE) has Ship To Shore source of tar sands destruction and along the proposed pipeline route, and to organized groups of protestors to meet Kinder Morgan’s contractors at at least municipal concerns, we laud these protectors for their bravery in taking a stand two worksites, and has effectively shut down the work. Kinder Morgan Tree Service against Kinder Morgan,’ write the signatories. Island-to-Island employees have replied with video cameras. BROKE has appealed for additional Another open letter in support of the citizen action notes that the Tsleil- groups of 5-10 ‘picnickers’ to be ready to challenge the contractors wherever they Tree Removal Waututh Nation have launched a legal challenge of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline go. Vancouver Island Oceanside action group CPOC has sent a group of and tankers project. This is the first legal challenge by a First Nation against the Topping/Thinning picnickers. new pipeline and tanker proposal, citing the federal government’s failure to first Pruning Kinder Morgan is apparently claiming exclusive right of access to the area, consult Tsleil-Waututh on key decisions about the environmental assessment Lot Clearing so the protestors must be trespassing—on a public park. The 1,000-page and regulatory review of the project. 0 injunction application cites trespass, assault, intimidation, conspiracy and Arborist by Boat Did you appreciate this article? Help Island Tides pay for publishing it! John Racine nuisance leading to breach of contract (with K-M’s contractors). Mail or phone in your $30 annual voluntary subscription today. Don’t 250.668.2186 BROKE has also initiated a crowdfunding campaign (on a GoFundMe webpage) to cover legal costs; they report that total contributions exceeded < delay—be part of the Island Tides team. 250-216-2267. Thank You! www.islandtides.com Tsilhqot’in Supreme Court decision an example of hard Island Tides, November 13, 2014, Page 3 won First Nations rights - Lori Waters Canada’s recent Supreme Court Tsilhqot’in Woodward, concluding that First Nation rights agreement will help the Tsilhqot’in to protect are also a testament to his strength and likely decision will likely be recognized as one of the will be of increasing importance to Canadians their environment. contributed to his consistent leadership and most important aboriginal law cases in who value a clean and healthy environment, It is a time of a rather bleak legislative persistence. Canadian history. The decision, the result of stated that ‘Chief William and other First outlook for the environment, and Canadians Ultimately, Chief William won the three decades of battles waged in court by the Nations who take on these monumental enjoy very few environmental protections. aboriginal rights and title for which the Tsilhqot’in, is a stepping stone towards struggles against the government are from tiny Many acts (including the Environmental Tsilhqot’in have been fighting since the securing the Tsilhqot’in’s constitutionally impoverished First Nations, and it is on Protection, Fisheries, and Species at Risk Acts) Tsilhqot’in War of 1864. The nation has had to protected rights and eventual reconciliation of William’s shoulders to protect the earth—that have been repealed or diminished by the endure their chiefs being hanged by the state, ongoing disputes with government. is why we need to support him in any way we current government. In contrast to these the smallpox epidemic, residential schools, Now, the Tsilhqot’in ‘People of the River’ can.’ legislative moves, the Tsilhqot’in decision and increasing mining, forestry and resource have rights to hunt, fish, trap, and herd wild As a result of the court’s decision, the provides a practical, and science-based legal extraction that has damaged Tsilhqot’in lands, horses in their territories, and to have ‘viable Christy Clark government also agreed to approach to any resource extraction activities threatened their territory, and oppressed their habitats protected within those territories.’ exonerate the Tsilhqot’in chiefs who were occurring in the territory to ensure they don’t rights. There is a sense that despite—and Jack Woodward, the lawyer for the Tsilhqot’in, wrongfully called to what they thought were to exceed the carrying capacity of the land. throughout—these struggles, there was always described this as ‘an astonishing degree of be ‘peace talks’ until they were ambushed, then As Chief William puts it, the province and a resolve to win their rights. protection’, and arguably one of the ‘most tried and hanged by the government in 1864. industry proponents will need to ‘do their Chief William recounted his high school powerful environmental laws in the world.’ Clark also signed an agreement to work homework’ to ensure that baseline studies experience of being told by a Chilcotin District In a time of increasing environmental with the Tsilhqot’in to implement practical occur, and that resource development doesn’t Manager that ‘We’re gonna log—whether you pressures, Woodward says that First Nations aspects of the decision, which will allow the damage the land. like it or not.’ This early experience motivated constitutional rights to protect their land may Tsilhqot’in their rights to: live off the land, Noting that past resource activities have the chief to later fight a four-year-long court be the only viable way to protect the perform ceremonies, make decisions about destroyed streams, Chief William says the battle against the province, in order to protect environment in Canada—from the Salish Sea land stewardship, and protect their history, Tsilhqot’in want to protect ecologically the watershed from a proposal to extract over to the boreal forests above the tar sands. language, and culture. Ultimately, the sensitive areas such as Fish Lake and nearby 1.8 million square metres of pine forest from streams, which have been increasingly under Tsilhqot’in lands. Williams said that he learned IPCC from page 1 threat from projects like the Prosperity Mine. during this 1993-1997 battle that ‘the BC He adds that they don’t want to stop all provincial and Canadian federal government a zombie apocalypse, plus random beheadings, stricken countries are hit perhaps hardest by development, but will ensure that any would argue everything’. These ongoing battles plus Ebola.’ exposure to extreme weather and rising sea- development is sensitive to their culture and to eventually led to the hearing of the Supreme He also added, ‘Thanks to the IPCC, no one levels, and often do not have the resources to wildlife. William said ‘When you’re living on Court trial, which ran from 2003 to 2007. will ever be able to say they weren’t warned.’ cope with these climate problems that they did [Tsilhqot’in] title land, it’s going to be a lot For anyone who wonders why it has taken ‘Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity little to cause. better than living on Crown land.’ so long for Canada to recognize First Nations in the message,’ said Ban Ki-moon, UN ‘Rich governments must stop making rights, Woodward explained that it was a secretary general. ‘Leaders must act. Time is empty promises and come up with the cash so Monumental Struggle criminal offense in Canada until 1951 to not on our side.’ the poorest do not have to foot the bill for the The struggle to make the case which achieved advance aboriginal claims in court; for lawyers lifestyles of the wealthy,’ said Harjeet Singh, of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision was a Human Influence On to bring an aboriginal claim to court, and; for Climate Change ActionAid. monumental one, requiring strong people and Solutions Are Available leadership. The Tsilhqot’in and Canadians are people to take part in a potlatch. Among the report’s many pages there is solid lucky to have the leadership of Chief Roger Once these laws were abolished, it then What makes the IPCC report so unusual and evidence that humans have had a devastating William. took decades for several other cases to pave the important is that it is not all doom-and- influence on climate change, and that we are His outstanding memory pays tribute to his way for the Tsilhqot’in case—notably the gloom—it stresses for the first time that there already facing the effects. ‘Human influence role as an oral historian for his people and it Calder, Meares Island, and Gitska’an cases. are economically viable solutions and, has been detected in warming of the played an important role in his court These cases too were extremely costly for First though they will be difficult to atmosphere and the ocean, in testimony; he spent a taxing 58 days on the Nations. The Gitska’an case was important, ‘’What makes implement, strategies that changes in the global water stand, without a single contradiction in his but due to problems with pleadings, and the report so unusual could lead to emission cycle, in reductions in testimony. Chief William sixteen wins of the because the Gitska’an did not have the reductions without snow and ice, and in and important is that it is not most difficult mountain horse race in the world TSILHQO’TIN, please turn to page 8 global mean sea-level all doom-and-gloom—it stresses compromising economic growth. Though the rise; and it is extremely for the first time that there are goals it sets for carbon BULLETIN BOARD likely to have been the economically viable solutions and, dominant cause of the reductions will be though they will be difficult to observed warming difficult to meet, the since the mid-20th implement, strategies that could report sets out paths for Century,’ the report lead to emission reductions governments and FIREWOOD industries to begin to states. without compromising F O RServing S AVictoria L E & Fossil fuel burning, economic growth.’ follow. 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IPCC states that clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of individual behavioural changes can have an greenhouse gases are the highest in history,’ impact on climate change. Accommodation— Hy-Geo living in sustainably built houses—water the report states. ‘The atmosphere and ocean Done Right - Safely Consulting have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice conservation, and dietary changes such as • Foreshore Applications have diminished, and sea level has risen.’ eating less meat are important parts of • Docks • Moorings Technical services for adapting to climate change, the report states. The Effects • Durable dock systems for Water Wells Education and awareness raising is seen to be exposed locations Aquifers ‘Climate change will amplify existing risks and a crucial part of the process as well. Ross Walker & Corey Johnson create new risks for natural and human ‘Effective adaptation and mitigation 250-537-9710 Groundwater systems,’ the report warns. It explains that responses will depend on policies and (250) 658-1701 climate change is already changing wildlife www.islandmarine.ca measures across multiple scales: international, [email protected] migration patterns, causing severe storms, and regional, national and sub-national,’ the IPCC www.hy-geo.com driving people from their homes as they flee report states, urging people of every level of • WATER WELLS low-land areas affected by the rising sea levels. government and community to help reduce • HYDROFRACTURING TO IMPROVE WELL YIELDS Besley Changes in extreme weather have been emissions. ‘There are many opportunities to Design & Build observed since 1950 and continue to increase, • DRILLING FOR GEOSOURCE 3D Computer Design link mitigation, adaptation and the pursuit of Permit Plans exposing humans to storms of ferocious size. other societal objectives through integrated      Foundations & Framing The effects of heatwaves and extreme rain responses. 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SALT SPRING ISLAND Licensed & Insured change can indirectly increase risks of violent a press conference during the release of the Call Ron for free estimate conflicts by amplifying well-documented IPCC report. ‘We must act quickly and [email protected] • 250.537.8885 drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and decisively if we want to avoid increasingly FREE REMOVAL! economic shocks.’ disruptive outcomes.’ Scrap Car, Truck, Bus Many of the issues surrounding climate To read the full IPCC report, go to & Equipment No Wheels? No Problem! change also bring up ethical considerations http://www.ipcc.ch. 0 such as equity, justice, and fairness, the report Metal Clean-up Bins Also NEXT DEADLINE: Did you appreciate this article? Help Available adds. The solutions to climate change may also Gulf Islands • Victoria • Sooke November 19 lead to more effective international Island Tides pay for publishing it! Mail or Sidney • Duncan cooperation. phone< in your $30 annual voluntary subscription 250-744-6842 250.216.2267 today. Don’t delay—be part of the Island Tides IPCC stresses that this cooperation is critical 250-732-4285 team. 250-216-2267. Thank You! if we are to adapt to climate change. Poverty- www.islandtides.com Page 4, Island Tides, November 13, 2014 Editorial: Islands In Trust he Islands Trust is a trust. It’s a 40-year-old trust oriented, and be prepared to read endless documents and go to organization whose job it is to carry out a clearly laid Act almost endless meetings. of the BC Legislature. It’s not a job for business people or entrepreneurs; there’s Every Second Thursday Strait of Georgia’s only TIt is a trust whose objective is to protect a fragile archipelago not enough in the job, well carried out, for these folks. They are of islands subject to intense and, now, creeping development at their best working on projects alongside the trust, using its Free & Mail-Delivered Newspaper This is due to its great beauty, serenity, mild climate, and the gifts to help communities to thrive, physically, emotionally and romance, fun and closeness of its communities. culturally. 20,500 copies this edition The Islands Trust’s 26 trustees on 13 islands are elected to Economic development is not actually within the Island 14,747 print copies delivered to their position of trust in order to do that protecting. Trust Mandate, but curiousl,y by preserving and protecting for households on 13 Gulf Islands This is what the trust is and what trustees must be, by law. forty years, the Islands Trust has given us the biggest economic Political-style ‘parties’ have no place in an Islands Trust driver we could have—this place itself and the good sides of our Salt Spring • Mayne • Galiano • Pender • Saturna Gabriola • Denman • Hornby • Quadra • Cortes election, trustee allegiances are already given, in law, to the trust communities: willingness to work on behalf of the community, Read • Texada • Lasqueti mandate and policy to be carried out to the best of trustees’ to particpate in it, neighbourliness, friendliness, welcome, abilities. eagerness to learn and teach, and all the cultural gifts of the In any case, a party should publish a manifesto of what its extraordinary people, well-to-do and poor, who have chosen to members agreed position is. A trustee’s manifesto is already set, live here. It has given us a strong sense of place. Who wouldn’t it is the Islands Trust Mandate and Islands Trust Policy want to live among us? Statement. This Islands Trust that we have is the envy of the world. It is Local Trust Committees cannot be places for special or a rare and extraordinary thing to have an endangered landscape 2,753 print copies on Ferry Routes and in: vested interests. Trustees need to be good conciliators and (Coastal Douglas Fir) with fully fledged communities within it. Victoria • Saanich • Sidney • Cobble Hill Mill Bay • Crofton • Duncan • Chemainus excellent organizers within the ‘preserve and protect’ mandate And communities that to a very large extent care and know Ladysmith • Nanaimo • Bowser • Courtenay which they are sworn to follow. Naturally, such a powerful land about their terroir; that set of special characteristics that are the Port Alberni • Campbell River trust will engender squabbles, even hatreds. Most of these flow geography, geology and climate of a certain place. Our 3,000 online readers each edition from the results of land development, which is what the Islands communities celebrate it through their culture. Trust regulates. What visitors and residents alike need is more of what makes Owner, Publisher & Editor: The responsibilty for living within a trust area is more than our communities vibrant. More interaction with each other, Christa Grace-Warrick residing anywhere else; we need to rise above pettiness, self- with our terroir; and the strengthening of the vibrancy of our Editorial & Publishing Assistant: Natalie Dunsmuir interest, and greed. This is far from onerous when the rewards communities. What the world needs is for us to showcase what Contributors: Patrick Brown, Priscilla Ewbank, Elizabeth May, of living in such a glorious place are appreciated. we have achieved in ways that don’t love the place to death. Natalie Dunsmuir, Toby Snelgrove, Martin Blakesley, Lori And—look around you—it has worked. Does anyone really Our Islands Trust has given us the opportunity to dwell in Waters, Barry Cotton, Charles Moody, Davy Rippner, Rakib think these islands, especially the southern ones, would still be an extraordinary place and it needs to continue to do this, even Hasan Sumon, David Suzuki, Peter Nix, Clair Trevena, Hans as they are if there had been no Islands Trust? more so now. If it doesn’t continue to do this, we will lose. Tammemagi Our trustees need to be wise, good administrators, detail What we make of this opportunity is down to us. —CG-W Island Tides Publishing Ltd Box 55, Pender Island, BC V0N 2M0 Tel: 250.216.2267• News: [email protected] Readers’ Letters Advertising: [email protected] Deadline: Wednesday Between Publications Local Government Coming Into Focus health care system. Off-Island Canadian Print Subscription: $57.75 Dear Editor: As the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Select Standing Voluntary Mail & Box Pick-up Subscription: $30.00 Local governments—whether it’s their jurisdiction or not—are Committee on Health, we are asking British Columbians to US Subscription: $80.00 • Online PDF: free www.islandtides.com expected to deal with constituent concerns. share their ideas on how we can continue to ensure the But if municipal officials can’t get answers to those questions sustainability and improvement of our health care system. In from the proponent (for instance: BCHydro re: ‘smart’ meters, order to focus the consultation we are seeking submissions that Platform for Canada or Health Canada re: cell towers, or Kinder Morgan re: address any or all of the following issues. pipelines) what reassurance can they offer citizens? Access to high quality healthcare for all British Columbians, ‘Peace, Order and Good Government’ is the central tenet of Mayors and councillors in BC are signalling they’re no longer regardless of where they live, is a key priority for the healthcare Canada’s Constitution. This simple phrase describes the willing to leave things up to Ottawa. They have too much at system. Providing healthcare for British Columbians who live continuing objective for Canada’s federal government. stake—property values, tourism, the health and well-being of in rural communities presents significant challenges, including It is not a phrase that supports any particular extreme their residents—to defer to anything other than non-industry the recruitment and retention of health care professionals to philosophy of government; it does not lead us to a communist funded science. work in rural communities. state, nor to a minimal government which has no function aside Are they stepping beyond their powers if they make How can we improve health and healthcare services in rural from defending its own borders. decisions which do not adhere to Health Canada’s or NEB’s British Columbia? In particular, what long-term solutions can In requiring ‘good government’, it clearly endorses a major directives? No. It is their duty to protect the health of the address the challenges of recruitment and retention of role for government within the nation, but it leaves the choice community if they are made aware of potential threats. healthcare professionals in rural British Columbia? of government up to Canadians. Somebody has to step into this leadership vacuum. Hats off The delivery of healthcare often depends on interdisciplinary And, in fact, Canadian government has followed, in its to candidates and local leaders who are saying out loud what teams of health care professionals from different disciplines— evolution, a middle path; we have an entrepreneurial economy the majority of people in BC are already thinking. doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, counselors, combined with universal health care; a complex social and Pat White, Chase psychiatrists, physiotherapists, midwives, and others—who economic structure combined with an extensive regulatory Affordable Housing On Galiano work together to provide patients with care. The coordinated provision of healthcare by interdisciplinary teams contributes regime to protect the public interest; a full range of personal Dear Editor: to the provision of high quality, integrated, and efficient freedoms within a strongly structured legal and judicial system. As recently reported in Island Tides (‘Peace in the Forest’, healthcare services. Historically, it has been characterized by moderation, October 30) things have become friendlier on Galiano Island. How can we create a cost-effective system of primary and integrity, and social initiative. Its continuation requires a Forest lands zoning issues, though not really resolved, are not community care built around interdisciplinary teams? representative government which is open to the measured currently a hot election topic. End-of-life care is an important part of a sustainable, consideration of change, either gradual or revolutionary, and However, Galiano Green, an affordable housing initiative of efficient healthcare system, providing effective care with which avoids the destructive clash of ideologies, and partisan great community import, also documented in that issue (‘Home comfort, dignity, and quality of life for dying individuals. End- deadlock. builders...’), is now in the limelight and one can only hope that of-life services are delivered by a range of professionals who The Platform put forward below is a foundation for a our new trustees will act decisively on that matter. provide pain and symptom management, community nursing government that will continue this Canadian tradition. 0 The Islands Trust proclaims that its role is to preserve and and rehabilitation services, home support, respite services, and protect ‘communities, culture and environment’: not only trees, residential hospice care. but people too! We should take this opportunity to elect trustees Platform for Canada 2015 What best practices can be implemented to improve end-of- who will take a more balanced approach to the fulfillment of life care? Island Tides proposes that all potential and nominated their mandate. candidates should be prepared to declare their support Paul LeBlond, Galiano Island Problematic substance use affects people of all ages from all walks of life, and imposes significant costs on individuals, for any or all of five elements of a ‘Platform for Canada Health Care—Share Your Views 2015’: government, and society as a whole. Focusing resources on Dear Editor: evidence-based best practices for recovery programs can yield 1. No whipped votes. All Parliamentary votes (Commons BC’s health care system has changed dramatically in recent long-term positive outcomes in terms of individual well-being and Senate) to be free votes. decades to meet the demands of citizens and respond to the and effective and efficient services. 2. The Prime Minister reports to Parliament; he is first changing healthcare environment. BC has supported new How can we enhance the effectiveness of addiction recovery among equals. His leadership may be reviewed, and he treatments, drugs, and diagnostic technologies, leading to programs? can be removed by secret ballot of his caucus. significant improvements in the health and longevity of British To make a submission to the committee or learn more please Columbians. Our healthcare system has also had to evolve to 3. The Prime Minister’s supporting staff is in the Privy visit: www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/health/index.asp. The deadline for meet changing requirements, notably a greater emphasis on Council Office (PCO). Staff of the PCO are civil servants submissions is December 31, 2014. treating long-term chronic conditions, and the pressures of a and cannot do work of a partisan nature. Linda Larson, MLA and Judy Darcy, MLA growing and aging population. Throwing Baby Out With The Bathwater 4. Nominations for election of MPs in the 2019 election Healthcare is the single largest area of provincial spending, must bear the names of 100 registered voters from the accounting for almost 40% of total government spending. The Dear Editor: Electoral District (no change from present legislation). estimated budget for the Ministry of Health in the 2014/15 fiscal The attack on Parliament Hill calls for a reasonable and Nominees need not have the support of a political party, year is almost $17 billion. Budget pressures are expected to measured response, but Stephen Harper’s panicked proposal nor the signature of a party leader. intensify in the future as a result of the following cost drivers: to grant CSIS sweeping new powers is nothing short of hysteria. 5. Develop a Proportional Voting system to replace First- 2% general inflation; 1.4% population growth; 1% population It seems surreal that in Canada there could be any debate Past-The-Post for the 2019 election. aging; 0.9% increased utilization; and 0-0.7% health inflation. about the rule of law that says we are innocent until proven BC’s Legislative Assembly has tasked the all-party Select guilty, that police must disclose their sources to the judge, and Whoops! Standing Committee on Health with identifying strategies for that it is illegal to target people based on their ethnicity and maintaining the sustainability and quality of BC’s health care religion. We mispelled contributor Suzanne Fournier’s surname in system. The committee has been meeting with Ministry Allowing CSIS to intern people without charge, for crimes our last edition. representatives, health care researchers, and stakeholders to that they have not committed, on the basis of their race and LETTERS, please turn to next page www.islandtides.com seek their views on how to address the challenges faced by our Island Tides, November 13, 2014, Page 5

