Category: Environment

Gaining Ground Summit Day One

Yesterday was the first day of the summit and after more than 12 hours of volunteering, I am glad the day is finally over, even if it was information-packed and fun. This morning brought the first of eight plenaries, all of which I managed to miss because of my volunteer work, but I will hunt to see if I can find any videos online. The whole program can be seen online.

After an excellent lunch in one of the Pan Pacific’s dining rooms and much kibbitzing amongst us volunteers, mostly students, about the real reason we volunteer was for the free food. As a workshop support volunteer, I ended up in the Sustainable Green workshop, something I never would have chosen myself but ended up quite enjoying. The focus was building sustainability into all procurement and purchasing policies. The moderator and one of the speakers was Tim Reeve of Reeve Consulting, who were working with the City of Vancouver on their new procurement policies.

But first up was Bob Purdy of the Buy Smart project, a project of the Fraser Basin Council. Around since 2005, they are a gathering place for the various governments and other groups to talk about sustainable purchasing policies and new ideas. His talk was high level, speaking about the trends, such as corporations starting to take social responsibility, or at least the veneer of it, seriously. General awareness is growing and their are success stories, such as he showed Walmart’s “sustainability” work. I am not exactly sold on Walmart being a green retailers, but they do control a good chunk of the Canadian market, so what they has a huge impact, regardless of what people think of them. He also emphasized that the of the major problems was the lack for concrete action, as many companies fail to do anything about their sustainability policies.

Next up was David Graham, Manager of Supply Management of the City of Vancouver. He spoke about, in his own words, “where the rubber met the road”. Vancouver is centralizing much of it’s procurement and at the same time, embedding sustainability principles into the new policies. These also build on Vancouver’s existing Ethical Purchasing Policy, which only covers agricultural products and clothing. While still in draft, the new policies are expected to go before council in November.

One of the questions raised was about compliance. Like bylaws, the City is going to take a complaint-based approach, due to lack of resources to carry out a lot of auditing, something the last speaker, from Transfair also touched on. I think that while I can understand why they are taking a complaint-based approach, I suspect the city is going to take a lot of heat when problems come up as people and organizations dig deeper into certain suppliers. This is especially true given that the city’s stated goal is not to cut off any supplier right away, rather work with them to raise their them up to the standard.

Last up was Michael Zelmer of Transfair, the Canadian labelling partner of the international Fair Trade Labelling Organization. His major point is that certification is actually about a relationship of trust. The purchaser must trust that the product actually meets the standards it claims to follow. As it impossible for a consumer to have a relationship with every single supplier, this is where the certification body comes in. It creates the single trusted source for the consumer, one that can be independently audited and determined.

Another key point he made was about what the fair trade label means, “that the product meets the certification”, and what it doesn’t, “that the company is ‘good'”. I think this is a key point, especially as Cadbury’s has recently announced that all Dairymilk bars are going to be made with fair trade cocoa and sugar. As the price of Dairymilk bars won’t rise brought us back to Vancouver, where the Vancouver Parks Board had decided to start selling fair trade coffee and chocolate bars, they chose to completely replace their coffee but had kept mainstream candy such as Dairymilk for fear of losing revenue.

All in all, it was a good little workshop. The four presenters worked well together,as they had all worked together at various points and were able to play off each other. The crowd was small, but that was apparently true for most of the workshops. Discussion amongst the volunteers led us to suspect that a lot of people either left for lunch and didn’t come back or headed out after lunch. Why this is we couldn’t come to a consensus, but is probably something the organizers, who have been doing a great job, might want to look into. Apparently this year is almost twice as big as last year’s at Royal Roads. On the topic of posting, I will try and post something about each day, but I refuse to pay $15/day for wifi at the conference centre and lack it where I am staying. Actually, being away from my email has been quite liberating.

Weekly news roundup

The Times Colonist is running a series of articles called Outlook 2010, covering a vast variety of issues around Victoria. Two today caught my eye:

In other news, everybody’s favourite forestry company property developer Western Forest Products is off selling land again (Times Colonist), this time in the north Island area. This as the CRD has now drafting a new bylaw governing the Juan de Fuca lands that include those WFP is trying to develop.

What really gets me about these removals from the Tree Farm Licenses is that are an explicit violation of the social contract that timber companies signed up to when they took on the TFLs. In return for access to Crown lands for forestry, the companies had to operate local sawmills and manage their private lands “sustainably”. Guess the second two parts of that agreement have kind of been forgotten, as the Times Colonist article says,

Cash-strapped WFP wants to concentrate its forestry operations on Crown land and needs capital to renovate its mills.

