It’s local election time!

On November 15th, British Columbians will go to the polls to vote for local leaders to represent their communities.

While local elections may not generate as much attention on the airwaves or around the water cooler as provincial and federal races, they are vitally important – and not only at the local level.  Newly elected mayors, councillors and regional representatives will not only make countless decisions that will affect daily life in our communities – they can also play a major role in a much wider political arena.

For many of us concerned about the local and global impacts of pipeline projects and other fossil fuel development in BC, it increasingly feels like the provincial and federal governments are simply not listening. But communities like Burnaby (which is using all the mechanisms at the city’s disposal to prevent the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, including a drawn-out legal battle to prevent the company from carrying out invasive surveying work on Burnaby Mountain conservation lands), or Kitimat (where last April, citizens rejected the Northern Gateway project in a plebiscite) are showing us how local governments can flex some serious political muscles and be influential players in this vital national conversation.

We need more local champions like these, and the upcoming municipal elections are an important opportunity to spark community debates about the risks and benefits of Kinder Morgan and other energy projects, and for citizens to choose representatives who will stand up for the rights of communities over fossil fuel companies.

Georgia Strait Alliance is working in strategic locations around the Strait to encourage such debates during the election period, and in particular to raise awareness among candidates and voters of the risks coastal municipalities would face in the event of an oil spill. 

If you live on the Sunshine Coast or the Nanaimo and Parksville areas,click here to find out where your candidates stand on these issues, and other useful information as you prepare to vote on November 15th.

Wherever you live, if you’d like to see your local government be a champion for the coast and the climate, here are three things you can do to make the most of the upcoming local elections

1. If you have five minutes: ready, set vote! Visit your municipality’s website and make sure you know when and how to vote.  Talk to your friends and family and make sure they’re ready to vote as well.
2.  If you have half an hour: write an email. Contact your candidates (see here for an email directory of candidates running across the province) and ask them their views on issues of concern to you (you can use our candidate survey as a guide). You could also consider writing a letter to the editor of your local paper – a great way to contribute to the debate in the wider community.
3.  If you have an evening to spare: attend an all-candidates’ meeting in your area to find out more about your candidates, and ask them questions about what matters to you (feel free to use ours). Your local newspaper or municipality’s website is the best place to find out dates for the meetings.

If you would like help with any of the above – who to contact, what to write, no question is too big or too small – we’re here to help! Contact alexandra@georgiastrait.org or call 604-633-0530.

Whether it’s pipeline and tanker projects that worry you, or other local environmental or community issues, November 15^th is too important an opportunity to miss – so mark your calendars, and get out and vote! 

Water's Edge Day draws Vancouverites to the shore

For Vancouverites, their city's Waterfront is many things: it's a place where they live, where they work, where they move around, where they access and protect beautiful nature - and not least, it's a place where they come together to connect with other members of the community.

On October 5th, we celebrated everything that makes our shoreline special together with citizens at the Vancouver's first Water's Edge Day. Almost 1,000 residents came down to the Maritime Museum to embark on boat tours of English Bay, to go on a bird walk, a paddle tour in kayaks and Tsleil-Waututh canoes, to join an art workshop or win great prizes.

Click through our photo gallery to see all the fun things that were going on at the waterfront on this beautiful October day. Did you miss out on Water's Edge Day? Make sure to join us next year!

Our next Waterfront event in Vancouver is already in the works. In January 2015, we are hosting a Citizens' Forum to envision what a positive future for our shoreline could look like and what can be done to make it a reality. This is your chance to get together with other citizens for a fun, interactive Forum and to become part of our effort to build a shoreline for all. Sign up to receive an invitation.

Water's Edge Day 2014

By Georgia Strait Alliance

• The electric "E-Tolley" pulls into the harbour

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Bird watching on an all-electric motor boat

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Birdwatching

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Bird watching fascinates all ages

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Building a paper "Ocean Flotilla"

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Kayak Tours

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Kayak Tours

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Getting ready for a kayak tour

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Kayak Tours

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Salty the Seagull

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Getting ready for a paddle with Takaya Tours

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Takaya Canoe Tour

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Takaya Canoe Tour

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Art Exhibition

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Art Exhibition

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Water's Edge Day Fun

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Squidy Man!

