I note that the minister said we should be reassured as to the ability to save seed for some farmers, which is found page 7, and that he might want to make it clearer in future regulations. I wonder if the minister is open to making it clearer through amendments to this proposed act as it goes forward.

Gerry Ritz: Mr. Speaker, that is the nature of committee work. If members come forward with substantive amendments, they will be discussed. Witnesses will be called, and the bill will be stronger in the end should they want to build the capacity into the bill to serve farmers in a better way. Should they decide to remove chunks and try to break the bill apart, then, of course, we would not allow that.

The post Agricultural Growth Act appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Pockets of old growth are being discovered and documented by the organization that sponsored the meeting, Ancient Forest Alliance (www.ancientforestalliance.org). Ancient Forest Alliance is new on the scene, founded in January 2010 by Ken Wu. In less than a year it has grown quickly as an important voice in forest protection in BC.

What struck me about the AFA team was its idealism, its energy and its youth. For those of us who have been in conservation battles for decades, it was electrifying to listen to a new generation of young activists who are passionately committed to this land and its forests.

Adriane Carr, Paul George and I found it reminded us of ourselves in the mid-1980s fighting to protect Gwaii Haanas. Yet, these young activists have a different energy. Something hard to articulate is their knowingness—an awareness of the fact that the lines they draw in the sand are around tinier and tinier ecosystems.

As you read this I will be at the climate negotiations in Mexico, where the early dispatches of calls for action are from the global climate youth movement. Over 1,000 young people from forty countries have made their way to the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16). Youth are at the forefront of the call for global climate action.

The chair of COP proceedings has the discretion to recognize representatives of civil society. While there is no obligation to do this, UN practice allows two interventions a day from those not speaking for nation states. On the first day, youth demanded protection of global forests as carbon sinks. A young New Zealander, Emma Moon, spoke on behalf of global youth in demanding a proper classification system for forests, distinguishing between natural forests and plantations.

On the third day, youth took the stage again. One of my colleagues, Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu, who serves as climate critic in the Green Shadow Cabinet, is already in Mexico for the conference. She wrote that the youth provided ‘a moment of hope.’

A twenty-two-year old young woman, Hanna Smith of the UK, spoke on behalf of the UK Youth Climate Coalition. ‘We are reaching the end of the first (Kyoto) commitment periods, and we—the International Youth— are asking you to look beyond your national interests and towards the interests of us all as global citizens,’ Smith told UN leaders. The youth urged negotiators to take seriously the proposal from Grenada that emission reductions be made aggressive and sufficient to avoid a global average temperature increase of 1.5oC. According to Adriana, the youth were ‘broadly applauded.’

Meanwhile, closer to home, on October 21, United Nations Day, students from Salt Spring Island schools held the 5th Annual Children and Youth Peace Assembly. They launched the ‘peaceworks’ project asking all of us to sign on on-line to a ‘command statement’ calling on ‘the United Nations and all the governments of the world to bring world peace and the complete end to all wars on planet Earth by November 11, 2018—100 years to the day that the treaty to end all wars was signed (www.sd64.bc.ca).

Looking to our children for leadership is not really new.

We have embedded in our collective consciousness (regardless of religion) fragments from gospel (‘And a little child shall lead them…’), and song, (‘we rise again in the faces of our children’) But there is a peril in recognizing youth leadership. It lies in the generational cop-out: ‘these will be issues for the next generation. They will be wiser….’

Ending war, finding peace, eliminating poverty, saving what’s left of ancient forests and rare species, and weaning our addiction to fossil fuels are not issues with long time lines. The need for action is well past its ‘best before’ date.

We cannot abandon our children to solve these issues where we have failed. It is our responsibility as adults, no matter how grey our hair or aching our bones, to fight ever harder for our children’s future. It is in that compelling honesty of youth, in their energy and clear-eyed statements of the changes that must come, that we should find inspiration and resolve.

In the face of evidence to engender despair, it is the young who keep alive in us that most courageous of emotions—hope.

Elizabeth May is the leader of the Green Party of Canada and youth emeritus. For full disclosure, Ken Wu is also working part-time on her campaign to be elected as the MP for Saanich Gulf Islands.

The post The Place to Find Hope appeared first on Elizabeth May.