This kind of bait and switch isn’t exactly new, as the Dogwood Initiative points when looking at the Dunsmuir land grant for the E&N.

In a slightly better note, they have discovered a use for broom: biomass fuel (Goldstream News Gazette). While that broom is going to other places, I wonder if enough broom could be pulled out of some of the other parks in the region to feed Dockside Green’s biomass plant. As far as I know, they are still looking for biomass to burn, a task made harder by the lack of sawdust and wood chips from the shutdown of many of the mills on Vancouver Island.

World Blog Action Day on Climate Change

Despite what a lot of people seem to believe, climate change is real. Thankfully, there are solutions to the problem. One of those is Blog Action Day, where blogs can unironically use electricity to talk about how to save the planet.The list of blogs from Canada is quite large, and there even a few from around our neck of the woods.

In a more concrete move, I will be at the Gaining Ground: Resilient Cities Summit in Vancouver next week. Thanks to the organizers for letting us poor students volunteer to save the cost of entry.

Speaking of Vancouver, the city of about to embark on a massive traffic calming scheme known as the Olympics (Globe & Mail). The first road closures start next month, with more as Olympics gets closer. While I expect a day or so of traffic chass, Vancouverites are about to discover that traffic demand is elastic, not fixed. Too bad it is unlikely that the Olympic closures will stick, as there is a real chance of real change being offered here.

Daily news roundup

  • The sewage issue continues to barrel along, with a decision expected by Wednesday. The latest twist is that a proposed plant may straddle the border between the new CRD land and the existing Saanich land. Both the Times Colonist and the News Group aka Oak Bay News have stories on this and if you want to
  • Although both View Royal and Oak Bay continued their composting trial, there is no sign of it spreading to other parts of the region. However, there are plenty of other options, as the Times Colonist pointed out today.
  • Due to a power failure, one of the keynotes at the just-finished Canadian Institute of Planners AGM in Niagara was done by candle-light. Unexpected irony as the theme was coping with climate change.

Transit & Rail

The ridership risk of introducing the 12 Kenmore is not that performance targets for community bus could not be met, but rather than at key school oriented times, community bus capacity would be exceeded requiring the introduction of conventional transit vehicles on this route.

  • Come January there will be a whole pile of new services, including the new Dogwood Line, late night buses and more service hours. See the Transit Commission report (PDF) for more. The Dogwood Line is the first attempt at a B-Line style bus route in Victoria, which is a good thing, especially given just how busy the bus routes to UVic from Downtown are.

Provincial and Federal governments hand out loot

It is the season for giving, being a recession with Keynes back in and Friedman out, so today the two senior levels of government did just that. Or at least, so says their rather triumphant press release. Sadly (or not, depending on your point of view) there is no money for a new Johnson Street Bridge, but plenty of other things did get money:

  • Our fine municipality got money for the Uplands sewer upgrade. The joint storm/sewage sewers are the main reason behind our eye-popping $700/yr property increase for the new sewage treatment, so this money, an even matching grant between the municipality, the feds and the provinces, will help all of Oak Bay taxpayers.
  • The Kinsol Trestle rehabilitation in the Cowichan Valley got almost $6 million to complete this link of the Trans-Canada Trail.
  • Despite the government cutting library operating funds, two libraries in Surrey and Saltspring Island got funding for new buildings.
  • The only even remotely transit related project is a Highway 7 Bus Lane in Pitt Meadows. Guess we aren’t going to meet our climate goals after all.
  • Sidney got some money for a Lochside Waterfront Trail, likely the project mentioned on this website and in these 2006 council minutes (PDF).

All in all, the majority of the funding seems to be for sewers and highways, with a scattering of arts centres, libraries and other bits and pieces.

The pending Jordan River disaster

The long struggle over the future of Jordan River is nearer to a conclusion after a court ruling in favour of Western Forest Products, the development company masquerading as a forestry company. Gordon O’Connor, forest campaigner with the Dogwood Initiative quite rightly says,

a step backwards for this area and everyone who cares about the future of our wild coast.a step backwards for this area and everyone who cares about the future of our wild coast.

WFP is already restarting plans for 319 subdivisions in the area, with public hearings in the fall. However, all is not lost, as the CRD can still reject the developments on an individual basis, but this is going to cost a lot of money, something that Geoff Young, CRD Chairman and City of Victoria Councillor, would love for the province to help pay for.

