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...]

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...]

A Calgary-based company looking to build an oil pipeline from the Alberta Oilsands to a Kitimat Terminal said it has broad southeast Asian support for the project. At the same time, environmental groups opposing the passage of oil tankers in B.C. waters also have new supporters, with world reknowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman wading into the issue. [Read more...]

The B.C. government may be going green, but that doesn't mean it is bidding farewell to fossil fuels any time soon. [Read more...]

The government of British Columbia moved yesterday to the forefront of the battle against climate change by introducing what may be the greenest budget ever seen in North America. [Read more...]

Environmental groups want anyone with an interest in the removal of private forest lands from tree farm licences or those wanting to stop urban sprawl to head to Otter Point tonight. [Read more...]

Environmental groups expected to pack hall as proposal to rezone vast tracts of Juan de Fuca land goes to public hearing [Read more...]

Environmental groups want anyone with an interest in the removal of private forest lands from tree farm licences or those wanting to stop urban sprawl to head to Otter Point tonight. "We want people to get out there and make statements in support of rezoning the land," said Eric Swanson of the Dogwood Initiative, explaining why environmental groups raised about $3,500 from supporters for a large advertisement in the Times Colonist. [Read more...]

Forest and Range Minister Rich Coleman has said repeatedly that releasing 28,000 hectares of Western Forest Products Inc.'s private land from management under British Columbia's Tree Farm Licence system was done to help a company that was suffering financially. While Coleman's decision has received much scrutiny in the media and Auditor General John Doyle is investigating, here's one detail that has so far been largely overlooked: Coleman's older brother Stan is Western Forest Product's manager of strategic planning [Read more...]

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Demonstrators will be on the lawn of the legislature at noon today, protesting the withdrawal of private lands from tree-farm licences on northern Vancouver Island. [Read more...]

Opponents of the government decision to allow forest companies to pull private lands out of tree farm licences are linking company donations to the B.C. Liberal party and TFL deletions [Read more...]

Ender Ilkay, the international developer who has signed an agreement to purchase former Tree Farm License lands near Jordan River from Western Forest Products, was positioned well at the community meeting on Monday in Shirley [Read more...]

A group of eco-campaigners has asked oil giant Shell to avoid drilling for coal bed methane in “Sacred Canadian Waters”. [Read more...]

Shell Canada has told the provincial supreme court it needs to study a mass of information before deciding if it wants to pursue an injunction against a blockade preventing access to the so-called Sacred Headwaters of the Klappan area [Read more...]

Members of a northern B.C. First Nation and their supporters rallied Friday afternoon outside the Supreme Court to protest Shell's plans for a coal-bed methane project on lands they claim as their ancestral territory. [Read more...]

First Nations and concerned citizens in Vancouver and Smithers today say Royal Dutch Shell’s delay of legal action against the Sacred Headwaters blockaders shows Shell is concerned about growing opposition. Members of the Tahltan First Nation are blockading Shell’s coalbed methane project in the Sacred Headwaters, the birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers. Shell was to appear in Vancouver court today to request an injunction that would allow them to have the blockaders arrested. [Read more...]

Members of a northern B.C. First Nation and their supporters rallied Friday afternoon outside the Supreme Court to protest Shell's plans for a coal-bed methane project on lands they claim as their ancestral territory [Read more...]

Protestors opposed to a proposed coalbed methane project in a remote and sacred corner of the province could be in a Vancouver courtroom later this week after lawyers for oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell filed an injunction seeking to have them forcibly removed from the site last Thursday [Read more...]

Environmental crews in northeastern British Columbia are quietly cleaning up an oil spill after a pipeline rupture a few weeks ago [Read more...]

After six months of behind-the-scenes discussions on climate change, the provincial government appears ready to announce the first phase of its plans next month [Read more...]

An ambitious $2-billion megaproject with the potential to reshape the British Columbia energy sector was announced yesterday by a Calgary-based company [Read more...]

The federal government will spend $214 million to clean some of the country's most heavily contaminated land, including a site at CFB Esquimalt, Environment Minister John Baird announced yesterday [Read more...]

Your article seems to confuse short-term booms with long-term economic prosperity, and too quickly dismisses the devastating environmental and economic impact of an oil spill along our North Coast [Read more...]

Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said yesterday she does not know what will happen if her party chooses not to run a candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands at a contentious nomination meeting scheduled for this afternoon. [Read more...]

Federal Green climate change critic and prominent environmentalist Guy Dauncey is one of six activists urging party members to vote "None of the Above" at their upcoming Saanich-Gulf Islands nomination scheduled for tomorrow. [Read more...]

Increasing oil tanker activity in B.C.’s northern waters has West Coast NDPers calling on Ottawa and Victoria to formalize a long-standing moratorium on tanker traffic and offshore exploration. [Read more...]

Gary Lunn, the federal minister of natural resources, is trying to push nuclear power, rev up the oil sands, and make way for more pipelines and supertankers on B.C.'s coast. He also happens to represent one of the most environmentally conscious ridings in the country, Saanich-Gulf Islands. [Read more...]

According to William Horter of the Times Colonist, Natural Resources Minister, Gary Lunn might have the power to fast track six proposed tarsands-related projects for BC's North Coast, but not to change history by denying the existence of a well-documented tanker moratorium. [Read more...]

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn might have the power to fast track six proposed tar-sands related projects for B.C.'s North Coast, but he doesn't have the power to change history by denying the existence of a well-documented tanker moratorium [Read more...]

When Royal Dutch Shell's directors took the reins of Shell Canada earlier this month, they inherited a brewing resource conflict in a remote corner of British Columbia that bears a striking resemblance to Royal Dutch's difficulties in other parts of the world [Read more...]

Despite a widespread belief that tankers are banned from the unpredictable waters of Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance, and government documents referring to a moratorium, it never really existed, Lunn said in an interview [Read more...]