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Water's Edge Day Smile

  By Georgia Strait Alliance
  

• Show Us Your Waterfront

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• The Vancouver Aquarium's touch tanks, a big hit

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Touch Tanks

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Touch Tanks

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Gabriel George Storytelling

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Gabriel George Storytelling

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

• Prize Draw

  By Georgia Strait Alliance

     Thanks to our wonderful sponsors and partners for making Water's Edge Day possible:

Have fun on the waterfront ... and see the shore from a different angle!

We love our waterfront here in Vancouver, the beaches, the parks, the seawall, the river — whether you're on or off the water, there's so much to do. But how much do we actually know about the shore? Do you know what the ships anchored in English Bay are carrying? Have you ever wondered what False Creek used to look like 100 years ago? When was the last time you took a close look at the animals that live on the shore?

We at GSA think it's time to celebrate our shoreline and all it has to offer. On October 5th, we are inviting everyone to come down to the Vancouver Maritime Museum for Water's Edge Day and spend the day with us exploring and enjoying the shoreline as part of our Waterfront Initiative.

It will be a day of great fun! Together with our partners and sponsors, we have organized a range of exciting — and completely free — activities that you can take part in. You can:

• Join a guided paddle tour in a real Tsleil-Waututh canoe
• Go on kayak tours
• Interact with ocean critters in the Vancouver Aquarium's mobile touch tanks 
• Get aboard an all electric boat for a bird tours of English Bay
• Cycle around False Creek and learn about the history of our shore and the return of the herring
• Check out the exhibition "Where Land and Water Meet" with art and historical photographs of the water's edge
• Get creative and join an art workshop
• Learn about water science at Science World
• Explore the "green shore" restoration project at Jericho Beach
• Enjoy free access to the Vancouver Maritime Museum all day long.

You can find all details and updates here. 

See the city from a different angle — how about from a helicopter or a zodiac?

The best thing is: if you love the waterfront as much as we do, you can turn that into a great chance to win: We want you to share your favourite moments, pictures, videos, places or stories from Vancouver's shore with us in our #MyVanWaterfront contest: Did you snap a great sunset picture at the beach? Have you been out on the water? Did you spot a cool animal on the shore? What else did you, your family and friends do on the waterfront this summer? Simply post on twitter or instagram with the hashtag #MyVanWaterfront and tag your location our submit here, and you will be entered into the draw.

All submissions to the #MyVanWaterfront contest will be drawn at Water's Edge Day. Our exciting main prize is a scenic helicopter ride for 2 from Vancouver to Victoria and back with Helijet. And you can also win a kayak paddle from Feathercraft or awesome hoodies and other merchandise from Sitka Surfboards. 

And there will be more prizes on Water's Edge Day: We're giving away 10 tickets for 2 for a waterfront sightseeing tour of Vancouver.  

In other words, you really don't want to miss out on Water's Edge Day!

This could be your view! Photo: Feeling Photography

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors and partners for making Water's Edge Day possible:

Why you should come to the Peace Arch this Saturday

This weekend, the largest climate march in history will take place in New York ahead of the UN Climate Summit, and millions of people around the world will take to the streets to call for real, fair and urgent action to tackle the climate crisis.

Here in our corner of the world, the Salish Sea is poised to become one of the largest fossil fuel exporters on the planet. The dozen new or expanded oil, coal and LNG projects proposed for our region put the people, ecosystems and economy of the Salish Sea at risk, and make the Pacific Northwest ground zero in the battle to stop climate change.

Americans and Canadians of the Salish Sea share one coast, one ecosystem and one climate, and it’s time to work together across the border to stop our shared waters from becoming a fossil fuel superhighway.