British Columbia is committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 33% by 2020 against 2007 levels. (I have mentioned before in these pages the problem of constantly shifting ‘base years,’ see box this page.) I attended sessions in Central Saanich and for the Town of Sidney, where I live, designed to gauge public support for various reduction measures. One inevitable conclusion of these sessions is that there is a limited amount any one municipality can do by itself. The best, and only, way to substantially reduce emissions is to develop regional solutions.

The bulk of greenhouse gas emissions in our region is from transportation. While the average contribution from transportation to GHG across Canada is 30%, in the CRD the figure is (depending on sources) 52-60%—excluding emissions from the air travel and ferries. For the Town of Sidney, on road transportation contributes 71% of total emissions.

The reasons for this figure are both due to the good news that there are few emissions from other sources (making transportation figures a higher percentage of the whole) and to the bad news of car dependence. There is no coal-fired, electric power station looming over town as in the community where I used to live. Here, cars and trucks are the main emitters. Other reasons relate to the lack of affordable local housing forcing many who work in Sidney, particularly in health care and other services, to live elsewhere and commute into town.

Looking At The Regional Picture

On the evening of April 6, the Saanich and Gulf Island Greens sponsored a public forum on greening transportation. The range of smart options and local energy devoted to this issue is encouraging.

At the level of the largest geographical spread, Vancouver Island, Judith Sayers, Chair of the Island Corridor Foundation, UVic Law professor, and former Chief of the Hupacasath First Nation, presented what would be possible with an investment in expanding options on the existing rail line corridor. Thanks to Island Corridor Foundation’s enormous effort the entire 290km of rail line, covering 650 hectares of land base, including railway stations and other equipment was transferred from CP Rail and Rail America to the Island Corridor Foundation.

With a reasonable and, in public infrastructure terms, small investment an enhanced rail-line and passenger service from Langford to Victoria could take 280,000 passenger vehicles off the road every year. The Island Corridor Foundation is also working to move more goods from truck and onto the rails. The federal government failed to use the Economic Stimulus Package to invest in rail, but the Island Corridor Foundation is hoping for provincial funds, potentially future federal money and local fundraising. (Donations to the Island Corridor Foundation are tax deductible.)

Light rail is the next level of transit service. Irwin Henderson, President of the Island Transformations Organization (www.islandtransformations.org), former chair of Victoria’s Advisory Planning Commission, presented a compelling argument for light rail in the CRD. Erwin presented a comprehensive vision of an electric rapid light rail system serving the Capital Regional District, with lines to Sooke and Langford and up to the ferries and Sidney. The investment in light rail has been shown in city and town alike to pay for itself.

The densification of cities is enhanced as shop-owners and condo developers actually strive to locate alongside light rail, in direct and inverse proportion to how hard they strive to avoid multiple lanes of roadway. Pedestrian friendly, the presence of light rail improves quality of life. The same little light railcar that moves people through city blocks can pick up speed and serve the longer hauls to airport and ferry. All on a far smaller footprint (in carbon and acreage) than the highway option.

The light rail option is also compatible with bus service. Buses in this vision operate along feeder routes, bringing people to their light rail station.

What brings people to their buses? Well, of course improved pedestrian and bicycling options. John Luton, Victoria City Councillor, long time community activist for enhancements to cycling and walking infrastructure, ensured that bicycling was an indispensible part of this vision. Victoria is already the No1 municipality in Canada for bike ridership, but much more could be accomplished with more secure bike lanes, better access to bike parking (especially in Sidney!) and intermodal connections, allowing bikes to be carried easily by bus, train and on future light rail. At the forum, Guy Dauncey, President of the BC Sustainable Energy Association (www.earthfuture.com), brought it all together in the vision of fossil fuel-free transit. He lamented the poor choice in putting $24 million into the unnecessary McTavish Road overpass when so much needs to be done in improving sustainable transit choices.

As in so many areas of greening the economy, the options before us provide jobs, better quality of life, healthier lifestyles, cleaner air and greater efficiency. Clearly citizens in this region ‘get it!’ We need political leadership. We need to have representation that knows that it is not a question of whether we can afford these transit options. We must recognize that we cannot afford not to invest in green transit!

Elizabeth E May, OC is co-author of Global Warming for Dummies and leader of the Green Party of Canada. www.greenparty.ca.

The post Green transit: the local movement appeared first on Elizabeth May.