Meeting with MLA Sonia Furstenau
What to do during a pandemic? Bake more bread? Watch more Netflix? A number of us concerned about the climate crisis also took advantage of this time to do some organizing. We started by asking ourselves:
Outside of partisan politics who is holding the BC government to account on its climate policies?
The B.C. government certainly deserves credit for CleanBC and its legislated greenhouse gas targets, but will they actually meet these goals? The climate solutions are there, but are overshadowed by a heavily subsidized fracking industry being expanded for LNG exports. The forests we rely on to sequester carbon are being logged at an unsustainable rate, and logging emissions are not being counted. There is a lot of work to do to get things right in B.C., but it can be done.
“This work is really important and worth making time for. I want to do everything I can to ensure our provincial government supports effective climate solutions.“ Heather Baitz, clinical psychologist and mother of two young children in Nanaimo.
So the time seemed right to form a new BC climate lobby group. We started with some B.C. chapters of Citizens’ Climate Lobby and our friends at First Things First Okanagan to see if we could create an umbrella organization for groups and individuals who care about serious climate action in B.C. Lockdown felt like a great time to plan.
Judeth Betts in the Kootenays got involved because “As a new grandmother I felt I really needed to do something effective to ensure my grandchildren have a liveable planet. The next generation is asking us to clean up our mess, and that's what I'm trying to do.”
We developed a clear statement of values, a clear ask of the B.C. government, a website and an organizational structure, all in a few months. Now we are working on recruiting more partner organizations and more individual members. Already we represent British Columbians from Vancouver and the lower mainland, the Kootenays, the Okanagan and Vancouver Island.
This September we will start lobbying key Ministers as well as MLAs in our ridings. How can you help?
Simply joining helps bolster our numbers, so please join here and recommend that your friends and family who care about a liveable and sustainable B.C. do the same.
Would you like to lobby with us? It makes all the difference if we can include constituents. We take a non confrontational approach and work as a team. Novice lobbyists will feel fully supported and will learn a lot of new skills to make effective change. Get in touch if you’d like to take our short lobbying course this fall and join one of our teams.
We want the B.C. government to know that there are a lot of citizens watching this government’s climate agenda carefully and working to ensure accountability.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Meeting with Ministerial Assistant for Carole James, BC Minister of Finance