Esquimalt-Colwood Provincial Candidate Meeting Recording
Learn where the candidates for the Esquimalt-Colwood (including Vic West + View Royal) stand on a variety of issues. Hosted by the citizen-led South Island Climate Action Network (SI-CAN) and the Gorge Waterway Action Society. Moderator: Judith Cullington PROVINCIAL... Read more
Bill-44 Should Be Front and Foremost During A Snap Election On Top Of An Election.
The Issue We the signed residents of British Columbia, call upon the Province of B.C. to repeal (or amend) BC Bill-44 (2023), in order to restore public hearings and municipal powers over zoning, which are being taken away by the bill. We do so, because Bill 44 is: 1.... Read more
Carney Agenda Offers Short-term Gain for Long-term Pain
Everyone is applauding Mark Carney for standing up for Canada in the face of Donald Trump’s assault on us. And of course we need to do that. But Carney’s strategy — doubling down on “a series of nation-building projects in energy, in trade, critical minerals, transport, data, and beyond,” as he noted in an April address…
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Esquimalt Municipal All-Candidates Event Recording
Creatively United for the Planet Society, the Gorge Waterway Action Society, Esquimalt Climate Organizers (ECO) and Esquimalt United Church’s Social Justice Team hosted a Municipal All-Candidates event on Monday, October 5th to an overflow crowd at Esquimalt... Read more
Fossil Fuel Expansion is Ecocide – A Crime Against Nature and Humanity
The expansionary actions of the fossil-fuel industry, governments and private and public-sector investors, in Canada and around the world, amount to ecocide. While not yet technically a crime, their actions are morally unacceptable.
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Wicked, Entangled Problems Call for Virtuous Solutions
We live in an era of polycrisis — defined as a situation in which “crises in multiple global systems become causally entangled in ways that cause major human harm,” according to the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University. The institute identifies 14 global systemic stresses that create systemic risk, including “climate change, biodiversity loss…
Read moreCollaboration Results in Community Win
Working collaboratively with members of the Peninsula Biosolids Coalition, Creatively United is happy to report that our collective efforts (see our biosolids video) have finally resulted in a big win for our region. The Capital Regional District (CRD) has just... Read more
BC Heat Collaborative Launch
The BC Heat Collaborative will officially launch at the end of this month, coinciding with the 5 year anniversary of the 2021 BC Heat Dome. The launch includes an event at Vancouver City Hall on Sunday June 28th, 1-2:30pm. More details on the Vancouver event here. How... Read more
For Good Measure: A Handbook on Advancing Water Metering in British Columbia
Released this month, this handbook offers a practical path forward for provincial decision-makers to achieve universal water metering within the next decade. Universal water metering supports conservation, enables fair and transparent cost recovery, enhances overall... Read more
Share Your Thoughts on Saanich Climate Plan
The 2026 Climate Plan: 100% Renewable and Resilient Saanich will be presented to Saanich, BC Council on Monday, June 22nd for approval. Share your thoughts on the 2026 Climate Plan with Council, email council@saanich.ca. Attend the meeting in person or online (learn... Read more
BC Budget Consultation – by 2 pm, June 19
The NDP Budget Committee is accepting written submissions for its 2027 Budget. What should we be asking for? You can make up to three recommendations, with an explanation for each. Participate by using the submission form HERE. We have set up a google doc to share... Read more
Stop War Profiteering: Tax Excess Profits
Oil and gas companies are making skyrocketing profits — an extra $60 billion within a year. The federal government has the power to step in. Instead of letting corporations profit off global instability while people struggle to pay bills, it should impose a 75%... Read more
We CAN End Capitalism, and Build Instead a Kind, Green, Cooperative Economy
Introduction If you think of capitalism as the global entanglement of everything financial and economic, then for sure, it feels like a pretty wild dream to imagine that we could disentangle it all and establish something different. It is a pretty wild dream, because... Read more
What is the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region? (PNWER) and What Are its Connections to Big Oil?