Beyond the loss and degradation of habitat through the building of new homes and roads, any new development is going to be low-density sprawl, furthering car use and unsustainable living. The best part is that because these developments cannot pay for themselves due to low tax base, we, the residents of the core municipalities are going to be subsidizing them while watching our roads, schools and sewers crumble.

Oak Bay sewage forum tomorrow night

After popular demand by our very own John Herbert, the CRD has added a public consultation in Oak Bay tomorrow evening at Emmanuel Baptist Church (2121 Cedar Hill X Rd (google map), right by the entrance to UVic) between 3pm and 8pm. As Cllr Herbert said:

“If they’re proposing to have one of these sites in Oak Bay, then they need to have a meeting in Oak Bay to allow the residents to have their say.”

While I disagree with John Herbert on a great many issues, this is one of the few of them that we actually agree on. See you all tomorrow night.

Bowker Creek Celebration Walk

Explanations before we head out
Explanations before we head out

This Saturday was the Bowker Creek Celebration walk, co-hosted by the Oak Bay Community Association and Bowker Creek Initiative The walk started out at the upper parking lot of the Oak Bay Recreation Centre with it’s their freshly-painted lines and walked down the creek towards the mouth. The point of the walk was to showcase the need for a greenway or trail along the whole length, not just a few disconnected lengths. Sadly due having a generally crazy day, I was only able to make the first part, but I did take a few pictures, which you can see in my flickr set.

The demand for better access to waterways is not unique in the Bowker Creek area. Across North America there is an effort to “daylight” creeks, that is to remove the culverts and let them flow in natural streams along the surface. The High Country News near San Francisco recently ran a whole series on “rebooting” creeks in poorer neighbourhoods in San Francisco.


Site of Broom Pull – View Larger Map

Nearer to home, a group in Seattle won a victory about the Thorton Creek underneath the Northgate Mall. Too bad Hillside isn’t doing anything with the section of Bowker Creek that runs underneath the western edge of that mall as they expand. However, the BCI is hosting an ivy pull on the 27th of June between 10am and 12:30pm across the creek from the existing community gardens.

Possible sewage treatment location in Oak Bay

The CRD has now identified the three possible locations for the Saanich East/Oak Bay North sewage treatment plant and one of them is in Oak Bay, despite the fact that the only public consultations this month are in Saanich. Two of these properties are on UVic land, at opposite corners of the campus.

Likely one potential site of sewage treatment
Old orchard on UVic property

The site in Oak Bay is the old orchard on Cedar Hill X Rd near Crestview Rd as can be seen on the right. This is a part of UVic and is a very common dog walking site. I have no idea how much of the site they are planning to use or if the orchard will remain, but I expect at least some of that information will be at the upcoming public consultations. I wonder what Citizen Canine will say about the possibility of using this location.

Fields near McCoy Rd.
Fields near McCoy Rd. on UVic property

The second site on UVic lands is near McCoy Road in the fields there. Again, I have no idea how much space they are going to take, but I sincerely hope that they don’t remove the trail that connects to the end of McCoy Road. That is a great biking and walking connection to avoid having to go all the way down to the corner of McKenzie Ave. and Gordon Head Rd.

Haro Woods near UVic
Haro Woods near UVic

The last site is the previously mentioned lands in Haro Woods that the CRD purchased last year. I don’t know exactly where in Haro Woods, as outlined in yellow in the map on the right, but I know that UVic owns a portion as well. There isn’t much more to say about this, except that it is one of the few pieces of relatively intact forest left in the area. Also, there is a large field on Queen Alexandria lands just across the road. In all the years I have been going up that direction, as I used to go to school at Frank Hobbs elementary, that field has been sitting largely empty. Why not use it?

Haro Woods, because it has been previously announced, has already attracted a lot of attention. There is a Save Haro Woods website, and the Cadboro Bay Residents Association has come out strongly against this site as well, asking for it be turned into a park.

There are two open houses coming up, on the 16th at Gordon Head United Church and the 17th at Cadboro Bay United Church. Both of those forums run 3pm to 8pm. There is also neighbourhood workshop that requires pre-registration on the 22nd of June between 6:30pm and 9pm at the Queenswood Centre. This information and more can be seen on the wasterwatermadeclear’s public forums page.  There is also a report from the CRD’s contractor about the feedback from the previous public forums and the principles used in deciding a location.

Personally, I like none of these sites, but I think the orchard site is probably least worst, provided the orchard itself survives and public access for walking dogs is preserved. However, if they do choose the Haro Woods site, they are really setting themselves up to fail. I think we will see UVic students and other environmental activists chaining themselves to equipment and tree sitting, potentially delaying the project months. I almost wonder if this is why the other two spots have just appeared, to avoid that very scenario.

