Four Ideas for a Greener Future

BY GUY DAUNCEY

Some people live in oblivious comfort; others in atrocious discomfort. Some people take the world for granted; others restlessly seek change, searching for ways to make life better. Here are four ideas to stretch your imaginations and get your political juices flowing.

An Island Bikeway

With hopes for a railway rapidly fading, due both to the cost and to the desire of several First Nations not to see it restored, attentions are turning to other uses for the corridor. The most obvious is a long-distance cycling trail from Victoria to Courtenay. The benefits for health and the enjoyment of nature are obvious, but there are other benefits too. For the Halalt First Nation, the railway not only took away their lands, it also created a raised embankment which traps water, contributing to the regular flooding of their homes. If the corridor was used for a trail, the embankment could be removed, and the trail could wind around their land instead of cutting through it. Also, unlike train passengers, cyclists can stop wherever they like, pausing to visit restaurants and art galleries, offering new economic op- portunities. When complete, the Island Bikeway would soon become the pride of the region.

Friends of Parks

If you have visited Stocking Creek Park, with its gorgeous paths and its torrential waterfall after heavy rain, you may have noticed that the upper path has been invaded by ivy and holly. With each passing year, the invasion spreads. It’s far too much for one person to tackle. It would require a team of volunteers willing to work together, with support from CVRD Parks staff to remove the massive piles of ivy that would accumulate. Every park has similar problems. What if the CVRD was to try something new? Could the parks staff create an organizational framework that encouraged local people to form a “Friends of Stocking Creek Park,” and the same for other parks? It is, after all, local park users who know their parks the best. New friendships would arise, bringing new possibilities.

Neighbourhood Emergency PODs

We live in an earthquake zone, which also has frequent windstorms that down trees, and the annual risk of forest fi re. In a region-wide crisis, fi refighters and paramedics might not be able to help in rural areas. On Salt Spring, they have set up a system of Emergency Pods where neighbours help each other using walkie-talkie radios and agreed assembly points. The program started in 2005 with 25 volunteers. By 2019, they had 370 people in 60 pods, covering the whole island. Could we learn from their experience and do the same here?

Green Villages on Forest Lands

We have an urgent need for new housing, both for new arrivals and for people who struggle to get by on a low income. Meanwhile MOSAIC, acting for Timberwest and Island Timberlands, owns a vast amount of forested and clearcut land. It all goes back to the 1887 E&N Rail Grant, when the federal government gave two million acres to the coal baron Robert Dunsmuir for completion of the railway, plus $750,000 and all the mineral and timber rights, privatizing the land and shutting out the First Nations whose traditional lands they were.

Why don’t we work with MOSAIC and First Nations to allow the development of ecologically designed villages on clearcut land? If the houses were clustered in a walkable community around a village green; if each village had a community store, café, sports field and community hall; if a third of the houses were built by a non-profit for low-income people; if small businesses were allowed and encouraged; if there was a community bus for trips into town; and if some adjacent lands were set aside for growing food, forest restoration, parks and trails, I think thousands of people would want to live there.

Let’s be adventurous in our thinking, and our planning for a greener, more sustainable future. Our children deserve nothing less.

Guy Dauncey is an author, futurist and practical utopian. He lives in Yellow Point.

Cycling is good for your health and the environment. Photo: Nick Longo