I’d like to shine a spotlight on one of the South Island Prosperity Partnership’s members: The Pacific Northwest Economic Region. (PNWER) Two years ago, I wrote an Open Letter to SIPP. In the letter, I asked them the following question: “SIPP’s membership includes an... Read more
A Sequel We Don’t Want
The conflict in the Persian Gulf has caused the greatest disruption in world oil supply in history. Canadians have felt immediate consequences from this oil shock, through much higher prices for gasoline and other petroleum products. But that is just the beginning of... Read more
Open letter Density Without Demolition – A Politically Viable Solution for Climate and Housing Resilience
The View Royal Climate Coalition urges Minister Boyle to adopt “Density Without Demolition.” This strategy promotes adaptive reuse and internal home conversions over demolition, offering a faster, cheaper, and climate-resilient path to housing density.
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No Taxpayer Money for American LNG!
Nearly 5,000 people have sent letters to the board members of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, demanding they vote no on a massive public loan for Ksi Lisims LNG. This Wall Street scheme can’t survive without public money. Add your voice, and urge them to hold the... Read more
Why Are Our Political Leaders Such Fossil Fools?
I understand why the fossil-fuel industry pursues growth in the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels. It’s all about making money and damn the consequences. But how can any responsible political leader at this point push for more fossil-fuel extraction and use?
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When It Comes to Sustainability, Ottawa Ignores an Inconvenient Truth
Last week, I began an analysis of the federal government’s draft Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, which somehow manages to ignore planet Earth, fails to mention planetary boundaries or our ecological footprint, or to recognize ecological limits and the need to invest in…
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All UDI Municipal Memberships on Vancouver Island Eliminated. What’s next?
It took about 4 years for all 8 municipalities on Vancouver Island + the CRD, to withdraw their memberships in the UDI, a lobby for development and real estate interests. This is what happened in the process, and what is still yet to be determined.
Read moreBalancing Nature’s Needs with Fire Protection: Protecting Trees, Dispelling Myths
Are we putting too much emphasis on targetting trees as a fire threat while we trustingly leave our highly flammable, plastic-laden vehicles parked in or next to our residences? Creatively United presents this free webinar/conversation and Q&A with some of BC’s... Read more
Urgent Need for a Windfall Profits Tax on Oil and Gas
“No great fortunes can be accumulated out of wartime profits.” — J.L. Ilsley, Canada’s Second World War finance minister As in the past, this illegal war appears to be lasting considerably longer than its US protagonists initially claimed. And even if this ostensible... Read more
Draft Sustainable Development Strategy Misses the Mark
Thirty-nine years ago, Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway and chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, presented its report to the United Nations. That report, Our Common Future — widely referred to as the Brundtland Report — proposed the concept of sustainable development…
Read moreGetting to “Yes” on Renewable Energy Takes Fairness, Trust and Tangible Benefits
Canadians largely buy into the fact that we need to get our energy from clean sources. At the same time, support can drop when specific projects are proposed near where people live. It’s easy to assume that this is just a classic “Not in My Backyard” reaction. Yet a... Read more
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.
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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.
