Community Stories
Scrap Bill C-39: Protect Canada’s Environmental Laws
Bill C-30 Pest Control Products Act allows Ministers in the government to override scientific decisions on the use of pesticides previously banned by Health Canada. This marks the most significant setback in Canadian pesticide regulation in over a generation,…
The Deeper Challenges Underlying Our Political Unease
Surveying the political scene after the recent provincial election, it seems to me there is a lot of discontent and unease out there. We saw the NDP ejected in favour of a relatively unknown, inexperienced and potentially fragmenting alternative, the newly minted B.C. Conservative Party. I am not so sure…
Capitalism: A Global History
This book is quite astonishing. Over the past ten years I have read some 600 books on economics and economic history, and Sven Beckert’s book stands head and shoulders above them all. For Thomas Picketty, it’s “monumental, a must read.” Yes, it is 1,100 pages long,…
Microplastics in Me
This report features credible scientific research with findings from 28 people who had their blood analyzed, including Margaret Atwood, actor Fran Drescher and Victoria Pruden of the Metis National Council. Read the report here.
How Are Canadian Pension Funds Invested?
Hundreds of Canadians turned up to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s (CPPIB) public meetings across the country this past October to ask how their retirement savings are being invested. But despite people lining up at the microphones…
Student-led Evening Bus Pilot Launches in B.C.’s Columbia Valley After Years of Advocacy
After nearly four years of work, a new evening bus pilot is finally running in B.C.’s Columbia Valley, giving residents another way to get around after regular transit service ends for the day. The Late Bus runs from Edgewater in the north to Canal Flats in the…
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Destruction of Esquimalt’s Natural Assets
It appears that due to approved development, the Township of Esquimalt and the Department of National Defence continue to add to the senseless destruction of natural habitat for birds, pollinators, urban wildlife and humans to enjoy. Numerous healthy, mature trees…
Petition: Demand More Garry Oaks and Their Ecosystem are Saved on this Admirals Road Development
Support preserving as much of a rare patch of Garry oak and Douglas-fir ecosystem on an Esquimalt private property earmarked for development as possible, whilst still allowing appropriate development of the site.
When Housing Debates Erase Ecology: The Story of 4015 Braefoot Rd. and the Garry Oak Ecosystem
In spring 2025, a piece of land in Saanich, BC—two acres of former hobby farm at 4015 Braefoot Rd.—became the flashpoint for a wider conflict. It supports a functioning Garry oak meadow and woodland, including approximately 120 mature Garry oak trees.
BC Could Use This Leading Example
The UK has introduced legislation requiring all new homes to be net zero carbon. This is a leading example of what we need in BC. Original article by Esme Stallard,Climate and science reporter and Justin Rowlatt,Climate Editor, from the BBC. Heat pumps for all new…
CRD Heat Map Shows Remarkable Difference in Temperature Between Natural and Built Environments
The results have major consequences. The CRD’s Regional Heat Map shows a stark difference in temperature between natural and built environments. A closer look: The first thing that becomes very apparent is high density in terms of built environment and low nature, not…
How Understanding Wind-Driven Pollen Dispersal Can Improve Urban Green Space Planning
In response to extended pollination seasons driven by climate change, researchers from the United States and France have developed an advanced computational model to examine how tree geometry influences the dispersion of airborne pollen grains.
The Infill Shock Doctrine on Arbutus Road: A Photographic Essay
Government in order to sell the idea, typically euphemizes “infill” as “gentle density”, but when applied as it is without protections for the natural environment and habitat, it is nothing other than another manifestation of the ‘Shock…
Will You Help Put Comfortable, Affordable Homes Within Reach for More Canadians?
A House of Commons petition is calling on the government to make energy efficiency a nation-building priority. We’re asking the federal government to set double the rate at which we improve energy productivity, and to end energy poverty. The benefits of…
New Westminster Joins Sue Big Oil
In February, the New Westminster City Council became the 12th BC community to support a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking to recover a share of climate-related costs from global fossil fuel companies. Local residents and young people played a pivotal role in…
Is This the Way the World Ends?
ChatGPT has been all over the media, and none of the news is good. The mother of a Tumbler Ridge shooting victim is suing OpenAI (the mother company) for culpability in the mass killing. And a recent article in The Guardian expressed the deep concern of academics who…
War in Middle East Fueled by Oil Industry
“The world is caught again in the bloody tangle of war, fossil fuels and climate change,” writes Chris Hatch in a recommended piece this week in Canada’s National Observer. The unintended dominoes are falling. As in the past, it appears this war will last much longer…
Valhalla Wilderness Society Seeks Support for Parks
Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS) is campaigning in support of three proposed parks for the Inland Temperate Rainforest—the result of 25 years of research: the Rainbow-Jordan Wilderness, the Selkirk Mountains Ancient Forest and Quesnel Lake Wilderness. The aim is to…
