ICSP
West Coast Environmental Law Comments on Metro Vancouver 2040 Shaping Our Future
West Coast provided comments on Metro Vancouver’s latest draft of a new Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), entitled Metro Vancouver 2040: Shaping Our Future ( November 2009 draft). While West Coast supports the direction and goals of the new draft RGS and the range of strategies proposed, we have concerns that many of the actions and processes stipulated as the means to accomplish those goals reflect a lack of commitment to concerted, firm action by member municipalities.
'Red Tent' Campaign Planned for Homeless during Olympics
Pivot Legal wants city to let it provide 500 tents to people sleeping on Vancouver's streets. Picture homeless people camped on downtown sidewalks. Big yawns inside bright red tents as the sun rises on another Olympics day. Early next month, Pivot Legal Society hopes to ask city council's permission to start handing out 500 collapsible shelters to Vancouver's most needy. Pivot's rights activists want to confront a city enthralled by Olympic jubilation with the reality of local poverty. And test the limits of constitutional law.
Beyond Copenhagen: what kind of bottom-up climate activism do we need?
As we move into 2010, the feeling of many people across this country seems to be that now is the time to give up on large-scale politics, and focus on small local-level solutions to the outstanding problems of our age, such as manmade climate change (the Transition movement [1], which began in Totnes and is slowly spreading worldwide, is an outstanding example of such 'localist' solution-seeking).Village Vancouver Website
Village Vancouver inspires individuals and organizations to take actions that build resilient and sustainable communities. We support ideas and initiatives to strengthen neighbourhoods and to promote social, environmental and economic change in the face of profound ecological stress/crisis. We encourage individuals and groups to unite and collaborate in support of common goals and actions...and to have fun together!
Group targets carbon neutrality on central Vancouver Island
A sustainability group wants to localize carbon neutrality and it’s looking to the Regional District of Nanaimo for assistance.
Laurie Gourlay, president of the Mid-Island Sustainability and Stewardship Initiative, approached the RDN last week about formally establishing a climate action team in its Regional Growth Strategy and Official Community Plan, both of which are updated.
That team would focus on implementing MISSI’s Yellow Cedar proposal to create a program for citizens and businesses to purchase carbon offsets in the mid-Island area.
Climate Change Science and Research Update 2009
There’s good news and bad news in the latest research on climate change. The bad news is a growing consensus that if we fail to act, climate change may be more rapid and more severe than initially pre-dicted. The good news is that this new research provides policymakers at all levels with more compre-hensive and accurate information for taking action.
Gibsons Named World's Most Liveable Community
The Sunshine Coast town of Gibsons has earned a Gold Award for liveability from the United Nations-backed International Awards for Liveable Communities.Gibsons - pop. 4,200 - won in the Whole City category for towns with a population under 20,000 for best practice and leadership in creating a socially and environmentally sound community.
A 40-minute ferry ride from West Vancouver, Gibsons consists of the quaint fishing village of Gibsons Landing and the commercial-industrial hub of Upper Gibsons on Highway 101.
Green Municipal Fund Supports Kamloops' Integrated Community Sustainability Plan
KAMLOOPS – Chair Robert Hobson, representing FCM’s Green Municipal Fund and the Honourable Cathy McLeod, on behalf of the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, announced today a Green Municipal Fund (GMF) grant for the City of Kamloops. The $327,750 grant will be used to develop an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) in order to tie together various City plans and strategies and provide a comprehensive evaluation framework to guide future growth and development.
Local Government Operations GHG Protocol
In 2008, a consortium of environmental organizations collaborated to develop the Local Government Operations (LGO) Protocol, a program-neutral greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol that is designed to allow local governments to quantify and report GHG emissions resulting from their operations. Contributors to the Protocol included the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR), the California Air Resources Board
Oxfam dubs climate change greatest threat to humanity
OTTAWA — The damaging effects of climate change on hundreds of millions of the world's poor — hunger, lack of water, forced migration — is the single greatest threat to humanity this century, says a major new report by Oxfam.
And a Prairie drought at home that could drive up food prices is one tangible effect of that crisis on Canada, Oxfam Canada added Monday.