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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... Read more
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... Read more
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... Read more
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... Read more
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... Read more
Camosun College’s Devastating Clear-cutting Last Week
It’s been an ongoing theme on CRD Watch, and in my writings that Post-Secondary Institutions on Southern Vancouver Island, shackled to the unsustainability of ecology destroying growth-based capitalism and a government also under its shackles, in particular to the... Read more
Request Your Participation in Supporting CRD Biochar Incinerator Facility
We are requesting your support to encourage the (CRD) Capital Regional District, to move ahead with plans for purchase of a thermal conversion biochar facility. It would be incredibly useful to have Nanaimo and the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) send letters of... Read more
The World’s 280 Million Electric Bikes & Mopeds Are Cutting Demand for Oil Far More Than Electric Cars
We hop in the car to get groceries or drop kids at school. But while the car is convenient, these short trips add up in terms of emissions, pollution and petrol cost. Close to half (44%) of all Australian commuter trips are by car – and under 10km. Of Perth’s 4.2... Read more
Biosolids Update and Important Time Sensitive Survey
Thanks to the efforts of the Peninsula Biosolids Coalition, a non-profit citizen’s group, plus numerous individuals, businesses and other proponents for integrated resource management (including Creatively United for the Planet Society), the CRD is now... Read more
City of Victoria Updates Construction Standards to Prevent PVC Pollution
Last year, Surfrider SVI identified PVC pollution near Victoria beaches and storm drains caused by the outdoor dry cutting of PVC pipes during construction. PVC is one of the most toxic forms of plastics, comprising up to 60% known carcinogens and endocrine... Read more
Dear MPs, Don’t Give My Tax $ to American Billionaires
The Wall Street sickos who bankrolled Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump are hoping for a special gift: billions of dollars from Canada’s Liberal government. The Ksi Lisims LNG project would be 100 per cent American-owned and built in Korea, then floated over and hooked... Read more
144 Names for a New Economy
Compiled by Guy Dauncey, author of The Economics of Kindness: The End of Capitalism, the Birth of a New Ecological Civilization Palgrave/Macmillan, Spring 2026 This list illustrates the deep, persistent desire by so many people to create a new kind of economy, one in... Read more
Reclaim the Economy for People and the Planet
As readers of this column know, I often refer to a piece of wisdom put forth by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 2014: “Ecosystems sustain societies that create economies. It does not work any other way round.”
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Modernizing Industrial Water Rates in BC: Ending the Great Water Giveaway
Your voice is a key part of making water rates fair and protecting BC’s watersheds. Tell decision-makers that British Columbians care about clean water and strong, sustainable funding for our watersheds. Budget day is Feb. 17th. Talking points appear after you click... Read more
Twenty-Five Ways to Make Life Affordable for All
Robert Reich is right. In a recent Substack post he laid out how tariffs, monopolies, and corporate power are driving up the cost of living for ordinary people. Much of what we call “inflation” is not an economic inevitability, but the result of policy choices that... Read more
Template Letters to all levels of Government – Action on Urban Forest and Climate-ready housing and Communities
Letters to Government – Action on Urban Forest and Climate-ready housing and Communities Thank you for taking action for our shared well-being! Find contact information for key government contacts here. SECTION 1 – Letter to Mayor and Council re... Read moreWhat You Can Do To Defend the North Coast Tanker Ban and Protect B.C.’s Coast
The North Coast Tanker Ban is there for a reason: to keep Coastal Communities safe What you can do to Defend the North Coast Tanker Ban and Protect B.C.’s Coast Context B.C. communities and The B.C. Government and Coastal First Nations have voiced strong... Read more
Ella Stream in Critical Danger
Ella Stream in Critical Danger: When asked if the District of Sooke had discussions with the Federal Government about damage or potential damage to the Ella Stream and its environs, Sooke’s CAO, initially confirmed that conversations between the District and the Feds... Read more
Climate Ready Communities – A Toolkit for Local Governments
How can communities in B.C. grow and create new housing options while maintaining public safety and quality of life in the face of climate change and the biodiversity crisis? How do we create climate-ready housing and climate-ready neighbourhoods that are resilient to... Read moreDon’t Ram a Pipeline Through the BC Coast
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the federal government have outlined a deal that will pave the way for a dirty tar sands pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast — without Indigenous consent and threatening our oceans, wildlife, rivers, and forests. The last time an... Read more
Urge Your MP to Stand Against Any New Tar-Sands Pipeline
With your help, 12,000 community members have already taken action against any future pipelines – but we can’t let up the pressure now. Look up your MP and send them a personal email urging them to oppose any new tar sands pipelines or tanker expansion, and... Read moreWhat Part of ‘Global Ecological Crisis’ Do They Not Get?
Another COP, another cop-out! As anyone who pays the slightest attention to the news must know by now, COP30, the annual global climate change jamboree — this year in Belem, Brazil — ended, yet again, more with a whimper than a bang.
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