On September 20^th, if you care about the Salish Sea, or the creatures and communities that depend on it, there’s only one place to be: standing with our American neighbours at a rally at the Peace Arch border crossing to demand unprecedented action to defend the Salish Sea and our global climate from fossil fuel development.

You’ll hear inspiring stories and fantastic music. You’ll learn about a new treaty to be signed the next day by First Nations and US Tribes, which will reflect indigenous laws that have existed to protect the land and water since time immemorial and will act as a cross-border tool to defend the Salish Sea. You’ll sit down for a potluck picnic with your neighbours from both sides of the border, and swap stories, lessons learned, hopes and fears for our region and our planet. You’ll beinvited to sign a pledge committing to take action – whatever that means to you– to stop new fossil fuel exports on the Salish Sea. Most of all, you’ll be part of a moment in history when people came together and chose a different path.

We know that spending the afternoon at the Peace Arch takes a bit of time and effort. But we all know, deep down, that the climate crisis isn’t going to be solved just by switching to efficient light-bulbs or emailing your MP – or by anything you can do on your own. Like all the big social movements that have won sweeping change in the past, from the Suffragettes to the civil rights movement, we need millions of people to step out the front door, take to the streets, and stand up to be counted – together.

It’s going to be worth it. See you at the Peace Arch!

PS. In case you’re worrying about border line-ups or passport problems, don’t! The Peace Arch park is a unique place where you can meet and mingle with citizens of another country without crossing a border or going through customs. And we are providing buses from Vancouver to make the journey easy. Click here for more info on transport and other practicalities.  

Another environmental disaster – how do we say “enough”?

As I read article after article about the recent tailing ponds breach at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine, I am overwhelmed with the facts and the many more questions that the incident has left us

. 

What we know is that 10 billion litres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of metals-laden fine tailings were discharged into Hazeltine Creek.  We know that this water system is connected to the Fraser River,  one of our most important salmon bearing waterways. We also know that the breach happened after multiple warnings from the Ministry of the Environment about the pond exceeding its permitted height, the most recent warning coming this past May. 

Photo: Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press

What we don’t know is when communities in the area will be able to drink the water nearby.  We also have no idea what the medium and long-term impacts will be, in particular because the incident happened just as salmon are starting to enter the area.  Some say the region may never fully recover.  We don’t know.

But we do know something else - this incident was preventable and that it is guaranteed that similar incidents will happen again.  We know this because when industries are allowed to self- regulate and governments believe that economic growth can only happen one way – at all costs - harm is inevitable.

So what do we, the citizens of this province, do?

As issues of democratic reform and loss of democracy in this country bubble over, it is clear to me that the apathy that Canadians show regarding voting has left our governments with a false sense of empowerment.  Contrary to what Canadians say they want, they are deregulating our environmental protection laws and giving over environmental stewardship over to industry whose primary driver is profit, not protection. 

With every provincial and federal election that passes, fewer and fewer of us vote.  We have abrogated our right, and in my opinion, our duty to vote and take part in the most important opportunity we have to influence what kind of country we want to live in.  But it’s important to note, it isn’t our only opportunity. They are our governments, they work for us and that accountability has to be kept up not just at election time but every day in between. If we don’t like the way they protect our environment, we must let them know. 

Many of us our heartbroken about the Mount Polley incident, devastated by what we know will be impacts on our waters, salmon and other wildlife – for years to come.  But we can’t stop at hand-wringing.  If we want accountability, we must demand it.  If we want better environmental protection laws, monitoring and enforcement, we must ask for it.  

Please contact your MLA or MP and let them know that “enough is enough”.  We did not elect industry to protect our air and water, we elected our government and they must do their job.

We must raise our voices – because if we don’t, in a few weeks when this disaster fades from the headlines, things will go back to the new normal, where projects are approved without proper environmental assessment and monitoring of laws are left to this system which puts industry in charge.  And then, it’s just a matter of time before our communities, our environment and our economy pay another ultimate price. 

I say “enough”.