Energy companies pushing for a tanker port on the BC's coast are in for strong opposition according to a Synovate poll released today by a coalition of environmental groups. The poll found seven in ten British Columbians (72%) support a ban on oil tankers in British Columbia's inside coastal waters(1). The poll's margin of error is 4.4% 19 times out of 20. Environmental groups are advocating for federal legislation banning oil tankers along the waters of the newly created Great Bear Rainforest Conservation Area. [Read more...]

Liquefied natural gas tankers have no place travelling up and down the Inside Passage, Capital Regional District directors say. The CRD yesterday endorsed a resolution supporting the Powell River Regional District in calling on the federal government to ban LNG tankers from using the Inside Passage -- one of the most heavily travelled waterways in North America. [Read more...]

BC environmental groups are applauding the latest recommendations from the province's Climate Action Team, a blue ribbon panel created by Premier Campbell to provide, ìthe most credible, aggressive and economically viable targets,î for the province's fight against Climate Change. [Read more...]

Lawyers for the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society, supported by other environmental groups, are demanding the provincial cabinet quash subdivision applications for land west of Sooke. [Read more...]

Lawyers for the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society, supported by other environmental groups, are demanding the provincial cabinet quash subdivision applications for land west of Sooke. [Read more...]

A judicial review is needed in the wake of the auditor general's report that blasts the way government dealt with private land removals from Vancouver Island tree farm licences, says Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the University of Victoria's environmental law clinic. [Read more...]

JORDAN RIVER — Sealed inside the cab of his massive hydraulic driller, Ron Vanderkhove was intent yesterday on making a deep, narrow puncture in solid rock. [Read more...]

The Highways Ministry’s provincial approving officer has offered to attend a mediated public meeting to hear from people opposed to Western Forest Products subdivision plans on the southwest corner of Vancouver Island. But, so far, that has failed to appease groups calling for a full public hearing into the plan for 319 acreages on former tree farm licence land around Jordan River, Otter Point and Shirley. [Read more...]

A RALLY DEMANDING A PUBLIC HEARING INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANDS IN THE JORDAN RIVER AREA WAS HELD THIS AFTERNOON OUTSIDE THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICES IN DOWNTOWN VICTORIA. [Read more...]

Clearing and blasting near Jordan River is creating shockwaves among opponents of Western Forest Products plans to create 319 lots on sensitive stretches of land around Jordan River, Otter Point and Shirley. [Read more...]

Clearing and blasting near Jordan River is creating shockwaves among opponents of Western Forest Products plans to create 319 lots on sensitive stretches of land around Jordan River, Otter Point and Shirley. [Read more...]

After taking a week-long hammering on the carbon tax, the B.C. Liberals must have welcomed the posting that went out Thursday from a coalition of environmental groups. [Read more...]

B.C. environmental groups, long calling for Rich Coleman's political head, said yesterday they were "very happy" he'd been shuffled out of the forestry portfolio. "We've been running a campaign asking for his resignation for the last eight months," said Maurita Prato, forest campaigner with the Dogwood Initiative, a non-profit environmental agency. [Read more...]

B.C. environmental groups, long calling for Rich Coleman's political head, said yesterday they were "very happy" he'd been shuffled out of the forestry portfolio. [Read more...]

When the City of Langford began preparations to construct the Spencer Road Highway Interchange in 2007, it purchased—some might say expropriated—16 private properties on Leigh Road with the explanation that the municipality might need to clear out the neighbourhood to make room for the cloverleaf on-and-off ramps. [Read more...]

Today, five pipelines are proposed from Alberta to the B.C. ports of Kitimat and Prince Rupert. But in the rush to welcome all this new development, the government seems to have forgotten what was feared back then - that in B.C.'s remote northern waters, a dead drifting tanker probably can't be saved in time to prevent an environmental catastrophe. [Read more...]

In the 1970s, the threat of devastating oil spills on British Columbia's coast became a reality when the Trans Alaska Pipeline was completed, linking the Prudhoe Bay oil fields to the shipping port of Valdez, Alaska. [Read more...]

A PROMINENT Canadian nationalist says she's going to donate a $5,000 environment award she received to the effort to stop Shell from drilling for coalbed methane natural gas in the Klappan area. [Read more...]

Local opposition is growing to plans for a major oil terminal in British Columbia that would see VLCCs operating on the Canadian west coast from Kitimat. [Read more...]