Photo: Toby Snelgrove, SNELGROVEimages.com Mayne Island held its All Candidates Meeting for Local Government Elections at the Ag Hall on Sunday, October 26. LNG News A Dark Incident on Mayne Island The rates for liquefied natural gas electricity for both LNG compression Charles Moody (LNG) proponents to connect to and ancillary needs. e lost power on Mayne Island on October jury rig. Could be fifteen minutes. But others were in BCHydro’s electrical grid have been set, BCHydro’s Integrated Resource 21. I had gone to pour my first coffee of the line before me with their tongues hanging out. says the BC government, providing Plan indicates that BC will need new day only to find that the coffee-maker had I drove on to Farmgate, the source of the best certainty for industry to plan power energy by 2024, assuming an initial shut off in mid-stream. Caffeus interruptus, as it were. sandwiches, not only on the island—but in the world. costs and work toward final investment LNG load of 3,000 gigawatt hours per W decisions while ensuring that existing year. The LNG Canada agreement and If you’re a coffee lover, you can imagine how I felt: that Try one if you don’t believe me. But there was no moment of anticipation and then despair, followed by coffee. Don, the genial host, told me he would have an ratepayers do not pay for the costs of the Tilbury LNG expansion would a yearning for the coffee that wasn’t there. When auxiliary generator in a month, but I couldn’t wait that infrastructure and new energy supplies account for the vast majority of this would the power come back on? The stuff in the long. Desperate, I headed back to the bakery. required to serve LNG customers. expected load. Additional LNG freezer could look after itself. I needed a coffee. By now the first jug had been consumed. I had to The combined energy and demand demand, in excess of 3,000 gigawatt Perhaps I would find out what was happening on wait another ten minutes and then it was ready. I charge for LNG facilities in 2014 will be hours would further accelerate and the Mayne Island Info Facebook page. I have to returned to my table and took my first sip. It was $83.02/megawatt hour (MWh), before increase BC’s need for new power, confess to a certain ambivalence, even hypocrisy, deeply satisfying! applicable taxes. By comparison, the concludes the BC government. when it comes to smartphones and Facebook. Like I looked out the window. It was a typical Mayne average rate paid in 2014 by other LNG Plant Delayed other members of my generation, I rail against youth Island day for this time of the year. As usual, rain was industrial customers in the province is Meanwhile, BC Group PLC, a British oil standing around in circles, texting and checking up on forecast, but of course the sun was shining, gilding the $54.34/MWh (before taxes). and gas producer, has said that it is their friends instead of talking to each other. But when green of the fields and the blue of the sea. Ferries This rate ensures that LNG unlikely to build its planned liquefied I’m alone with my phone and I’ve read my messages crossed in Active Pass. I savoured the coffee and the customers will cover the full cost of new natural-gas export terminal in Prince and the online newspapers, I may turn to Facebook moment. energy required to serve their power Rupert until the beginning of the next and lurk for a while. Just for something to read. Suddenly the lights went on. I returned to my cabin needs, says the BC government. LNG decade. The company originally told Two pages I enjoy. One is the Mayne Island Buy to find that the coffeemaker had finished its brew. I customers will also be required to regulators that they would begin and Sell and Freebies page. Here you will find wondered what had caused the power outage. I knew contribute the full cost of connecting to construction in 2016. everything including the kitchen sink. The other is the where to find out. There I read: ‘Apparently the tree the BCHydro system, as well as BC Group has displayed worry Mayne Island Info page. This is what I read: trimming crew had an incident near Fern Hollow.’ transmission system upgrades required about the shifting LNG market caused ‘Did anyone else just lose power? Ours just went An incident? For us it was an event; different to serve their facilities. by increased availability. With projects off on Mount Parke.’ Other comments followed. routines, unexpected encounters, new conversations, On November 3, the Province and in Australia and Brazil, along with two Power was off at Miners Bay, Bennett Bay, Bluff Way the talking point of an hour. I poured myself another BCHydro completed a power marketing agreements in the US, the and David Cove. Probably all over the island. cup of coffee. 0 agreement with LNG Canada. As part company has reported that LNG total I decided to go out. Perhaps one of the coffee shops of that agreement, LNG Canada will operating profit has fallen 4% this year. Did you appreciate this article? Help Island fund the cost of new infrastructure to would have an auxiliary generator. I arrived at the Tides pay for publishing it! Mail or phone in your BG Group still sees BC as a bakery which usually offers a fine dark roast. Other be built by BCHydro. Last month, promising location, however. ‘Our view $30< annual voluntary subscription today. Don’t delay— Fortis broke ground on an expansion of islanders had converged with the same thought in be part of the Island Tides team. 250-216-2267. Thank on long-term demand hasn’t changed,’ its Tilbury LNG facility, which will also mind. No coffee yet, but someone was working on a You! stated BG Canada president Madeline connect to BCHydro’s grid and use Whitaker. 0 LETTERS from previous page more kids’ toys, lawn furniture, water vessels and other such items Public Interest? religion, and then to say that the ‘evidence’ they (CSIS) are that are not strictly packaging. ‘I disagree in every way presenting in court has to be taken at face value for reasons of So, what happens? Those who understand how toxic the burning With all the things you have to say, security has more place in police states such as the former East of plastics is may take it to our garbage service which probably has But to the death I fain would fight Germany than in any democracy. an end destination of the Hartland Landfill. To just ensure you have the right If we relinquish our right to a fair trial and are forced to live in Here, at least, it will be buried for future mining, though the plan To say them’; this I learned in school— fear of our own police, then haven’t our ‘enemies’ already won? was to ‘reduce’ the amount of stuff going there because we are This quote on democratic rule; Surely a more proportionate response would be to place an running out of room. Those who are less ‘in the know’ or challenged ’Twas made by Edmund Burke, no less— armed guard at the front door of Parliament, thereby safeguarding in some way and cannot access garbage service, will burn it. And one we’d do well to address. both our leaders and our hard-won freedoms. A waste of material and a further insult to our collective environment. Another small injury in the death by a thousand cuts. Remember when the feds invented ‘eco-terrorists’ Mike Ward, Duncan To quieten down societies that were ecologist, Burning Plastic, Again Elizabeth Latta, Galiano But dared to voice their views out loud in politics ? Dear Editor: More On Wind-power Well now, BC will try the same old tricks; A damp, November day in my garden, at least 500 meters from the Dear Editor There is a new Societies Act, that’s up for a review, nearest neighbour, harvesting some leeks and I smell something In David Suzuki’s article on the beauty of wind power, I do not believe And if you are non-profit, then its aimed direct at you; completely unnatural. At first the odour is so out of context that I there was an attempt to present an economical or environmental Why is it that, if politicians are not watched, cannot identify it. But later it comes more strongly and persists for case that windpower should be used to replace existing green low- We’re apt to find our basic freedoms scotched? an hour or so and I recognize the smell of burning plastic. I decide cost hydro power that we have come to appreciate in BC. that it can only mean that, on a island where garbage disposal is not The point presented was that all around the world there has been In this new statute it would seem provided (though a fine company offers a service for a reasonable opposition to windpower, in many cases referring to it as an eyesore. That ‘public interest’ is the theme. fee), someone has resorted to burning plastic garbage in their If one could look beyond the superficial appearance of wind towers For bringing lawsuits. That’s a phrase woodstove. there is an underlying beauty in this concept for what it truly That’s often bandied round these days— Thank you MMBC, our new corporate kid on the block, which represents. If it ever came to be, there would be an appreciation of For or against—the real intent no longer recognizes many plastics as ‘packaging’ and therefore will this inner beauty as a view off of Quadra Island. This deeper Can make absorbing argument, not accept them at our depot on pain of fierce warnings and, perspective beyond just appearance is shared by many. The more—since logic and science both agree ultimately, fines up to $5,000. On the other hand, there are others like myself, also looking That we should end the fossil fuel spree ! It used to be, here on Galiano, that our depot would take all our beyond the physical appearance that conjures something entirely Where ‘public interest’ is a goal, plastics and deliver them to Syntal, a local Central Saanich company different. That is, the unreliability of windpower requires both full The government’s first and foremost role who gratefully received everything. We paid nothing, they paid redundancy and first priority on the electrical grids around the world. Should be for citizen’s protection, nothing, and the environment and some employees all won. Then This frequent starting and stopping characteristic reflects in Not corporate dividend projection; along came the big boys who determined that their relationship with unnecessary inefficiencies in the combustion of fossil fuels, which Let’s put our gov’t’s policies to test— packaging meant that they had to have it all to take for unfortunately globally means mainly burning unnecessary coal that How do they match with public interest? reconstituting, at least all that they thought constituted packaging. results in higher level of global CO2 in the air and oceans. 