By Barry Saxifrage
BC’s election is coming up. I’m climate-concerned voter, deeply concerned about the increasingly destructive climate future we are leaving to our kids and to all future Canadian generations. I still haven’t decided how I’m going to best vote for climate hope. So, I’m not writing to offer any recommendations on who to vote for. Instead, I’m writing to offer some basic information about BC’s emissions.
Continue reading Some climate information for BC voters
By Michelle Gamage, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
British Columbians will get four new cancer care centres that can offer radiation treatment as the province gets ready for an increase in cases of age-related cancers.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said Thursday that new cancer care centres will be opening in Kamloops, Nanaimo, Surrey and Burnaby.
Continue reading BC Promises Four New Cancer Care CentresBy Zak Vescera, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Lawyers working for the B.C. government are threatening to sue it over a new law that would remove their right to choose their own union.
Bill 5 became law on Thursday after months of fighting between the government and the BC Government Lawyers Association, which applied last year to be recognized as an independent union representing about 300 members.
The legislation lifts a ban on unionization for the lawyers, who advise government on new laws and represent it in civil court.
Continue reading BC Government and Its Lawyers Head Toward Unionization Showdown
(This is the second part in a series about WIld Cortes, in Part 1 Sabina Leader Mense shows us through the main exhibition area.)
Cortes Island’s natural history centre just expanded. In addition to the main exhibition area, Wild Cortes now has displays in the Linnaea Education Centre’s lower atrium area.
While the Ecolab has been operational for some time, it has not been widely publicized. In the conclusion of a two part series about the 2023 displays at Wild Cortes, local biologist Sabina Leader Mense (SLM) takes us outside of the main exhibition area.
Continue reading Wild Cortes (Part 2): Beyond the Main Exhibition Area
The government of Canada, and the BC government, state publicly that they are committed to carbon reduction and proactive responses to climate change; yet both Canada and BC remain consistently among the world’s top carbon emitters per capita. In 2019 Canada was the world’s highest carbon emitter per capita.
On the one hand, our government proposes initiatives that would improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions — in sectors like transportation and construction. But on the other hand, they continue to subsidise existing and new fossil-fuel projects such as LNG Canada and the Coastal Gaslink pipeline — to expand fracking.
Canada’s Liberal government spent $4.5B to purchase the Trans-Mountain Pipeline in 2018, only to announce in Spring 2022 that no further funding would be allocated to the project as cost overruns neared 70%. But wasting money may be the least of our problems. These fossil-fuel projects have huge carbon impacts.
Continue reading Talk Is Cheap, Part 1: BC Fails to Fulfill its Carbon, Climate, Forestry Promises
