Editor,
Members of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) travelled to Victoria two weeks ago to lobby MLAs, including local representatives MLA Donna Barnett and MLA Coralee Oakes, the Opposition Critic for the Environment and Climate Change. This was a major volunteer lobbying effort calling for significant climate action by the B.C. government.
Discussions with Ms. Oakes, Ms. Barnett and fellow Liberals showed the desire for climate action crosses party lines.
This undertaking began while one of the group was working as a registered nurse in a remote coastal first nation’s community.
Nurse Dona Grace-Campbell was working in a community whose marine-dependent livelihood is threatened by ocean acidification and the prospect of oil tanker traffic through their territorial waters.
The idea sparked fellow CCL members into action, and fundraising efforts were organized to finance the trip to the capital. Unlike well-funded professional lobbyists, garage sales and the like are needed to support efforts for the planet. What started as a notion to engage a few MLAs quickly became a substantial lobbying campaign – one in which B.C.’s youth would play a prominent role.
As a non-partisan grassroots organization creating the political will for a livable planet, the group led several days of meetings with party caucuses, cabinet ministers and individual MLAs. CCL annually lobbies MPs in Ottawa, but this was the first time colleagues from across the province lobbied Victoria.
The first day of lobbying saw the important announcement of a bill by Minister of the Environment and Climate Strategy George Heyman, which would legislate Green House Gas (GHG) emission targets for 2030 and 2040.
Seventeen-year-old Caelen Cook of Cowichan Valley, who joined the lobbying team, said: “B.C. has blown by its 2020 emission targets, and some places in our province are already experiencing a 2-degree-Celsius rise in temperature, which is above the upper global limit agreed upon by the nations at the Paris Summit. Creating and implementing the roadmap to these targets is urgently needed if we are to inherit a province free from the worst economic and environmental ravages of climate change.”
The group met with 16 Ministers and MLAs, including the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources, and MLAs from all three parties.
Returning home, the group drove past homes devastated by this spring’s historical flooding, in some areas exacerbated by last summer’s record-setting wildfires.
It was a keen reminder of how vulnerable our local communities and economies are to the increased risks associated with climate change and underscoring the pleas for urgent action by B.C.’s youth.
Judy O’Leary
Nelson, B.C.