0 —H Barry Cotton No more Syntal. No more ziploc bags has been decreed, though Charles F. Konkle, Quadra Island the processor of such film says this is not a problem for him. No www.islandtides.com Page 6, Island Tides, November 13, 2014 ROUND THE ISLANDS Ladysmith Camera Club Whaletown Commons Takes Their Photography To Aquires 70 Acres From The Streets Island Timberlands The Ladysmith Camera Club is providing After twenty years of negotiation, a 70-acre plot photographers with an opportunity to learn of woodland has been handed over to the more about street photography this November. Whaletown community. The land belonged to Vancouver-based street photographer and Island Timberland formerly and the educator Evan Krieder will be sharing his community has been trying to guarantee its methods and techniques for obtaining stylish protection for years. The Whaletown and evocative images of people, places and Commons Society fundraised some $60,000 things in a presentation at the Camera Club on towards the aquisition of the land, and the COMPOSTING METHODS TALK November 25. Lions pitched in with the remaining $840,000 For more information, go to funded by the taxpayers of Cortes Island. tickets, go to plantofarm.org. Soul Place—In The Land Of Special Needs’. www.LadysmithCameraClub.com or visit The forest is home to an important salmon Zero Waste Composting The book, told in photos, paintings, cartoons, www.kreiderskorner.blogspot.ca. bearing creek and wildlife habitat. Now that it Presentation poetry, and prose, follows their journey with has become a protected area, trails will be built Down Syndrome. It shares their triumphs, New Society Publishers’ At a recent meeting, sponsored by Pender through it for public use. challenges, hopes and fears. Carbon Emissions at 2005 Island Conservancy, at Hope Bay, Mateo Ocejo Abattoir Anniversary ‘Perhaps the greatest obstacle faced by a Levels of Net Zero Waste discussed methods of small person with special needs is being The Salt Spring Abattoir is celebrating its In 2005, Gabriola’s New Society Publishers scale composting with islanders. His slideshow misunderstood and isolated from life’s second anniversary this November. The became the first book publishing company in studied various methods of composting at processes and events. This book is my way of North America to become carbon neutral. All Abattoir is busy and expanding. It currently different scales, costs, and complexity. bridging that gap in words and images drawn of the paper it uses is 100% post-consumer has the capicity to process poultry and lamb, The presentation was well attended and the from the ins-and-outs and ups-and-downs of recycled, ancient forest friendly paper, helping and is planning to begin to process pork and Q&A session was long and full of good our day-to-day,’ says Kari. the publishing company cut down on carbon beef as well. The Abattoir employs several local questions as the audience planned for a long- To help Kari and Mielle raise the funds they emissions by 36%. Any unavoidable emissions residents part-time and is hoping to increase its range waste management system. need, contribute to their Indiegogo campaign workforce. are neutralized by investing in initatives that For more information, and to see Mateo’s by pre-ordering a signed copy of their book. As a way of fundraising for the Abattoir, the will prevent the release of a similar quantity of full presentation: penderconservancy.org. For more information, go to carbon. Salt Spring Abattoir Society and the Salt Spring http://igg.me/at/snapshot. 0 During the first year of being carbon Agriculture Alliance are putting on an Snapshot Of A Soul Place Did you appreciate this article? Help neutral, New Society Publishers offset 213 anniversary party on November 15 with local Kari Burk and her daughter Mielle, who lives Island Tides pay for publishing the tonnes of carbon. Now, almost ten years later, food, music and dancing, along with a cash bar with Down Syndrome, are raising funds to news! Mail or phone in your they are offsetting 200 tonnes. and silent auction. To learn more or to buy design and print their book ‘Snapshot Of A

Authorized by Alma Lightbody, Financial Agent 250-629-3008 NANOPARTICLES, please turn to next page www.islandtides.com Island Tides, November 13, 2014, Page 7 Saturna Notes - Priscilla Ewbank nybody who has apple trees is reporting a bumper crop Inside the Rec Centre, Hubertus Surm kept the hotdogs and People had questions about all the local government issues this year. You couldn’t eat your way through the hamburgers coming and there was a delicious array of treats that are common to us in the Gulf Islands: recycling depots, bonanza. Several people on Saturna are drying apples for all. We don’t have many children and the ones we have were economic development, financial support for facilities, public Aand the Moneys are turning them into juice. Their four resident loaded down with goodies before they even went out trick-or- healthcare personnel, ambulance service, building inspection, treating! affordable housing, ferries, library facilities, and the needs of the You just never know who has that talent for the perfect old and young. How is the $16 million from property taxes costume and I appreciate the inspired people who deck distributed among the five Southern Gulf Islands? How do the themselves out, leaving their everyday selves behind. Darryl and much smaller population of Southern Gulf Islands, Juan de various volunteer firefighters arranged a fabulous display of Fuca, and Salt Spring compete with the urban municipalities screaming, thundering explosions of gorgeous light—fireworks! for funding? Twelve thousand dollars was collected from the Saturna Howe was candid and even funny, as well as being able to community to buy a spectacular sky show. Halloween being on give the gist and flavour of how the CRD bureaucracy works and Friday night there were also parties on Saturday night. Two of the 33 committees and commissions that are a part of the job. parties in a row is enough for most islanders. In his mind, the Islands Trust land-use planning structure Art Shows is our great asset. The resultant beauty and flavour of the islands Saturna Point Store has a lovely space to display art and the dovetails very well with using education about our area as an artists of Saturna have been keeping this space, near the ferry attractant for visitors and our best economic driver. Howe stated line-up, lively and inviting with a series of shows featuring that his goal is a longterm, year-round economy with less different island artists and a changing display of all the artists. dependence on cyclical tourism. Our most recent exhibition has been Nettie Adam’s show at The other CRD Director nominee, Stephen Cropper from Saturna Café at the General Store. Nettie is an artist who works Mayne, visited Saturna the next day for a tour and to meet in as many forms of media as her inspiration takes her. Her people. So Saturna will not get a chance to see and hear the two main media is photography, and she is good. candidates engage. Nettie appears at island events with a camera and many Islands Trust Election islander’s are included as Nettie wends her way, interacting with Too late to report will be an Island Trust All Candidates Meeting the event. At her show, Nettie hung a slim metal ‘clothes line’ on November 5. An election—instead of acclamation—is a great along the long narrow walls and clothes-pegged portraits of benefit to the community, as we get to see and hear our three islanders—like Monday wash hung out to dry. You chose the candidates engage in real dialogue. The issues are so personal gorgeous coloured 8’x11’ photo you wanted, unpegged it, picked and every issue has a face—yours or your neighbours! The Gulf up a plastic sleeve, and paid your $20 into the jar taped to the Islands are a perfect example of why elections should not be Andrew Meeres harvests apples wall. The gap is then filled up with replacement portraits for as win-lose sports-type events. Instead, the best we can do to pluck long as the supply lasts. Nettie calls this an interactive display. brilliant ideas from all community members because, after pigs are burping and smiling with all the crushed pomace that Nettie’s inspiration came from a friend’s chance question as November 15, you will still be neighbours and have the same is turning up in their enclosure. Young islanders helped pick they were pushing off to kayak over to Tumbo Island and Nettie issues to work on together. apples from the semi-dwarf trees which are about as high as a was taking pictures. ‘Yes, but what do you do with all the This trustee election is hot—I have never seen so many six-foot person with an arm stretched way up. pictures you take?’ Indeed, thought Nettie, how to get these out posters, handouts, brochures, mail-outs, declarations of support All in all, agriculture did well this year. Ian Rowe has been into the community where they belong, pay for developing costs, from previous trustees, meet-and-greets on various parts of the selling figs, beets, and shallots at the General Store, and two local and have the enjoyment of islander’s delight? island, campaign buttons and all sorts of fooferaw. farms are gearing up to keep the store supplied year-round with Artists are worth their weight in gold—they help us see We used to have, at best, single sheet mail-outs, the All local garlic. Breezy Bay kept Saturna in tomatoes, green beans ourselves through their creations. Candidates Meeting, some private meet-and-greets, augmented and basil for a solid couple of months. The CRD In Our Lives by a flurry of phone calls, lots of gossip, and some planning. Apple pies sold at the General Store come from two old King On Saturday, November 1, David Howe, our current Southern This new Saturna electioneering experience is pretty intense. of Tompkins County trees in the Haggis Farm orchard. When Gulf Islands CRD Director, held a ‘Meet and Greet’ at the Websites and Facebook are being used for candidates’ we first bought the land and came to settle, the trees were tired Community Hall. Eventually, 27 people joined the circle to ask presentations and questions and answers. The ‘likes’ are looking and the crop spotty. I knew nothing and wondered if 0 questions and listen to the discussions. identifying who supports who. So far, no lawn signs! they had fulfilled their destiny. But lots of water and chicken poop laced with sheep and deer droppings turned the trees into the abundant bearers they are now. Single-venue (50 words): $39.90 includes image Campbells grow a huge garden that they share with other Multi-venue (70 words): $50.40 includes image islanders and Jacques reports more potatoes than they can store Payment with order by Visa or MasterCard, please What’s On? [email protected] or 250.216.2267 and surplus squash, as well as giant beefsteak tomatoes. Campbell’s Farm does custom slaughtering in their VANCOUVER ISLAND & ALL THE GULF ISLANDS government-approved abattoir. Live sheep are also brought Starting Now Saturday, November 22 from Pender, Mayne and Galiano Islands and turned into lamb Online Film Opening for ‘Coastal Gabriola Agricultural Association in boxes—cut, weighed and packaged—ready for the farmers to Tarsands—Journey to Deleted Christmas Market—30+ vendors with pick up. Islands’—exploring a maze of channels food, crafts and more; raffle basket of and islands along BC’s North Coast in a items donated by the vendors • Gabriola Island Hallowe’en kayak, precisely where hundreds of Community Hall • 10am–4pm • Info: Hallowe’en was lots of fun this year. The elementary school kids supertankers will have to navigate if the Northern Gateway pipeline 250.247.8216 • GABrIOLA and the Strong Start tinies came up and carved pumpkins with is built • Download the film at: www.CoastalTarSands.ca • ONLINE Saturday, November 22 the help of volunteers at the store’s community table. These Wed to Sun, Nov 13 to 16 Yuletide Gift Faire—wonderful gifts, crafts and food; kitchen and were taken over to the Rec Centre and lit the way to the main ‘Who We Are’ Book Tour and Signing—Hear MP Elizabeth May concession open • Pender Community Hall • 10am-4pm • door—and the party. Darryl Davies, King of Hallowe’en on speak about her latest book: Who We Are: Admission by donation, proceeds go to the Hall • PENDEr Reflections on my Life and Canada; part memoir, Saturna, has a passion for Hallowe’en and a huge array of Sat and Sun, November 22 and 23 part recent Canadian history, all riveting • ThurS, NOv Strong Mind Strong Body retreat—Health and decorations—the Rec Centre was really decked out. 13: Victoria, Bolen Books, 7pm; FrI, NOv 14: wellness retreat; time to maintain being strong • Duncan, The Old Firehouse Wine Bar, 3pm; FrI, NOv Poets Cove • $150: two days of fitness, yoga, 14: Courtenay, Courtenay Public Library, 7pm; SAT, NANOPARTICLES from previous page nutrition, meditation, and relaxation; $175/night: NOv 15: Parksville, McMillan Arts Centre, 2pm; SuN, double occupancy, includes breakfast, steam While acknowledging that ‘nanotechnologies offer NOv 16: Salt Spring, Artspring Theatre, 1pm • Info: cave, fitness center, pools, and hot tub; full service tremendous potential benefits’ the centre set up its Project on http://www.greenparty.ca/book-tour • vICTOrIA, DuNCAN, spa at additional cost • Info: www.livelifefitt.com, Emerging Nanotechnologies to ‘ensure that as these COurTENAY, PArKSvILLE, SALT SPrING [email protected], 780.318.1044 • PENDEr technologies are developed, potential human health and Friday, November 14 thru Saturday, December 27 Friday to Sunday, November 28-30 environmental risks are anticipated, properly understood, and Comox valley Art Gallery 40th Annual A Contemporary Christmas Carol (A Ghost Story)—Presented Christmas Craft Fair—original design pottery, effectively managed.’ by Solstice Theatre Society; directed by Kelly Irving; jewellery, ornaments, glass work, woodwork, As is often the case with such discoveries, widespread starring Steeve Larouche and a cast of dozens • fabric art, paintings, prints, cards, specialty application could lead to unintended consequences. Scientists Pender Community Hall • Friday and Saturday: foods, stocking stuffers & more; something for 8:00pm; Sunday: 2:00pm • Adults: $15; Students: argue we should follow the precautionary principle, which states everyone and every budget • CVAG 580 Duncan $10 • Tickets available at Talisman Books and proponents must prove products or materials are safe before Avenue, Courtenay • Special Discounts on Gallery and Southridge Farms • PENDEr they’re put into common use. Before letting such technology Opening Day, Friday Nov 14 • Open Mon thru loose, we should also ask who benefits, whether it’s necessary, Sat, 10am-5pm; Friday Nov 21 late night Friday to Sunday, December 5 to 7 Beaver Point hall 30th Annual Christmas Craft and what environmental consequences are possible. shopping: 10am-9pm; open 11am-4pm, Sunday, December 14 & 21 • Info: 250.338.6211, www.comoxvalleyartgallery.com • Fair—Come share our local artisan’s wares where Friends of the Earth has called on the US government to COurTENAY they were created and meant to be experienced; it is impose a moratorium on ‘further commercial release of food Thursday-Sunday, November 20-23 worth the trip • Beaver Point Hall, 1361 Beaver Point Road • Friday: 5-9pm; Sat: 10am-5pm; Sun: 10am- products, food packaging, food contact materials and Giant Book Sale—Salt Spring Literary Society’s 8th 4pm • Info: www.beaverpointhall.org • SALT agrochemicals that contain manufactured nanomaterials until annual sale of 15,000+ donated books • Salt Spring SPrING nanotechnology-specific safety laws are established and the Farmers’ Institute • Thurs: Salt Spring Literacy public is involved in decision-making.’ Society members’ preview event, with Arthur Black Friday, Saturday & Sunday, December 12, 13 and 14 The group says we can protect ourselves by choosing fresh, and CC Humphreys, 6:30pm; Fri-Sat: sale, 10am- ‘Seasonings' Pender Island Choral Society Concert—director 4pm; Sun: sale, 10am-3pm • Info: Bruce McConchie, accompanist Amy Nold, the Kids’ Choir, the organic and local foods instead of processed and packaged foods [email protected] • SALT SPrING Pender Young Violins • Pender Community Hall • Fri: 7pm, Sat: and by holding governments accountable for regulating and Friday, November 21 7pm, Sun: 2pm • Tickets: $15 adults, $5 ages 5-15, under 5 years free • PENDEr labelling products with nanoparticles. highgate—Dance meets theatre meets Victorian gothic mourning Nanomaterials may well turn out to be a boon to humans, but in this morbid romp through Victorian funerary culture, jumping we don’t know enough about their long-term effects to be adding straight from the darkest part of Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg’s Visibility For Your Event! them so indiscriminately to our food systems and other products. imagination; reflecting personal and collective grief, a band of 40,000 Readers! If we’ve learned anything from past experience, it’s that although figures captivate in this gothic feast of death, physical oddity, humour and horror • Malaspina Theatre at Vancouver Island email: [email protected] we can speculate about the benefits of new technologies, reality University • 7:30pm • Tickets and info: doesn’t always match speculation, and a lack of knowledge can www.crimsoncoastdance.org/, 250.716.3230 • vICTOrIA call: 250.216.2267 lead to nasty surprises down the road. Written with Contributions from Ian Hanington. 0 www.islandtides.com Page 8, Island Tides, November 13, 2014 Greenpeace sees green future for Alberta n November 3, four Greenpeace focus is blinding us to the province’s true activists climbed the 40m, historic potential to be a climate and green jobs leader,’ Leduc drilling platform at said climate and energy campaigner Melina OEdmonton’s Gateway Park to hang a large Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon banner saying: ‘Go Solar: 100% Climate Safe’. Cree First Nation in Alberta. ‘Alberta has They also set up a small solar among the best solar panel on the derrick, using potential in the country but ‘Electing its energy to power a sound- we use less than 1% of our system playing music renewable potential. Every proclaiming the power of the home, farm and First sun. Nation can be part of the The Leduc oil derrick, solar solution. The only which launched western thing standing in our way is Elizabeth’ Canada’s oil boom 70-years- the hold that fossil fuel ago, was chosen as a companies have over symbolic location to say it’s Alberta’s politicians.’ Do you have a story to tell about the Southern Gulf time to transition away from This action is part of fossil fuels to renewable Greenpeace’s campaign Islands’ adventure of electing the first Green MP in energy for the sake of the that urges the governments North America? 700 volunteers walked off Salt Spring to climate, says Greenpeace. of Alberta and Canada to join 1,300 people from Saanich to make it happen! Not ‘Fossil fuels may have support a rapid shift to powered the industrial renewable energy in order to mention folks from the Southern Gulf Islands. People revolution, but it’s time for to leave the coal and tar came from all over. the sun and other renewable sands in the ground and energy sources to power the thus avoid dangerous Christa Grace-Warrick is embarking on a book about this next,’ said Mike Hudema, an levels of climate disruption, Alberta-based climate and says Greenpeace. amazing happening, which took place during two years, energy campaigner for It came a day after the from June, 2009 to Elizabeth May’s Saanich–Gulf Islands’ Greenpeace Canada. ‘We Intergovernmental Panel thought it’s appropriate to bring our message on Climate Change released a major report election in May, 2011. to where western Canada’s oil industry really stating that at least three-quarters of fossil fuel began—to say now is the time to transition reserves must stay in the ground if humans are Christa would like to chat with as many people as again. For the future of our planet, and the to avoid ‘severe, widespread, and irreversible possible who had a part in this extraordinary event. Any health of our communities, we need to get off impacts’ from climate change. dirty energy and usher in the age of Last month, a speaking tour called Panels anecdote, however small, will be heard with pleasure. renewables.’ Not Pipelines travelled the province to put Please call or email Christa: 250-216-2796, Activists also assembled a larger solar array pressure on Alberta Premier Jim Prentice to near the base of the rig and held signs saying get off the boom-and-bust fossil fuel economy [email protected] ‘Go Solar—100% Spill Proof’ and and invest in Alberta’s vast energy potential. ‘Solar–Alberta’s Next Economy’. Electricity Greenpeace is also working with Alberta First being produced by the solar panels powered Nations to bring solar arrays into their charging-stations on the ground. communities. ‘With such highly skilled workers across the View Greenpeace’s petition with four province, Alberta is well positioned to build the demands for Premier Jim Prentice at: renewable energy economy we need. www.greenpeace.ca/catchupAB. 0 Unfortunately, our government’s tar sands TSILHQO’TIN from page 3 monetary resources to continue to fight the supporting the UNDRIP in 2010. government in court, the case was abandoned. In practical terms, the current ‘granting’ of The Tsilhqot’in however, persevered. They aboriginal rights in Canada is more like a provided abundant proof of the occupation of ‘reverse treaty.’ First Nations don’t their land over millennia, which contributed to automatically receive their ‘inherent’ and their winning where others had previously ‘constitutionally-protected’ rights from the fallen short of gaining their constitutionally government whose duty it is to protect and protected rights. provide those rights under our Constitution. To back their claims of lengthy occupation Instead, First Nations must continually of their lands, the Tsilhqot’in provided fight the government in court to gain their significant volumes of scientific evidence, rights, in essence, purchasing them from a including complex place and ethnobotanical government that consistently fights to ensure naming systems. This helped provide the that aboriginal rights are not easily won. required unassailable proof of occupation since Each time First Nations take the 1846. Other proofs include what the court government to court—collectively spending recognized as the ‘library’ of First Nations— millions in the process—they sacrifice other culturally modified trees, shell middens, burial needs in their impoverished communities. sites, clam gardens—ironically the same They must make decisions about whether to evidence that so many First Nations are seeing spend limited funds on schooling and disappear right before their eyes (such as on healthcare—or on legal bills. Grace Islet in Ganges Harbour). Commentary When colonists, who wrote the first laws in The current system for granting First Nations Canada, arrived on the land, they believed it to rights in Canada is broken, two-tiered, and be terra nullius, ‘belonging to nobody’. This severely cripples an already disadvantaged fundamental misunderstanding then formed people, and therefore should be changed. the basis of our legal system, and is the reason Increasingly, First Nations problems in Canada why First Nations must fight for their rights are everyone’s problem—Canadians who wish each and every time land-use is an issue in to see the environment protected in future will unceded territory. need to support First Nations continued It is ironic that First Nations must struggles for their rights, and to protect their continually fight so hard for their rights as lands. In the continued absence of adequate these rights have been recognized within legislative environmental protection in earlier constitutions since 1763, which state Canada, providing community support for that First Nations ‘shall not be dispossessed of First Nations and their rights will also support their lands unless paid’, and unless it is with the only adequate constitutionally-protected their ‘free, prior, and informed consent’. environmental legislation in Canada. Ironically, this language also became part of Ironically, First Nations stand the best the United Nations Declaration on the Rights future chance of protecting Canada’s clean air, of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) which water, and land. We all owe a great debt of Canada initially voted against and refused to thanks to the Tsilhqot’in First Nation. 0 sign, eventually reversing its position and Look at the amount of news! Readers’ $30 annual voluntary subscriptions make all the difference! Have you sent in yours? Additional amounts joyfully accepted! www.islandtides.com STVRs: lost residents, lost opportunities Island Tides, November 13, 2014, Page 9 Patrick Brown Bad news for bees— he use of a property for Short Term operation, but STVR owners may not be. As Vacation Rentals represents, more commercial enterprises, STVR facilities and the new ‘F’ word than anything else, a lost opportunity operation should meet community Rakib Hasan Sumon Tfor the community to gain committed standards; they should contribute Have you heard of flupyradifurone? Probably not, unless you work permanent residents. appropriate taxation, since the property for the federal government agency poised to approve this new In the ideal island community, all the owner’s interest is mainly financial. pesticide for use in Canada. But take note: This new ‘F’ word is bad properties are occupied by full-time Some islands have made a compromise news for bees. residents. The community would have whereby property owners can apply for a Flupyradifurone is an insect-killing systemic pesticide similar enough committed inhabitants to provide Temporary Use Permit to run their business. to the controversial neonicotinoid, or neonic, family of bee-killing the economy, the essential services, and the The application process gives neighbours chemicals. When applied to seeds or soil, it’s absorbed by plant social environment needed for a reasonable some say in what happens in their roots and travels to leaves, flowers, pollen and nectar, making the degree of self-sufficiency. residentially zoned neighbourhood. plant potentially toxic to insects. Each resident contributes to the Economics This past summer, the international Task Force on Systemic community, and the community, in turn, Property owners catering to short-term Pesticides analyzed 800 scientific studies and concluded that makes living on the island a practical and summer visitors make the argument that systemic pesticides like neonics are harming bees, butterflies, birds fulfilling proposition. these visitors spend significant sums on the and worms and should be phased out globally. The European But on some islands, half the houses are island when they are there, and that there Union banned three neonics for ‘crops attractive to bees’, but the unoccupied in the winter. The empty are also on-island cleaning staff and fees to European Environment Agency says that’s just a starting point, and dwellings may be owned by weekenders, or, agencies conducting the rentals. There is recommends regulators look at similar pesticides and take into alternatively, only occupied during two to truth in this, but the benefit to island account potential harmful effects on aquatic invertebrates, birds three months of the summer season. This businesses does not compare to the amount and other insects. The EEA also found that mounting scientific takes the neighbours out of neighbourhood, that would be spent by a permanent resident evidence has been systematically suppressed for many years and removing the social safety net that islanders (or even a regular weekender) occupying early warnings were ignored. prize. that same property. Island businesses need Inexplicably, Canada’s Pest Management Regulation Agency Some of these empty houses may be year-round customers to make it through has yet to respond to the task force’s findings and now wants to Short Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs). Their the other nine months of the year. Increasing approve a new systemic pesticide. What’s especially troubling is ISLAND WATER TAXI owners charge very high rents by the day or seasonality threatens their ability to operate that, in its description, the PMRA states flupyradifurone ‘may poseConnecting Sidney & week to visitors during the 8 to 10 week on a sustainable scale. a risk’ to bees, birds, worms, spiders, small mammals and aquatic summer high season; the house is bugs, and that it doesn’t readily break down in water, air or sunlightSouthern Gulf Islands unoccupied when it is not rented out. STVR The Opportunity and may carry over to the following growing season. When it entersBE SCHEDULE-FREE owners may see the property mainly as an streams, rivers and wetlands ‘it may persist for a long time.’ BOOK YOUR GROUP TRIP The essence of our island communities and investment, and value the community (and Like neonics, flupyradifurone is a nerve poison, acutely toxic to neighbourhoods assumes the ongoing www.islandwatertaxi.ca the island itself) only so far as it contributes bees if ingested. As in the past, we don’t fully understand the presence and commitment of the people 250-656-4826 to that investment. cumulative effects of the increasing amounts of today’s insecticides, who live here. The presence of significant From the community’s point of view, pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals being applied to crops numbers of short term visitors, enjoying the STVRs are also houses removed from the across the country. community’s amenities but not contributing island’s available housing stock. Neonicotinoids are showing up more frequently and in higherTALISMAN to them, is a burden at any time of the year. concentrations than the harmful chemicals they replaced. A study,BOOKS &GALLERY Regulation Unoccupied properties, or those used last year, found that 90% of Saskatchewan prairie potholes Art Show: November 16 - 30 STVR owners argue that regulation is only for short term visitors, represent lost contained residual neonics in the spring—before farmers planted Susan Taylor and Frank Ducote unnecessary, but the community has a clear permanent residents. Every island needs a their fields. Research from the US Midwest found neonics in all 79 interest in their regulation. STVR owners stock of houses available for long-term Book Signing: November 22, 2pm samples taken from nine rivers. Similar results have been found in assume that any residential property can be rental. Katrina Archer wetlands, streams and rivers in the southwest US, Georgia and an STVR, but from the community point of Wages for servicing these buildings year- 250-629-6944 California. Driftwood Ctr, Pender Island view, their establishment must not affect the round brings at least as many work hours It’s not even clear whether the widespread use of neonic seed character of the community or of a and at least as much money into the treatments increases agricultural yields. A recent report from the neighbourhood. This is an Islands Trust community as STVRs. Making them US Environmental Protection Agency regarding soy crop responsibility. Unregulated STVRs can have available to residents who will make a LAND ACT: treatments concluded, ‘these seed treatments provide little or no a very unpleasant effect on the quiet contribution to the community year round, NOTICE OF INTENTION overall benefits to soybean production in most situations. enjoyment of the neighbours’ homes. through working, spending, volunteering, or TO APPLY FOR A Published data indicates that in most cases there is no difference While the value of an STVR property to just plain participating, is important. DISPOSITION OF in soybean yield when soybean seed was treated with CROWN LAND investors may be enhanced by having access It’s better to have people living on the neonicotinoids versus not receiving any insect control treatment.’ to increased property revenue, it is unknown island than empty houses. Some STVR Take notice that Allan and The European Environment Agency also found a 2004 ban on whether the value of neighbouring owners, adding up the bills at the end of the Benedicte Cockell have applied neonicotinoid chemicals by France for sunflower and maize cropsto Ministry of Forests, Lands and properties is equally enhanced, particularly year, have questioned the economics of hasn’t negatively affected productivity. In fact, yields were higherNatural Resource Operations to a prospective purchaser who is seeking a operating a property that is only rented out primary residence. Would a seller have to in 2007 than they’d been in a decade. (MFLNRO), West Coast Region for a short period each year, no matter what Specific Permission – disclose to a potential buyer that this use is You’d think we’d learn from past experience with persistent andfor a the weekly rent might be. In the current Private Moorage situated on going on next door? BEES, please turn to page 10 housing market, the idea of a capital gain is Provincial Crown land located Community plans generally provide for questionable. Maybe a long-term tenant visitor accommodation through lodges, B&B might be better? Longterm rentals are an operations, etc. These all assume that the attractive alternative, both for the property The Lands File Number that property owner will be on site to manage the 0 has been established for this owner, neighbours, and the community. at Site North# 1414256 Pender Island/vicinityapplication is File of Hope Bay. . Written comments concerning POLITICAL BOOKS from page 6 this application should be opposition parties based on whether they were good ideas. One directed to the Section Head, example is the Canadian Environmental Protection Actand its Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations at use of a Priority Substances list. At First Reading CEPA did not 142–2080 Labieux Rd, have a Priority Substances list. It was an opposition idea. Tom Nanaimo, BC, V9T 6J9, or McMillan liked it. The amendments from committee stayed in Join Our Team emailed to: Authorizing the bill. Community Health Workers [email protected]. ‘These days, Stephen Harper insists that his MPs ensure bills Comments will be received by December 14, pass unchanged from First Reading to Royal Assent. No Casual Community Health Workers MFLNRO until 2014. previous prime minister has ever imagined anything as needed to provide personal care for the MFLNRO may not be Southern Gulf Islands, particularly on able to consider comments nonsensical as the notion that a bill is perfect at First Reading. Mayne Island & Galiano Island. Yet, Stephen Harper treats suggested improvements to received after this date. legislation as though they were purely partisan efforts to wound Required Quali cations: Please visit our website: him; efforts that must be resisted even if, or perhaps especially t
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BWBJMBCJMJUZ Advisor at the Ministry of ‘little more than puppets.’ He provides all the details for how Forests, Lands and Natural Starting wage: $18.95/hr + 9.6% in Resource Operations regional the legislative committee process is micro-managed by PMO. lieu of bene ts The message from Harris, Rathgeber and me is clear. office in Nanaimo. Stephen Harper has used a wrecking ball on Parliamentary Please submit your resume, with your hours of work availability to democracy Michael Harris’s book will undoubtedly contribute [email protected] or: to Harper’s defeat. But it will not be enough to have a different Report a road hazard to our 24 HR hotline — Fax: 250-361-8720; Mail: Prime Minister from a different party (although it will be #FBDPO
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& Duncan: 250.746.7510 Sooke: 250.642.0915 reducing the power of political party leaders and of the parties Salt Spring Isl: 250.537.5722 Mayne Isl: 250.539.2114 themselves. On this, Brent Rathgeber’s and my books combined www.beaconcs.ca Galiano Isl: 250.539.2423 Pender Isl: 250.629.3431 provide an unassailable case for change. 0 Saturna Isl: 250.539.5722 Thetis Isl: 250.246.3431 www.islandtides.com Page 10, Island Tides, November 13, 2014 MLA Report - Clair Trevena, North Island s politicians, we all have a duty to be accountable to our water—it is vital. I said that they go hand-in-hand and that constituents and more generally to the people of the communities such as ours in the North Island know that a Re-Elect province. We should be able to account for our actions healthy resource economy requires stewardship of resources. Ahonestly and openly. In the continuing quest to have the BC Ferry system Which is why I am always saddened by the way Question recognized as an integral part of our public infrastructure I Gary Period unfolds. We know there is a great deal of theatre in the raised questions about the impact to the economy that the cuts daily half-hour in which the Opposition presses cabinet and ask have wrought. We all know how badly business is hurting in ministers and the Premier for answers. Usually the ministers ferry-dependent communities and that the fare increases have Steeves respond using prepared talking points, circling the subject but cost the province $2.3 billion. But the Minister once again almost never directly answering. ignores concerns and claims everything is fine. For For And then there are times of complete avoidance. This week, Under the Coastal Ferry Act, BC Ferries runs on 4-year on one of the Premier’s rare appearances in the Legislature, we cycles, known as performance terms. The next one—PT4— asked her a number of questions about commitments she’d starts in 2016 but now is the chance to have some input into North Pender Island Trustee made to people at the scene of local disasters. After a mill that. This is where long range route planning is done, and fare

Experience, Judgment, and Competence explosion and after the breach of the Mount Polley tailings pond increases (also known as price caps) are decided. The BC Ferry she said she would be there for those affected. But she has not Commissioner is looking for input and the submissions can be we can rely on. been back and her government has done nothing for the people found at: www.bcferrycommission.com/reports-press/whats-

