Thoughts on BC Politics and More

The Wet’suwet’en have a rich and beautiful culture and I was honoured to have the opportunity to learn more about it from their hereditary chiefs. Hereditary Chief Na’Moks took me to see Gidimt’en camp, which is approximately 10km past an RCMP controlled access point. That is where I met Hereditary Chief Dsta’hyl of the Likhts’amisyu clan.  We shared words about our flawed system of resource management and the importance of collaboration between governments. We agreed that respecting our life-sustaining ecosystems through sustainable resource management is the only way forward for our province.  On Sunday, I met with RCMP at the Smithers detachment and spoke about the need for a peaceful approach to this conflict.  The hereditary chiefs are clear what the next step is: they want government-to-government dialogue between their leaders and the leaders of the provincial and federal governments. Through my role as an MLA and the ...

On my morning walk I got to thinking back to my decision to resign from the Central Saanich Council table to run in the 2013 Provincial election for the BC Greens. The decision to resign was triggered by one of my colleagues, who moved out of the country, and the reality that the District needed to hold a by-election. This allowed me to be clear with my constituents what my intention was. However, my decision to run was a lot more to do with my experience of the relationship between the provincial and local governments. It was frustrating to thoughtfully develop priorities and community objectives, and then have to chase conditional grants on non-priority areas -- just so we could fulfill the provincial government’s priority. In addition, we were constantly shouldering more of the weight from federal and provincial downloads. I remember that experience even all these seven years later.

I feel I must circle back around and address the recent explosion of sea lice on the west coast, and the continued persistence of open-net pen fish farms in British Columbia waters.   And, I must restate my dissatisfaction with the decades of poor resource management in our province. In recent months, I have been working on several fronts, primarily forestry, fish, wildlife, oil and gas development. For an entire year my colleagues and I drew considerable attention to the urgent crisis with wild salmon on the British Columbia coast. Policy decisions in a half dozen Ministries impact the well-being of wild salmon. Our work has shone a light on the historic mismanagement of watersheds, over-logging and the impact of poorly designed infrastructure. Fish farms are another significant threat to wild salmon in coastal waters. Background Open-net pen fish farms have been a major source of frustration for British Columbians; there is a growing bod...

Property owners have the right to log their property. They have the right to raze entire ecosystems. In spite of decades of evidence showing the devastating effects of clear-cut logging, unfortunately it's still legal for people to strip their property to the skin. Most of the Saanich Peninsula is already bare. But there are still some beautiful forests on the Southern Gulf Islands.  I first understood the vulnerability of these important forest lands few months ago, when a private property owner began clear cutting on Saltspring Island. After some digging, I found out that currently there seems to be very little that can be done about it. It's a frustrating response to give to people concerned about the loss of habitat. Then I began receiving calls from Tsawout First Nation members notifying me that their First Nation was clear cutting reserve lands on Saturna Island. It’s a c lear-cut response to poor resource management … s top clea...