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“We need to take care of this planet for our bright future,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to thousands of protesters who had gathered outside of Vancouver City Hall to march against the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline. The event, hosted by Climate Convergence Metro Vancouver, is the latest development in a long and bitter conflict between community and environmental groups and the project. If built, the pipeline would twin the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and triple its capacity for transporting tar sands products from Edmonton to Burnaby. First Nations, environmental, and community groups have been highly critical, citing reports that the environmental damage and risks far outweigh the economic payout. Mayor Robertson has been a vocal opponent of the pipeline and, on November 19, called on the crowd to “stand strong for these weeks ahead.” Families, First Nations groups, and students cheered on as he spoke to his hope that the Trudeau government is “going to do the right thing [. . .] [and make] the right decision for our future.” After conditional approval by the National Energy Board
Ashley Fraser / Print News Editor
November 28, 2016 news@the-peak.ca
in May this year, the final decision on the project is due by December 19. The protest moved onto Cambie Street and began parading into Downtown Vancouver. Police officers on motorcycles directed traffic, and the mob drew onlookers along the street and from apartment windows. It would have been difficult to not notice the thousands of people beating drums and chanting “Hey hey, Trudeau, Kinder Morgan’s got to go!” The parade ended at the Vancouver Public Library. The last time a large-scale protest against the Kinder Morgan pipeline took place was in 2014, when around 100 protesters were arrested for entering a work site where Kinder Morgan crews were doing survey work. For all of the positive energy of the November 19 protest, recent news has environmental groups worried that Trudeau will approve the project. He visited Vancouver earlier this month to announce $1.5 billion in funding to protect oceans and coastal ecosystems from oil spills, with some critics saying the funding will be used to justify approving the new pipeline.
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B-Line is intended to be a more reliable and direct service, with fewer stops along Hastings Street than the previous 135 bus route. It will also run more frequently, operating every five to eight minutes during peak hours and 12–15 minutes in off times, as stated in TransLink’s 10-Year Vision Public Consultation Summary Report, published earlier this year. According to TransLink, the 135 was the sixth most-crowded bus route in 2015. It has among the least punctual performances in their system as well, due to high congestion on Hastings Street. As a result, it is subject to some of the worst bus bunching in the Lower Mainland, where users cite
waiting tirelessly for a delayed bus, only to have two or even three show up at the same time. Travis Cheney, a fourth-year SFU student living in Burnaby Heights, often experiences this. “As somebody who needs to be downtown at a specific time to make it to work, I definitely opt into taking the SkyTrain instead of the 135 because it offers greater consistency,” he said. “I'd be more inclined to take the 95 B-Line knowing it wasn't going to stop every 500 metres.” For many SFU students, the issues that the 135 brings up about inefficiency is an important part of their everyday life. Scout Shmygol, a student who lives in Mount Pleasant, often has classes on both campuses, and sometimes on the same day. “I think a BLine to SFU is necessary, and about time. It can take an hour to get from Harbour Centre to Burnaby Mountain on the 135 right now,” she said.
According to TransLink’s notice boards on the 135 route, busses stopping locally after December 19 will be the 14, 144, or 160, which some users have expressed they’re not aware of. However, there are a lot of other busses near that route, especially in East Vancouver where student Grace Lam lives. “There’s the 14 and 16 on Hastings, but there’s also the 4 and 7 primarily on Powell and Dundas. They run parallel to Hastings and are only two blocks down [. . .] Many people don’t know about that,” she said. The new bus will also feature three-door boarding, a trademark of the other B-Lines in the city. This should make boarding more effective, particularly during peak hours at locations such as the SFU Burnaby transportation centre. The majority of SFU students have Compass cards, making the feature more feasible.
While the 95 B-Line hopes to solve a lot of the problems that student face on their commute, there will be questions of concern. “On the 135, I’ve experienced intense verbal assault,” said Shmygol. “This B-Line is fast, but does nothing to address the unsafe climate of that bus route that many women feel.” She also noted that the threedoor system might not be all that it’s cracked up to be: “It removes the ‘gatekeeper’ element intended to monitor access to transit services; it takes away another element of safety.” Only time will tell how people react to the big changes coming to the popular Hastings Street route, but for many students like Sarah Duggan, it’s an excited anticipation. “The whole purpose of a B-Line is to get you from A to B as quickly as possible, and that really benefits everyone.”