www.garysteeves.com with whom she had her photo taken. When we asked her about new/submission-for-pt4-10-year-capital-plan-and-efficiency- this photo-op politics, she let her ministers take the questions. plan-for-pt4-and-beyond/. The Premier simply refused to stand and be accountable to the The trucking industry is getting its own commissioner, to Legislature or the people of BC. manage licenses, rates and general flow of trucks at Port Metro Once again she showed she will basically say anything; she Vancouver. This comes out of legislation we are debating at the SHORELINE • SpecializingSpe in water knows what people want to hear but she doesn’t deliver. moment. As transportation spokesperson for the Opposition, I DESIGN accessacc over steep It’s the same with her commitments to BC having the voiced my concerns about the independence of that & rugged ‘cleanest LNG in the world’. This has always been her slogan but commissioner in light of the the government’s continued the legislation on emissions control in the LNG industry shows meddling in the ferry system, despite the existence of an terrain it is an empty promise. We continued to debate the bill which independent ferries commissioner. • Fully insured effectively ends the pretense that the government has any desire I’ve been working with various organisations and taxi to combat climate change; effectively giving the nascent LNG companies to find ways to ensure safety for users of taxis and a • Excellent industry a free ride on emissions. I spoke about the failure of level playing field for those operating cabs and rideshares. references leadership and the need to put real controls in place to combat There’s a growing concern that app-based services in larger Peter Christenson • 250-858-9575 greenhouse gases. communities won’t follow the existing rules which help protect www.shorelinedesign.ca In an earlier debate, we argued that it is not only possible to cab users. Go to: www.bcndpcaucus.ca/news/horgan-calls- have both a vibrant economy and protect our land, air, and protection-passengers-fairness-taxi-industry/. 0 Weaver calls for a made-in-BC Trans Mountain process IS YOUR ith evidence mounting that the National Energy Andrew Weaver has been among those intervenors who have Board hearings on the Trans Mountain pipeline has been advocating for a better process. WELLSAFE TO WATER DRINK? lost its legitimacy, Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak ‘We have been voicing our concerns about the review process Bay-GordonW Head and Deputy Leader of the BC Green Party, for months and every time we do we get shut down by the Contamination can occur is calling on the BC government to immediately issue the 30- National Energy Board. At some stage you have to recognize without changes in colour or day notice, required to cancel its equivalency agreement with that the federal process is simply stacked against British taste. Be safe, test annually. the federal government, and launch its own, separate, Columbians and the only way to change that is for our provincial environmental assessment process. government to step up and reclaim its right to have its own, Marc Eliesen, an expert with over 40 years experience in the made-in-BC hearing process. 250-656-1334 energy sector, including as a former board member of Suncor The June 2010 equivalency agreement signed between the Energy, former CEO of BC Hydro, former Chair of Manitoba federal government and province set the review process for Hydro and deputy minister in several federal and provincial major pipeline and energy projects under the National Energy governments, issued a scathing letter to the National Energy Board, with final approval to be determined by the federal Board outlining the reasons for his exit as an intervenor. His cabinet. The equivalency agreement for the Trans Mountain fax: 250-656-0443 Website: www.mblabs.com letter cites concerns that the NEB is failing to fulfill its role as an project can be cancelled with 30 days notice. Email: [email protected] impartial, transparent review body. ‘The BC government needs to stand up for British 2062 Unit 4 Henry Ave. West, Sidney, B.C. V8L 5Y1 This comes following months of jurisdictional disputes in the Columbians,’ says Weaver. ‘What we need is a made-in-BC City of Burnaby and ongoing frustration expressed by other environmental assessment that is controlled by British intervenors over a flawed hearing process. Columbians to ensure our concerns get respected and that our 0 Butler Gravel & As the only BC MLA with intervenor status in the hearings, questions get answered.’ Concrete…Better from the ground up! Debunking Solar Myths - Peter Nix Reliable Service, Quality Products Once our society gets past a few myths, you and I will soon drive sun than Germany and that country is fast converting to solar & Competitive Prices home in electric cars, re-charge them using our own solar power. energy panels, and store the electricity in our car battery to be Myth #2: Canada needs the oil sands to drive our national Serving All The Gulf Islands released into the electric grid when needed—just like a BCHydro economy forward. Nope, more Canadians work in the beer Phone 250-652-4484 water reservoir. An energy revolution is coming like a giant wave. industry than work in the oil sands. Solar energy will create jobs Fax 250-652-4486 In 2014, solar energy became profitable for the individual in our own community; fossil fuels ship money to Alberta or home-owner. Citizen-owned local solar energy systems will Texas. 6700 Butler Crescent, Saanichton, B.C. make us independent of price-fixing, immensely rich, and Myth #3: We can’t replace the use of fossil fuels in our politically powerful fossil fuel companies. And we will keep society. Nope, electric cars are fast becoming more affordable BCHydro rates low by supplying the electrical grid with cheap than gas guzzlers, and electric heat pumps provide cheaper Your Total electricity for all to share. home heating. Water Solution For example, an Australian coal utility recently had to pay to Myth #4: Individuals can’t stop climate change. Nope, the sell its own electricity. Uh? Well, the increasing supply of cheap Keystone and Enbridge oil pipelines are very likely dead ducks Gulf Islands Water Treatmeent solar electricity from home-owners with their own solar panels due mostly to public pressure, with immense help from the First drove down the price of electricity to below zero for a short Nations. period. Yes, that’s right, instead of selling electricity produced Believe me, I know what a dead duck looks like—as a ~ Rainwater Harvesting from burning coal, that company had to pay to get rid of it. Wow, biologist who once worked for oil sands companies, I saw them ~ Water treatment for wells, a revolution indeed. floating on bitumen-contaminated tailings ponds in northern surface supplies & seawater Once we make our own solar electricity, you and I will Alberta. Who needs that? ~ Filtration & Disinfection understand that it is cheaper to buy electric-powered cars and Get practical knowledge on renewable solar energy: ~ Slow sand filtration electric home-heating technologies and so stop using fossil fuels [email protected]. 0 ~ Small systems Health that are destroying our climate. Let’s debunk a few solar myths: Authority approvals Myth #1: Solar energy is expensive. Nope, you can now make Did you appreciate this article? Help Island Tides pay for publishing it! Mail or phone in your Bacteria, Arsenic, Turbidity, Tannins-TOC, Hardnesss, much more! a profit by installing solar energy compared with fossil fuel $30< annual subscription today. Don’t delay—be part of the systems or even BCHydro rates. The Cowichan area gets more wwww..watertigerr..net Island Tides team. 250-216-2267. Thank You! ViServingctoria The GulfBu Islandsrnaby & BC sinceCoourte 1988nay ([email protected]) 412-1110 (604) 630-111 TF:4 1-855-777-1220(2500) 339-6914 BEES from page 9 to neonicotinoid insecticides for pest control’, published in the bioaccumulative pesticides like DDT and organophosphates, journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research, and the more recent research on neonicotinoids. DDT was suggests further research and methods including ‘diversifying Look at the amount of news! widely used until Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring drew crop rotations, altering the timing of planting, tillage and attention to its negative impacts on ecosystems, wildlife and irrigation, using less sensitive crops in infested areas, applying Readers’ $30 annual humans. Many, but not all, organophosphate pesticides have biological control agents,’ and other lower-risk alternatives. also been pulled from widespread use because we learned their We need to stop contaminating the environment with voluntary subscriptions neurotoxic effects posed serious risks to humans and wildlife. neonics and related systemic pesticides. Approving Rather than approving new pesticides that may harm flupyradifurone would take us in the wrong direction. Putting make all the difference! pollinators, birds and other animals, including humans, we bees and ecosystem functioning at risk endangers us all. It’s time need better ways to protect crops. A recent report, ‘Alternatives to find a better way. 0 www.islandtides.com Island Tides, November 13, 2014, Page 11

Photos: Davy Rippner Well-attended All-Candidates Meetings on North and South Pender. The North Pender meeting (above) had a crowd of 400 people, with some listening in the doorway.

News In Brief addition, Kinder Morgan will apply for a Resource Use Permit ‘This problem that 180,000 people on welfare face has a to construct the new pipeline through the Coquihalla Summit solution,’ added Irene Lanzinger, new secretary treasurer of the Strait Of Georgia Acidity Threatens Recreation Area. BC Federation of Labour. ‘It requires only political will. We can Shellfish All of these incursions into protected areas will involve share our resources to end poverty.’ Recent measurements of Strait of Georgia waters have shown environmental assessment and public consultation. The This was the third annual Welfare Food Challenge unexpected acidity, confirmed by local measurements along the Province has identified several key reasons which might lead to sponsored by Raise the Rates to put pressure on the BC east coast of Vancouver Island. The confined waters hold some the rejection of a proposal: government to raise welfare rates. of BC’s most productive shellfish farms, and the increasing acid • Viable alternatives exist; The next step, said Bill Hopwood, organizer of Raise the harms their ability to build their shells. • There is significant First Nations opposition; Rates, is to have meetings between Welfare Food Challenge The acidity may result from Fraser River water entering the • There is significant public or local government opposition; takers and the Liberal Minister and NDP critic for Social Strait, but initial guesses are that it does not originate in the • Significant adverse effects on environmental or social Development, the government department that controls open ocean. pH levels have dropped from the expected 8.0 to a values cannot be avoided, mitigated, or compensated for; and welfare rates. ‘They need to act to end the suffering of poverty surprising 7.57. • There is insufficient overall benefit to the Province. and the waste of billions of dollars that poverty costs BC every Texada Coal Shipping Approval While the deadline for public comment has passed, the year,’ he says. Challenged Wilderness Committee, along with three other environmental Act to Defend the Pacific Northwest organizations, has notified the BC government that the park- Voters Taking Action Against Climate Change (VTACC) have Nathan Cullen, NDP MP for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding, use permit issued to Kinder Morgan for ‘research’ is likely initiated a challenge to the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines has presented a private members bill to protect the Pacific unlawful and should be revoked immediately. The permit was An Act to Defend the Pacific Northwest approval of a permit issued to Texada Quarries Limited (TQL) Northwest. The bill, , issued in November 2013, some five months before Bill 4, covering the expanded storage and transshipment of coal to be would legislate a ban on supertankers on the northcoast and permitting such ‘research’, became law. seek to give communities a stronger voice in pipeline reviews. barged from Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD) and loaded on deep- Big Telecom Blocking Canadians sea ships at Texada Island. The coal is thermal grade, originating It would ensure that the National Energy Board is more at mines in the US, and reaches FSD by rail: approximately one The ‘Big Three’ telecom giants Bell, Rogers and Telus are accountable for making sure adequate consultation occurs train per day, which fills two barges per day, towed down the blocking Canadians from affordable mobile and internet between the federal government and First Nations, provincial Fraser River and then north up the Strait of Georgia. services, says Canadian Internet freedom group, Open Media. and municipal governments, and local communities impacted The legal case, supported by West Coast Environmental Law Telecom companies are restricting customers’ access to by the Board’s decisions. Act Foundation, is based on the assertion that the TQL facility is not independent providers, and keeping mobile and internet prices The would also give the NEB a mandate to assess the a coalmine, and that bulk storage and shipping facilities are not artificially high, it says. On average, Canadians currently pay impacts of proposed pipelines on employment in Canada’s regulated under the Mines Act, but properly under the 260% more for roaming services than most other industrialized upgrading and refining sectors, and ask it to consider whether Environmental Management Act, which requires more countries. a pipeline will add value to natural resources in Canada. detailed consideration of environmental effects. Further, that Big Telecom giants currently control 90% of the Canadian This fall, Nathan Cullen will be taking a ‘Take Back Our important information about run-off from the site was not market. Not only are they raising prices, but they are also Coast’ tour across BC to give people an opportunity to have their 0 shared with the public before the permit was issued. attempting to force certain websites into an ‘internet slow lane’. say on his bill. To learn more, visit www.takebackourcoast.ca. Organizations across the globe are coming together in an Texada and adjacent Lasqueti Island residents have detected Did you appreciate this article? Help Island attempt to shift the power of internet