Choosing Our Future
A coalition with a vision to dynamically transform the way Vancouver Islanders live, work and play in their communities. We envision Vancouver Island being a safe, progressive, environmentally sensitive, energy self sufficient and life‐sustaining place for all its inhabitants.
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Membership
If you would like to support our objectives, please apply for membership here.
Governance
Governance News & Views
“You’ve just got to find new ways to do things.”
Victoria Capital Region - Municipal and CRD Representatives
Provincial MLA Finder - Alphabetical list
- Vancouver Island MLAs - BC Executive Council
Canadian Federal MP Finder - Cabinet members - Alphabetical list
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"The Era of Tax Cut Stupidity that Starved BC"
Bill McMartin, a political consultant, and the 27 February 2012 Tyee Story of poor fiscal governance in BC since 2001. Anyone with a wish for a review of that history will discover why our fiscal house is not healthy and what might be done to rectify that status. The budget debate has just started!!
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Focus, Nov 2011 issue; "Juking the stats" (on city projects!)
"City of Victoria managers create misinformation that makes them look good and lulls the rest of us into a delusional stupor."
Our view? Worthy of study by all, and correction by the next "dream team"!
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'Smart growth' necessary for Canadian cities!
Office of the Premier
Ministry of Environment
B.C. APPLAUDS MOVE BY OBAMA ON CALIFORNIA STANDARDS
VICTORIA – Premier Gordon Campbell is welcoming the Obama administration’s decision to grant
California its waiver to regulate greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.
ITO Commentary
That is the good news for BC; but, the bad news is that BC has not yet taken definitive action on rapid rail options for interurban and urban mass transit (beyond Canada Line) and provincial freight movement, or for the licensing of electric vehicles in all applications. Of course, complementary steps will have to be taken by the BC Government to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainability of renewable energy sources for the electrical demands of a society that can no longer afford nor tolerate fossil fuel emissions.
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Repower America Asks for Your Assistance for Clean Air
And, we ask for you help in communicating your concerns to your BC MLA (addresses above)
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Land Use and Community Planning
The Problems of Urban Spread and Estates - UK study Aug 2010
Allowances for highways and exchanges eat up Farmland - Tyee 11 Aug 10
Peak oil threatens BC's food supply - Randy Shore - 3 Aug 2010
Markham Ontario Shows How
Having started in 2005, click here to see the progress to date, June 2009!
Calgary Street Planning - likewise, a model of forward projections for creating a truly livable city and clearly showing the advantages of each style of community within the city.
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Where Do We (Victoria) Want To Be? and;
How can we get there? Amalgamation says Chris Edley! New
Stopping Urban Sprawl in the CRD
If you are interested in OCPs and Land Use, here's a video on the Central Saanich question of building housing on Vantreight's farm land - status early 2010 - will food products be more important than rural housing?
8 September 2009 - By Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Europe Energized - STEVEN HILL - June 8, 2010 - Australia Too!! (new)
Come on Governors of North America, Get with the Progam!!
References on Governance Issues
Federal and Provincial Budget Priorities
When they want to do something (like "OWN THE PODIUM") - it gets done!
Report on City Governance - Victoria Dec 2008
United Nations Climate Change Conference
Alex Steffan on “Copenhagen and the War for the Future” – 17 Nov 09
That which is unsustainable cannot go on. Unsustainable things that are propped up too long snap and collapse suddenly. Our way of life is unsustainable. The sooner we transform our economy into one that can generate sustainable prosperity, the better off we’ll be, and with every passing day, the risks of catastrophe grow larger and more certain. We need change now.
Quotes from George Marshall of “Climate Change” – 1 Dec 09
People are best motivated to start a journey by a positive vision of their destination—in this case by understanding the real and personal benefits that could come from a low-carbon world. However, it is not enough to prepare a slide show and glossy report vision that just creates more distance and plays to the dominant prejudice against environmental fantasists. People must see the necessary change being made all around them: buildings in entire neighborhoods being insulated and remodeled, electric cars in the driveway, and everywhere the physical adaptations we need to manage for the new weather conditions. If the U.S. government has one strategy, it should be to create such a ubiquity of visible change that the transition is not just desirable but inevitable. We need to emphasize that this is not some distant and intractable global warming, but a very local and rapid climate change, and we need to proclaim it from every solar-panel-clad rooftop.
The Impact of HST Implementation, July 2010
The Need for Tax Incentives to Promote Higher Density Living
Avi Ickovich in TC - 9 August 2009
Getting the whole job done:
Creating jobs that revitalize the economy and protect communities and resources from climate change - October 22, 2009
Occupy Movement - North America
"A discussion about Occupy Wall Street"
Charlie Rose with Chris Hedges and Amy Goodman
in Current Affairs on Monday, October 24, 2011. (25 min video)
Comment by Susan Draper:
"Perhaps we (Canadians) are a bit too smug for our own good? There is a growing gap between the rich and the poor in this country. In (Victoria) CRD region, 68,000 meals every month are served to hungry citizens; 13,000 people get grocery hampers every month. What kind of community are we building? Are food and housing a privilege in 2011?
With the individual and corporate wealth that exists in Canada, this growing disparity is the result of a deliberate reframing of our human rights by those who were elected to represent us. It has been this de-politicization of critical social issues by government (relegating hunger and housing largely to market and charitable spheres of interest) that has created these gaps in our social safety net."
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