Notes from last nights council meeting

For the second time in a row, a report from the council meeting last night. The meeting was the usual grab bag of stuff such as variance and bylaw approvals, plus the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the new Sea Rescue boat house. Also discussed but not on the agenda was the latest on sewage treatment. The bench was shy two last night, with both Mayor Causton and Hazel Braithwaite away, leaving Nils Jensen as acting Mayor.

Rough map of Island View Park acquisition
Rough map of Island View Park acquisition

First up was a presentation by the CRD on their acquisition of a piece of land to attach to Island View Park, as they announced last month. The plan involves the piece of land seen on the right, which will then be split up. In very crude terms, roughly the red portion west of the ridge, which is in the ALR, would be sold and the yellow portion added to the park. The total cost would be $4.7 million, of which about half is expected to be recouped via the sale of the western half.  In the end, the council voted for the acquisition.

Next up were block parties. There were quite a few of them. I plan on having a full post with all the upcoming block parties, including maps later this week, but the interesting bit for those wishing to host them is that getting approval might be about to get a whole lot easier. Councillor Jensen asked if staff could handle these requests in the future, which would require rewriting the bylaw, so don’t expect this done until the fall at the earliest.

In new business, Herbert gave a quick update on the sewage treatment. As was covered in the press, the sewage treatment committee has recommended that the CRD go for the 3 site option. Due to the byzantine politics in the region, this doesn’t mean we are necessarily getting 3 plants. The sewage committee only recommends a solution to the whole CRD board and they make the final decision.

Haro Woods - Photo courtesy Cadboro Bay Residents Association
Haro Woods - Photo courtesy Cadboro Bay Residents Association

Adding to the fun are 3 public hearings next week on the potential Haro Woods station (schedule of meetings). Officially these meetings are to discuss a sewage plant in Saanich East or North Oak Bay, but given the CRD already owns the Haro Woods lands, this is kind of a cart/horse thing. Of course, if enough people bitch, another site might get considered. This means that North Oak Bay could get a treatment site and have no public hearings, a fact that made more than one councillor quite annoyed. This isn’t the first time that Oak Bay has been ignored, this happened during the last round as well. In fact, the last time the sewage people were in Oak Bay was in April and over the history of the project they have only come to Oak Bay a half dozen times.

Onwards from sewage brings us to variances to construction bylaws, of which only 2218 Central Ave raised major issues. This is a request to reduce the number of parking spots from the required two to just one. Given parking’s generative effect on traffic, this is a good thing. Sadly, Allan Cassidy didn’t see it that way, asking “what is so wrong with the current bylaw that we keep granting exceptions?” In response, both Jensen and  Ney thought that the whole bylaw should be reconsidered, given that we should be reducing car use and encouraging gardens, not asphalt. We can only hope that this happens. In the end, the variance passed 3 to 2, with Herbert and Cassidy opposed.

During the last council meeting while discussing 2218 Central, it was discovered that any councillor can bring back any motion for reconsideration at the next meeting. This time it was the potential tree bylaw amendment which was defeated on a tie. It allows removal of trees that damage significant structures as well as a blanket provision for council to allow removal of a tree if they feel it harms a residents way of life. Herbert thought that council should have a “sober second look”, which led to much back and forth about “opening the floodgates” for reconsidering bylaws and talk about a general review in the fall. In the end, the whole matter was deferred until they have a whole council there. I predict this isn’t the last time that a councillor brings back a motion for reconsideration and thus won’t be the last time we get to hear Cassidy talk about the “slippery slope”.

Which brings us to the last item of the evening, the new boat house saga. The basics are that the Oak Bay Sea Rescue Society needs a new boat house for the new, bigger boat that they just got. However, given provincial law and zoning, they need a new water lease to build the bigger boat house. The major sticking point is the ability to dock either Sea Rescue’s older boat or a rescued vessel alongside the new boathouse. OB Marine Group doesn’t like because they claim it will constrain their ability to dock vessels near the boathouse. At the end of the night, after discussing and rejecting a compromise that would just allow construction of the boathouse without the mooring, the whole issue will end up a public hearing on June 22nd. Expect a longer piece from me about the whole issue later this week.

There was actually a Times Colonist reporter in the audience last night, a realitive rarity. Apparently this whole boathouse issue is big enough news to get coverage. Given the rumours of the demise of the Oak Bay News, the future of reporting in Oak Bay looks bleak.