SFU isn’t the first university in Canada to adopt this divestment plan. The University of Ottawa adopted a similar plan in April. President Andrew Petter stressed at the meeting that he hopes this impact inspires “others [to] join with us and the University of Ottawa; universities, but perhaps other institutions as well, because what it's really saying is that we expect companies to make progress to reducing their carbon footprint.” Tyler Carson, graduate representative on the BOG, added “that this has been a very significant issue for a lot of students,” and explained that this approval “makes me very proud to be an SFU student.” Petter also thanked the various advocacy groups at the university, including SFU350 — a SFU student climate action organization
aimed to encourage SFU to divest from fossil fuels — for pushing and helping the board “to think of ways that you can develop an investment policy that will in fact contribute towards reductions in carbon investment and achieve climate change targets.” Board chair Bill Cunningham said that “this is probably, more than anything on my time on the board, symbolizes what it means to be a part of the SFU community.” He added that groups like SFU350 and Embark have all been a part of “helping us get to this point.” Deven Azevedo, former undergraduate representative for the BOG in 2014–15 and chair of Embark, said to The Peak following the announcement, “it's been the culmination of about three years of work and two and a half years since SFU350 last attended [the] March 2014 BOG meeting, when the issue was first brought to the board.” Azevedo explained that it's been an evolutionary process from the point where the board was not
previously as positive about this issue, but remained open to speaking about it. “[I]t definitely allowed us to continue our advocacy.” Petter addressed some of the issues that complete divestment poses, which is the goal of the SFU350 organization, and explained that much of the university's investments are located in “pooled funds”; so, “we can’t aggregate or disaggregate the carbon components of those funds [. . .] and it would put the university at risk in terms of getting a return.” He added that the direct investments that the university does hold are not within any fossil fuel companies. Tessa Ramburn, president of the SFU350 organization, said that “SFU350 is very happy that the motion has passed and it's a positive first step forward in the right direction. We are also looking forward to continue to work with the board of governors in pushing for full fossil fuel divestment.”
Jessie Russel, social media coordinator for SFU350, added that “this is a huge first step, but 30 percent by 2030 is not fast enough [. . .] I think moving forward, really looking at the endowment as a whole and also looking at benchmarks that are much closer than 2030.” Ramburn explained that research coming out of the university itself by Kirsten Zickfeld, an SFU professor and climate scientist, indicates that “30 percent by 2030 is just not enough.” However, she explained that the president’s commitment to inspiring other universities to follow suit is “one aspect of divestment that make it such a powerful movement [. . .] All of this work is not just SFU350 or just Embark, it's the entire support of the Divest SFU movement, and that’s huge.” This includes the "thousands of students and faculty members that have put time and energy into this [. . .] so we are really grateful that we have the support of the entire SFU community.”
Alex Smiciklas SFU Student Change is in the air for SFU students. The 135 bus will soon be no more than a distant memory as it’s replaced by a successor: the new 95 B-Line. This deeply contested lifeline between Harbour Centre and SFU Burnaby has been a hot topic for years, having come into question for replacement as far back as 2009. Due to frequent changes and pushbacks, the concept of the BLine hasn’t come to fruition until now. It will be released on December 19 to coincide with the Millennium Line Evergreen Extension that will service Coquitlam, as the 135 is discontinued. In an email to The Peak, TransLink explained that the 95
Ashley Fraser Print News Editor SFU’s Board of Governors (BOG) has given the green light to reducing SFU’s carbon footprint and divesting from fossil fuel accounts by 30 percent by 2030. This comes after a long process of committee meetings and advocacy in order to approve the divestment trend. This choice is intended to match Canada’s climate commitment, where the BOG’s responsible investment committee is still working to develop a baseline report of SFU’s carbon footprint. Once this is completed in January, the committee plans to have a detailed plan of the targets to be made to reduce carbon investments by 2030. SFU has also increased its funding towards sustainable investment holdings within the endowment portfolio by $8 million, to be added to the previous $12 million in late 2015.
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