When it comes to supertankers off B.C.'s north coast, both sides of the tanker debate talk about risks and benefits. But a crucial question is who risks and who benefits. The risks are to our existing economy and way of life, to communities and first nations up and down our coast. The benefits are to Albertan oil companies and their shareholders, although some try to say otherwise. [Read more...]

The risks are to our existing economy and way of life, to communities and first nations up and down our coast. The benefits are to Albertan oil companies and their shareholders, although some try to say otherwise. [Read more...]

An environmental group has called for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to resign for permitting Western Forest Products to remove its private forest lands from a government-regulated tree farm licence. [Read more...]

An environmental group has called for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to resign for permitting Western Forest Products to remove its private forest lands from a government-regulated tree farm licence. The Victoria-based Dogwood Initiative claims Coleman's decision was a betrayal of public trust as it overrode community desires that the area remains as forestland. Western Forest Products is in the process of selling the land to a developer. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative has warned Shell Oil shareholders in Europe about risks associated with a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass rivers. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative has warned Shell Oil shareholders in Europe about risks associated with a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass rivers. [Read more...]

There could be as much as $500 billion worth of oil and natural gas under the waters off B.C.'s coast. But a federal moratorium of offshore oil and gas exploration, in place for more than 30 years, has prevented tests to determine if the resources are even there. [Read more...]

Shot down in the 1980s, BC Hydro tests the public waters with new dam. Construction of a third large hydroelectric dam on the Peace River in British Columbia’s north is back on BC Hydro’s to-do list, and the province’s electricity provider is making the rounds to sell the idea to residents through a series of public consultation sessions. [Read more...]

There could be as much as $500 billion worth of oil and natural gas under the waters off B.C.'s coast. But a federal moratorium of offshore oil and gas exploration, in place for more than 30 years, has prevented tests to determine if the resources are even there. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative will speak to Shell Oil shareholders in Europe to express concern over a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass Rivers. [Read more...]

Political debates, community campaigns and lawsuits are continuing to swirl around the future of Vancouver Island's wild west coast. [Read more...]

Political debates, community campaigns and lawsuits are continuing to swirl around the future of Vancouver Island's wild west coast. But the next major decision on the shape of development around Jordan River, Shirley and Otter Point rests with one person [Read more...]

Political debates, community campaigns and lawsuits are continuing to swirl around the future of Vancouver Island's wild west coast. But the next major decision on the shape of development around Jordan River, Shirley and Otter Point rests with one person. Bob Wylie, Highways Ministry provincial approving officer, has sole responsibility for deciding whether an application by Western Forest Products for 319 subdivisions will get the go-ahead. [Read more...]

CRD JORDAN RIVER LANDS BYLAWS PASS FINAL READING THE C.R.D. BOARD OF DIRECTORS HAS MADE OFFICIAL A BYLAW CHANGE THAT SLAPS A TIGHT RESTRICTION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANDS WEST OF JORDAN RIVER. THOSE LANDS CAN NOW CONTAIN ONLY ONE HOME ON EACH 120-HECTARE PARCEL -- WHICH IS MUSIC TO THE EARS OF MAURITA PRATO OF THE DOGWOOD FOUNDATION. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative will speak to Shell Oil shareholders in Europe to express concern over a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass Rivers. [Read more...]

On April 14 some 50 protesters gathered outside cabinet minister Ida Chong's community office in Victoria's Oak Bay neighbourhood. They included environmental icon Vicky Husband, the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society's Ray Zimmermann and representatives of the Dogwood Initiative, who delivered Chong a giant pen [Read more...]

Most Monday readers probably spend more than just the seven days called Earth Week thinking about the issues confronting this tiny blue-green planet of ours, but one thing is sure: Victoria is host to a multitude of activists, authors, students and scholars who make it a full-time occupation. We asked some of them what they think are the most serious threats to local ecosystems . . . and hey, we even called a couple of politicians, just for good measure. [Read more...]

Robert Bateman has destroyed one of his paintings in a demonstration against the possibility of oil tankers passing through B.C.’s Douglas Channel. [Read more...]

The difference between what's planned and what actually happens when it comes to oil and gas development brought Rosemary Ahtuangaruak from the North Slope of Alaska to B.C.'s north coast shores. [Read more...]

Renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman took a deep breath as he took a brush of black poster paint and lashed it across one of his favourite pictures. [Read more...]

Paintbrush in hand, poised over the canvas of orcas swimming in the ocean, wildlife artist Robert Bateman had a momentary feeling of uncertainty. But when the black paint touched a $2,000 print of his famous painting, Orca Procession, Bateman knew defacing one of his most beloved images was the right thing to do. [Read more...]