I have received a few emails and phone calls into my office about Bill 16 and specifically the proposed name change at John Dean Provincial Park on the Saanich Peninsula. As has been widely reported, Bill 16, which is currently working its way through the legislative process, is a response to grade 3 students at the ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ School. They...
The first ever Wild Salmon Day was held on the B.C. Legislature grounds yesterday. The event is a collaborative effort between the province and the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) to continue the work of raising the awareness of British Columbians about the critical importance of wild salmon to our province. Premier John Horgan and Minister of...
The BC NDP government is finally calling for a public inquiry into money laundering. Government announced the appointment of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin F. Cullen to lead the inquiry.Following two weeks of questions at the beginning of this session the B.C. Green Caucus called for an independent public inquiry.The superb investigative work...
A few weeks back I did a two-minute statement about the emergence of territorial acknowledgements over the past few years. The trailblazers have been identifying territory for a bit longer, but this is a new cultural tradition in the long history of our country and province.Frequently, someone will contact me seeking advice on how to do a...
There have been a lot of words about old-growth thrown around from the Minister of Forests recently. The sense I am getting from the flow of correspondence coming to me is that people are not buying the story he is trying to pitch.Here he is quoted from Hansard in response to me in Question Period."We're blessed with amazing forests in this...
The B.C. Green Caucus has been questioning Hon. Doug Donaldson on the continued logging of old-growth on Vancouver Island. 79% of the productive old-growth on Vancouver Island, including over 90% of the high productivity old-growth in valley bottoms, has already been logged. Only 8% of these forests have any...
The level of cognitive dissonance in the British Columbia legislature regarding global warming is astounding. There seems to be a complete disconnect between the scale of the problem and the response we need to muster to address the issue. It appears that most people within the the walls of the stone building on Belleville feel it is enough to...
Hey mom, this post is for you. Just you! As I get older Mother's Day has become a celebration of an increasingly large group of amazing and powerful people in my life. No doubt this is exciting and enriching, and they are special people for sure, they include the mother of my children and my sister's, but none of them are my mom. Only you can be...
Guest post by Emily Olsen A year ago this week, I shared a stage with two brave souls to talk about my mental health experience. Five months after that, I hosted a mental health storytelling event called the Connection Project. Three months after that, a documentary about the Connection Project was released on YouTube. This Sunday, Mother’s Day,...
My 12 year-old nephew plays in Pokemon tournaments. Last weekend Emily and I agreed that we would give him a ride to his next tournament because his parents were busy juggling the rest of life.On the way back from town, we got talking about his birthday. He will be thirteen this summer and it's an important milestone for him. He's clearly proud...
The BC Green Caucus is committed to changing the current BC NDP approach to managing old-growth forests. These ancient creatures are the largest and oldest on earth. They are a non-renewable resource and while the Minister of Forests claims that his Ministry is developing a management plan they continue to auction of...
One of the exciting ways we are looking after each other on the Saanich Peninsula is the 1000x5 Children's Book Recycling Program.A few weeks ago, I attended Books for Breakfast. It's an event run by the volunteers of the non-profit organization and the benefits of their work were on full display. Emily and I are only a few years past caring for...
The BC NDP government continues to stubbornly defend clear-cutting high productivity old-growth forests. The defense that has been vocalized by the Minister of Forests is that he has a clear understanding of the value of old-growth for biodiversity, but he balances that with an understanding of the economic value of...
Last week I wrote about a podcast series I am listening to called Philosophize This! Taken by French philosopher Michel Foucault's work on the idea of the panopticon, I was nervous about referencing these specific philosophical works. After all, I was reflecting on a 20 minute podcast, not my recent readings of the complete works of Foucault or...
Emily and I live on Tsartlip in Brentwood Bay. We are raising our kids in the backyard of the same 3/4 acre property that I grew up on. My sister and her husband (my wife's brother) and their three children live in the house we grew up in. My brother lives in a newly renovated cabin, once called "Eddie's Shack" and a woman and her young son live...
In a post last week, I addressed French philosopher Michel Foucault's work on discipline and punishment. Reflecting on how his studies in justice and social order show up in modern society. I included extensive quotes from the transcript of an episode of Philosophize This! by Stephen West. Today I will use the text to pivot to another issue which...
In this episode of The Public Circle Podcast I meet up with Denny Warner. Denny is the Executive Director of the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce (SPCC). She has led the Chamber for the past four years. Over the first few episodes of this podcast I have met with business leaders in our community and in this episode Denny and I continue the...
On Thursday we finally had the second reading debate for Bill 16, Protected Areas of British Columbia Amendment Act (2019). Each year there is an amendment Bill similar to this one, where government will open up the legislation to make adjustments to park boundaries.In this instance, there are a handful of parks that...
While the glorious sunshine is having a positive effect on the growth of the grass and weeds in my yard, as such, it was no longer meeting modern aesthetic standards. So, this past weekend I decided to bring it into compliance. While toiling in the sunshine, I listened to a new addition to my podcast library, Philosophize This! After ravenously...
We have been asking questions of Minister Michelle Mungall about oil and gas activity in the British Columbia north. There have been responses but few answers. We asked about leaking wells, orphan wells, the purchase of wells by a Chinese company with close ties to the Communist Party of China, and the impacts of...
A common theme for the BC NDP government is affordability. They focus on how they are decreasing the impact of the rising costs in all aspects of our lives. Every announcement is tagged with how they are making life more affordable. Even as a government boasts about the "strong economy", many British Columbians are struggling. While the...
It’s no secret our family doctors are stressed and stretched thin. On the Saanich Peninsula, nearly a third of us do not have a family doctor. Unfortunately, the problem goes much deeper. In the next few years many of the doctors practicing in our communities will retire. There is a crisis in primary health care.I see the people lining the...
According to Food Banks BC, 80,000 British Columbians use a food bank each month. Yet, as we learned from "The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste" a report by Second Harvest released earlier this year, Canadians waste an unbelievable amount of food."The research estimates that the total avoidable and unavoidable food loss and waste occurring annually...
Two sounds are very familiar to me, bringing me back to my childhood: the gurgle and sputter of the 10-horse Briggs and Stratton pushing our 22 foot Clinker through the Saanich Inlet and the wizz-click of our Scotty downriggers. Scott Plastics, better known as “Scotty”, was started in Victoria in 1952 by Blayney and Amelda Scott. Today they...
Janine Fernandes-Hayden is one member of the original organizing team of 100+ Women Who Care Salt Spring Island. We connect on this episode of The Public Circle Podcast to discuss the impact of their fundraising for non-profit organizations on Salt Spring. Originally from Victoria, Janine is now an established 15-year resident of the Island and...
This week I was invited to Strawberry Vale Elementary. I entered Ms. Brookes classroom to a chorus of student voices welcoming me to the Strawberry Vale Environmental Awards. It's an incredible honour to be recognized for my work. Honestly, nothing in my entire time as an elected official has matched the Earth Care Award for "helping the Earth...