and mobile services out coal contamination from existing TQL operations, and are Tides pay for publishing it! Mail or phone in your of the hands of worldwide telecom giants and back into the further concerned with coal dust blown from uncovered coal < $30 annual subscription today. Don’t delay—be part hands of internet users and innovators. barges. Recent documents indicate that there is no plan to of the Island Tides team. 250-216-2267. Thank You! monitor coal dust. The Union of BC Municipalities recently Shqwi’qwal for Indigenous Dialog At UVI passed a resolution calling for a full environmental and health The BC government has announced the formation of the impact assessment of the scheme. Shqwi’qwal (pronounced shh-qwee-qwal) for Indigenous VTACC has also asked federal Environment Minister Dialogue. Aglukkaq to investigate whether the TQL facility is in violation The office of the Shqwi’qual will be established at the new of the federal Fisheries Act. Centre for Pre-Confederation Treaties and Reconciliation at Government Blocks Release Of Mount Vancouver Island University. Polley Tailings Pond Breach Reports According to the government news release, the Shqwi’qwal (meaning ‘speaker’ in Hul’qumi’num) ‘will develop and support BC Government reports about the Mount Polley tailings pond dialogue sessions on education and other topics that will help collapse have not been made available by the government. The foster understanding and partnerships between indigenous University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre has filed a peoples and the broader public, private, and corporate sectors. request with the provincial privacy commissioner, but the The Shqwi’qwal will also support the development of research government claims that their release could prejudice several and public policy papers in this area.’ government investigations. Former Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Meanwhile, sediment from the collapse appears to be (A-in-chut) Atleo has been appointed to the Shqwi’qwal and will accumulating deep in Quesnel Lake, changing the colour of the be working with former Snuneymuxw Chief Doug White who The Simple lake to a ‘funny green’ according to local residents. The sediment is the Director of the Centre. Atleo has considerable experience plume is reportedly upwelling in the lake and flowing out to the High-Perfoormance working with First Nations, and provincial and federal Fraser River. governments. Septic Systeme The University of Northern BC is seeking funding for a four- Welfare Food Challenge to-five year study of the plume, and its implications for salmon Eljljen GSF…YYouro A orddable bl Over 100 people of all ages and backgrounds took the Welfare Solution foro Today’s and lake trout. The university operates the Quesnel River Wasta ewater Challenges! Research Centre, a few kilometres downstream of the lake. Food Challenge in October, eating only what $21 would buy for About one million sockeye spawn in the watershed each year. a week. The consensus that was reached by the challenge takers Kinder Morgan Seeks Parks was that the BC government needs to raise the welfare rates that have been frozen for the past seven years. ‘Boundary Adjustments’ Ideal for New or ‘$21 is not enough,’ UBC student and challenge taker Replacement Systems Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project Samantha Truong said. ‘You can’t be healthy on that diet.’ continues to seek adjustments to the existing pipeline route in order to accommodate the new pipe. In particular, Kinder Innovative Products and Solutions Since 1970 Morgan now seeks rights of way through four provincial parks: Finn Creek Park (near Blue River), North Thompson River Park (near Clearwater), Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area (near ‹ eljen.com Kamloops), and Bridal Veil Falls Park (east of Chilliwack). In

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www.islandtides.com Page 12, Island Tides, November 13, 2014 Local artist paints mural for World Wall exhibition in Vancouver ania Godoroja Pearse of Mayne Island has painted the Canadian panel on a mural project called the World Wall. She was commissioned by part-time Galiano IslanderT Judy Bacahas who has been working on the project for over twenty years. It so far has panels from Russia, Finland, Mexico, and Israel. Its theme is ‘vision of the future without fear’. In contrast to many other countries in the world, where basic human survival and personal liberty is an issue, Canadians seem to have little to fear here and now. However, Canada’s environmental future has huge ramifications for the health and welfare of its citizens, and so the environment was chosen as the theme of the Canadian panel, says Bacahas, a well-known mural artist and UCLA professor based in Los Angeles. Key images in the mural symbolize different environmental impacts in Canada, such as mining, the tar sands, and genetically-modified crops. In it, well-known Canadian environmentalists watch over the landscape, reminding us of our duty as stewards of our surroundings. Water and the returning salmon represent a keystone species and metaphor for hope. A young First Nations girl releases the message ‘we are all connected’ in binary code, demonstrating the Idle No More movement. The mural is acrylic painted on a 10’ x 30’ canvas and took over an entire shed for more than a year. A painting project of this magnitude required helpers and Kriss Boggild, Kathy Kaiser and Genevieve Robertson added their painting talents to the resulting project. The entire World Wall will be exhibited in Vancouver next 0 September. TANIA GODOROJA PEARSE Photo: Toby Snelgrove

Crowded Planet I: Lessons from Darfur - Hans Tammemagi his three-part series discusses two lifestyle. Islam is the faith of both groups. campaign against the African rebels using improve the standard of living. The price for major obstacles to the future of In recent decades, drought placed its aerial bombardments, while Janjaweed (Arab) China’s economic growth, however, was humanity: overpopulation, and the skeletal grip on this land. Average rainfall militia attacked civilians on the ground. By UN suffering and death in Darfur. Tdark side of our character. dropped by nearly half, and life slowly became estimates, 200,000 were killed and more than An African Union peace-keeping force ‘First they dropped bombs from a plane and excruciatingly more difficult as the shifting 2.5 million fled their homes in the first four deployed in 2006 proved ineffective. In 2007, then the soldiers came,’ he said. ‘They killed sands of the Sahara drifted relentlessly years of hostilities. The Janjaweed militias, the United Nations agreed to participate in a 200 in a few hours, including many children. southward. Meanwhile, Darfur’s population supported by the government, had the upper joint African Union and UN force, which Then they raped the girls who were left. They increased at a rate of 3.1% annually, one of the hand, and have been accused of committing brought a fragile end to the war. In 2011, a new threw some bodies on the fire, others into the fastest growth rates in the world. From 1980 widespread atrocities including ‘ethnic country, the Republic of South Sudan, was well.’ A tribal leader was describing an attack to 2006, the population doubled to about 6.5 cleansing’ of black Africans. formed, but violence is still rife. on a small village during the recent civil war in million. The conflict made the situation much In summary, Darfur was a tragedy. But how Darfur, western Sudan. As the Sahara closed in, Arab nomads were worse. Village after village lay destroyed and does it relate to the larger global picture? Sadly, What could possibly drive humans to act so forced southward, bringing their herds of cattle abandoned. Nomads cut down many of the the same conflict-causing factors found in horribly? Why do we have this dark side? onto lands that African villagers were farming. trees in the war zone, trees that were crucial to Darfur are increasingly playing a role Darfur, a largely unknown region of The herds destroyed fields and worsened soil farmers, because they helped stabilize the soil throughout the world. Just as global warming northern Africa, tells us a lot about ourselves, erosion making the land unfit for farming. The and provide shade for crops. It was a vicious is expanding the Sahara Desert, it is also and also offers a keyhole through which we can African farmers pleaded with the federal cycle: the war caused enormous damage so ratcheting up the temperature everywhere. glimpse what our world might look like in the government for help. But the Arab-controlled that the land could sustain even fewer people. Just as in Darfur, water shortages are future. And the outlook is bleak. government in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, This, in turn, caused more stress and becoming severe in the Middle East, the Two races share the Darfur landscape: was indifferent—even opposed—to the plight desperation amongst the population, resulting southwest United States and many other ethnic Africans with shiny black skin live in the of the African Sudanese and took no action. By in more fighting and more atrocities. places. And just as Darfur’s population has south, farming pearl millet and raising 2003, the Africans could endure no more, and There was no shortage of armaments. increased, so has that of most nations. The livestock. Arab tribes with aquiline features rebelled. Sudan became China’s biggest foreign supplier lessons from this tiny, forgotten corner of and olive skin live in the north tending flocks An ugly civil war ensued. The Sudanese of oil. In exchange, China built pipelines, Africa are relevant not only to third-world of cattle and goats while roaming in a nomadic (Arab) government applied a scorched-earth shipping ports and other oil infrastructure. countries but modern, developed nations as Unfortunately, China also provided Sudan well. Darfur also showed that our human with weaponry such as assault rifles, heavy character contains a dark, cruel side, which machine guns, mortars and even fighter planes hides under a thin veneer of ‘civilization’ but and tanks. can easily erupt to the surface. Chinese politicians—and those In the next two instalments, we will explore everywhere—are addicted to making the the Darfurian lessons and look at where the economy expand, to generate more jobs and to world is headed. 0

Big SSI Crowd for Naomi Klein Patrick Brown n audience of some five hundred examples from current developments: the end crowded the gymnasium of Salt Spring of big extractive resource projects; a return to Middle School on Saturday, October 2, Keynesian Social Democratic economics; Afor Salt Spring Forum’s presentation of Naomi decentralized renewable energy instead of Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock nuclear; and the big bets fossil fuel companies Doctrine. Ms Klein’s latest book, This Changes are making against government-imposed Everything, anticipates a future in which limits on carbon emissions. She is a big thinker. Full Home Packages climate change challenges and overcomes the She expressed her regrets that neither of the Purcell Timberframes covers all aspects of home building and design. We provide current economic system of extractive main opposition parties in Canada had the full home packages completely installed on your site. Choose from our catalogue capitalism. science-based chops to challenge the Harper collection or contact us to get started on the custom home design of your dreams. Klein was greeted with a standing ovation government. by the enthusiastic crowd. She started with a She anticipated a post-corporate capitalist short sample of the range of topics she was to world with an explosion of low-carbon jobs, cover: in order to avoid an uninhabitable and with decentralized community building as world, there would have to be significant a high priority, and this, she said, could happen changes in the world economic system. ‘really fast’. This was quickly followed by an extensive The task is ‘changing the mindset’ about the question and answer session, with audience healthy environment and a dependent healthy questions moderated by Ronald Wright (A economy. ‘We need a climate justice The Praire Arch The Traditional The Mountain Modern Short History of Progress). It soon became movement,’ she declared. apparent that Klein’s thorough knowledge of With vested interests in the status quo happenings and trends in capitalist economics having so much to lose, she says, we need was well-matched by the detailed questions people ‘with a whole lot to gain’ in big change. The Art and Craft of Shelter from a knowledgeable audience. Her remarks With 400,000 people in a single march Purcell.com 1.800.665.5574 Nelson BC | Victoria BC were frequently interrupted by applause. recently in New York, we may well have them. 0 Klein is not only a theorist—she draws www.islandtides.com