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BC gets greener at the gas pump
CBC BC
07/01/2009
British Columbia got a little greener on Wednesday: The province celebrated the first anniversary of its carbon tax with a price bump at the gas pumps. A recent poll by Environics suggests almost half of BC residents support the tax, and it is also gaining favor across the country.
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Shifting carbon taxes to fund BC transit?
Vancouver Sun
07/01/2009
An unlikely group of environmentalists, business and labour leaders joined Metro Vancouver's mayors to lobby for directing an annual $450 million into funding public transit. While some mayors favor shifting carbon taxes to pay for better transit, others say that money's off the table.
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BC mayors tap allies for transit funding
BC Local News
06/30/2009
Metro Vancouver mayors have enlisted influential new allies representing business, environment and labour to help press their case for new TransLink funding sources to enable an ambitious transit system expansion.
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Views: Many more baby bike steps in BC, please
BC Local News
06/30/2009
It’s always a precious sight to see a parent trying to show a little one how to ride a bike without training wheels. That’s about the same evolutionary stage TransLink is at with the opening of the Central Valley Greenway. It’s a baby step toward making Greater Vancouver conducive for commuting cyclists, or even recreational ones for that matter.
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BC training unemployed to fight forest fires
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/30/2009
The BC government is looking to train 750 unemployed people to help fight wildfires this summer. Officials said the province could use reinforcements on the fire lines, and laid-off forest workers and others who are unemployed would be perfect for the job.
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When garbage becomes fuel
BC Local News
06/30/2009
A tiny square window glows fiery red in a South Burnaby, BC's waste-to-energy plant, and a peek through it is like a look inside a dragon's gullet. Metro Vancouver hopes to win public and provincial approval to build new waste-fired plants to treat garbage less like waste and more like a resource.
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Water intakes at risk from toxic algae blooms
BC Local News
07/01/2009
Fish may not live in the depths of Okanagan Lake, but there’s still lots happening down there, and some of it could be toxic to human health. In the case of a toxic algae bloom near a water intake, few utilities could continue to deliver normal drinking water service.
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Setback for BC's guest farm worker union
The Tyee
06/29/2009
Labourers at Greenway Farms have filed to withdraw from the union certification won by the United Food and Commercial Workers.
If the de-certification attempt is successful in hearings slated for June 30 at the LRB, it will mark a set-back for the UFCW's multi-year drive to unionize agricultural workers in Canada.
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BC Homeless shelters get more cash
Vancouver Sun
06/30/2009
The provincial government has agreed to provide another $8 million to fund four Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters that will operate in Vancouver until April 2010.
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Scientists use genomic research to tackle mountain pine beetle
Vancouver Sun
06/30/2009
A new research project probing the genetic blueprint in the war between the mountain pine beetle and the lodgepole pine trees it attacks is expected to yield key information on how molecular-level triggers in a tiny pest can destroy a landscape as vast as Canada’s northern pine forests.
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Views: The high cost of affordable housing at BC's Olympic Village
Vancouver Sun
06/30/2009
Vancouver could have, should have, built double the number of affordable housing units that the Olympic Village project will deliver on less expensive city-owned land.
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No parking for transit riders at BC malls?
Vancouver Sun
06/28/2009
Malls along the Canada Line route into Vancouver, BC, are bracing themselves for a flood of commuter parking in their lots this September. There's only one park-and-ride lot where commuters can drop off their vehicles before hopping on the SkyTrain. But the parking lots of several major malls are within short walking distance from new stations.
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Tiny beetle hell on forests
New York Times
06/28/2009
Summer fire seasons in the West have always hinged on elements of chance: a heat wave in August, a random lightning strike, a passing storm. Now, tiny bark beetles have now left seven million acres of pine forest all but dead, throwing a swath of land bigger than Massachusetts into a kind of fire-cycle purgatory.
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One trash bin + one year = one clear conscience
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/25/2009
Three Vancouverites are anxiously anticipating the culmination of their buy-nothing, waste-nothing year. Their rules are strict: No material goods can be purchased. All one-time personal use items, such as takeout boxes, are shunned. Consumables such as food, drinks, medication, and a minimum of personal hygiene products are allowed as long as they're sold in recyclable packaging.
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BC's Native men living longer, youth suicides down
Victoria Times Colonist
06/26/2009
The health of BC's aboriginal people shows signs of improving, but still lags behind that of the general population, the provincial health officer said Thursday.
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The art of living for free
The Tyee
06/25/2009
A friend of my brother recently asked if he could come and stay for a little while, or at least until he'd found a place in Vancouver. What followed was an education, of sorts, in how to live almost free in the city. Here is some of what I learned.
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Metro Vancouver to compost food waste
BC Local News
06/25/2009
Curbside pickup of food waste is coming to Metro Vancouver neighborhoods as part of a new organics composting program that aims to help cut the amount of garbage going to landfills.
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One nation, under a canoe
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/25/2009
In these times of cutbacks and soaring fuel costs and increasing concern about the environment, the canoe deserves its special day. Happy Canoe Day, Canada.
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A BC bridge, abridged for cars
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/24/2009
Vancouver's experiment in bicycle-friendly commuting kicks off in less than three weeks, when cyclists will be able to safely pedal across Burrard Bridge -- and commuting motorists will have to squeeze into the downtown core using one less lane.
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Puget Sound orcas accounted for
Kitsap Sun
06/25/2009
When the Southern Resident killer whales came south out of Canada over the weekend, all three pods were together for a time. That gave scientists a chance to tally the local orcas -- none were missing, but there were no babies, either.
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Green empowerment on Vancouver Island
BC Local News
06/24/2009
Don't just stand there, plant something, carpool, and support local farmers. Messages of green empowerment echoed through the recent Seeds For Change conference in Duncan where Vancouver Island locals got stoked to take action and green Cowichan themselves, rather than waiting for politicians to do it.
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BC First Nation moves to block new mine
CBC BC
06/24/2009
A BC First Nation has filed a petition in BC Supreme Court to stop the proposed development of a gold and copper mine in the central interior of the province.
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BC government won't prohibit Olympic evictions
Georgia Straight
06/24/2009
Vancouver-area tenants afraid of being kicked out by landlords out to make a quick buck from visitors during the 2010 Olympics aren't getting any relief. The BC Liberal government so far won't amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit evictions between June 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, other than by reason of tenant default.
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Report: Zero-waste goal best met by recycling, composting
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/24/2009
Instead of spending millions on waste-to-energy plants, Metro Vancouver should focus on composting, recycling and keeping materials such as electronic and construction waste out of the garbage, a new report suggests.
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Canadian forest sector world's worst economically
Victoria Times Colonist
06/25/2009
Canada's forest, paper, and packaging sector was the world's worst performer in 2008, accounting for half of the combined $8 billion US in record losses posted globally by the top 100 firms in the field, according to a report yesterday.
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