I’m happy to report that I haven’t been too busy over the last four weeks so I’ve been able to spend some personal time with family and visitors.
I’d like to thank the members of the Save Our Shores group who made their presence known in Nanaimo at the bathtub race. I wasn’t there, but my daughter tells me it made a real impression on spectators. That tape the length of an oil tanker can’t help but make anyone think twice about welcoming their passage through coastal waters.
Two weeks ago I visited the site of the proposed radio tower with planner Chloe Fox. It was a nice sunny day and I was once again impressed with the beauty of McGuffie’s Swamp. These are the sort of places that are so important to protect.
On behalf of the Trust Committee I contacted the Health Care Foundation, Society and Auxiliary to congratulate them on receiving an Islands Trust Stewardship Award for building the Gabriola Medical Clinic. The award will be presented to their representatives here at our next meeting on Sept. 6 at a time still to be determined. It’s amazing that a community this size can have such a wonderful facility, and those responsible deserve recognition for their hard work and successful completion of such a daunting task.
On July 23 I was available at Mad Rona’s for public questions or comments on the July 26 agenda, but no one showed up. It was probably a good thing since the place was full with regulars and tourists enjoying an afternoon treat – and we don’t want to be an imposition on the owners who so generously allow us to use their premises.
On July 24 I took part in a very interesting webinar hosted by BC Sustainable Energy Association, an organisation that concerns itself with the sustainable use and production of energy in BC.
The presentation was by Mathias Wackamagel, president of Global Footprint Network: an international think-tank working on bringing about a sustainable world economy in which everyone can live well within the means of our planet.
He spoke to the need to measure how many resources we have, what we’ve used and how much remains. When a country is using more resources than it can produce there is a bio-capacity deficit. As the cost of resources go up the bio-capacity deficit becomes larger, until you’re in the situation of such countries as Spain or Greece.
Most countries produce more than they consume, but the problem is that 83 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries that consume more than they produce.
China is using two China’s worth of resources. The USA is already in deficit. Canada isn’t quite there yet, but we’re heading that way. We can’t rely on exporting our resources to solve our short-term economic problems without jeopardising the future.
In Wackamagel’s opinion austerity or stimulus are not the answer – both are just digging a deeper hole. The solutions are shrinking and sharing, both of which he considers political suicide, but necessary. On the more local level we have to stop creating suburbs and we need to make urban areas more energy efficient.
This is one of several monthly webinar series on sustainable energy and climate change being hosted by BCSEA. These are open to anyone and can be accessed through their website.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is hiring a consultant to undertake a public consultation process in the near future. This will be our opportunity to let the powers-that-be know how we think transportation to our islands should be handled. Up till now what little consultation has occurred has been with BC Ferries who are constrained by provincial government imperatives. The Ferry Advisory Committee will let the community know what to expect as soon as we have any information as to what form the consultation will take. Look for a report sometime in the near future.
