Thoughts on BC Politics and More

In 2023, 62 per cent of British Columbians say the province's carbon tax has negatively affected their household finances The past two years have provided plenty of opportunities for British Columbians to focus on environmental issues. Following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, forest fires, floods and climate change have been in the news more often. The latest survey conducted by Research Co. and Glacier Media outlines an increase in the personal concern of British Columbians on 10 different environmental problems ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Following the Liberal Party of Canada’s platform announcement that they are going to shutter the open-net fish farm industry by 2025 transitioning it to closed-containment, I wrote a post stating my skepticism . Another result of that announcement has been a daily flow of emails from the Google Alert that I have tracking “fish farms.” With the Liberals making this a platform priority, hopefully with more sincerity than “ this will be the last election under first-past-the-post ” -- and -- “ there is no more important relationship than the one with Indigenous people ”, the salmon farming industry has been furiously publishing articles about their opposition to this promise. Needless to say, the industry is extremely unhappy with this commitment from the Liberals. There are now a majority of federal political parties that have committed to acting on transitioning the salmon farming industry to land-based systems. Fish farms have no social licen...

I came across an interesting story this morning, from the BC governments Environment Ministry.   To me, this is the ‘real’ stuff that can happen to make a change to the environment around us – not forced or pretend stuff that makes some people feel good, while there’s not real change actually being made ... The first time Chloé Dubois saw a remote beach littered with plastics; she was struck by the grim reality of how big the problem had become. It was 2012 and Dubois was participating in a shoreline cleanup along the coast of Alaska. Within five days, the dedicated group had picked up 18,000 kilograms (40,000 pounds) of plastic pollution. Dubois has also been active cleaning up British Columbia’s coastlines. “ It completely transformed my plastic usage and I knew I had to do something about it ,” said Dubois, who is co-founder and executive director of the Ocean Legacy Foundation. “ I think there’s a misconception that because we live in Canada, o...

On Tuesday (May 28 th ) the BC government released its quarterly environmental enforcement summaries for the third and fourth quarters of 2018.  The summaries detail a total of 1,728 environmental enforcement actions taken by the provincial government during this time period, resulting in just under $900 thousand in penalties and fines. In total, thee issued 246 orders, administrative sanctions, court convictions, and administrative penalties issued ... plus 2,412 violation tickets.   Most frequent violations were for actions that were in violation of the Wildlife Act (1,040), the Fisheries Act (375), and the Off-Road Vehicle Act with 344 violations. Fines for these offenses totaled $1,092,465 in fines in 2018. Some of the violations however would surprise you.   For example, there were MULTIPLE tickets handed out, through-out the province, due to individuals driving with a loaded fire arm in their vehicle ... failure to comply with An...

When it comes to water governance in Canada, the federal government has jurisdiction related to fisheries, navigation, federal lands, and international relations, including responsibilities related to the management of boundary waters shared with the United States, including relations with the International Joint Commission. It also has significant responsibilities for agriculture, health and the environment , and plays a significant role supporting aquatic research and technology, and ensuring national policies and standards are in place on environmental and health-related issues . To fully understand the federal government's role in water management in Canada, it is important to first understand the interests and mandates of the departments involved in program delivery. Within the federal government, over 20 departments and agencies have unique responsibilities for fresh water . As all levels of government hold key policy and regulatory levers which apply to water m...