Category Archives: General

Vancouver Island Marine Traffic Stations to be shut down

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There are only five marine communication and traffic stations (MCTS) in the Pacific Region monitoring shipping traffic such as tankers, ferries, and cruise ships.

Three of these stations will be closed.

Canada Coast Guard has announced that it will close Vancouver, Ucluelet and Comox MCTS centres and keep the two in Prince Rupert and Victoria. Those two centres will then be responsible for all waters off the BC coast.

Who is left to watch the BC coastline?

It is very early to determine exactly how the distribution of the work will be divided by the two centres, but there is great concern over a combined MCTS centre in Prince Rupert, which already has the largest area of responsibility in Canada over doubling their area of coverage and moving to 30 mountain top VHF sites to monitor along with radar, transponder traffic and the busiest cruising grounds area of Desolation sound and Barkley Sound from a centre 400 miles away.

Vancouver will lose its MCTS centre, which handles more marine traffic than any port in Canada and also will be losing the busiest search and rescue station in Canada at Kitsilano.

What happens in a disaster?

These cutbacks come at a time when plans are to increase oil tanker traffic. Tankers for Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, LNG will further make BC’s coastal waters the busiest in the world.

The increase in tanker traffic and pleasure craft activity on BC waters requires more than just 2 centres.  In cases of equipment and power failure there is no backup system. The two proposed sites in Sidney and Seal Cove Prince Rupert lie within the tsunami hazard zone, unlike Vancouver and Comox. When warnings are issued, officers will be unable to do more than broadcast a short message and evacuate for their own safety.

Marine Communications and Traffic Services (MCTS) currently has 22 centres across Canada. The Coast Guard announced today that they will be closing 10 centres. Approximately 180 of the 350 MCTS officers across Canada will lose their jobs.

Source: Allan Hughes, RD Pacific CAW Local 2182

Note: At the same time, the federal government is spending billions of dollars on airplanes for the military. Check out sixthestate’s post for a breakdown of those costs or this post from the 3D’s blog.

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Public Events on Rural Development

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Many people expressed an interest to review the policies relating to subdivision development in rural areas in the Regional District of Nanaimo. All next week you can bring your thoughts on alternatives to conventional subdivision developments. What do you want to see for future land development? Bring your ideas.

The following public events are:

Wednesday, May 23rd – Arrowsmith Hall, 1014 Ford Road, Coombs
4:00pm to 7:00pm – Open House
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Workshop

Thursday, May 24th – Lighthouse Community Hall, 240 Lion’s Way, Qualicum Bay
4:00pm to 7:00pm – Open House
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Workshop

Saturday, May 26th – Cranberry Community Hall, 1555 Morden Road, South Wellington
12:30pm to 3:00pm – Open House
3:00pm to 4:30pm – Workshop

Tuesday, June 5th – Nanoose Community Hall (Library), 2489 Nanoose Road, Nanoose Bay
4:00pm to 7:00pm – Open House
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Workshop

You are also encouraged to visit www.ruraldevelopment.ca and fill out a short survey.

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Drinking Water Week in Nanaimo

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“We should not forget that billions of people still lack a safe supply of water and access to safe sanitation. Canada and the United Kingdom are proposing the removal of an explicit reference to the right to water and sanitation for all from the first draft of the ‘Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development’ outcome document,” warned the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Bottling water has now become a multi-billion dollar business for some companies including Nestlé. Recently, the City of Nanaimo received a letter from Nestlé regarding the City’s decision to stop having bottled water for sale in their vending machines. Check out Bottled Life for an indepth look at Nestlé’s tactics.

This is Drinking Water Week (May 13-19) in BC and a good time to appreciate our access to free, clean drinking water. Check out this infographic on the cost of urban water around the world.  As the temperatures start to rise, this is a good time to remind ourselves on a few ways to conserve this valuable resource.

  • Running your sprinkler for just one hour can use 1,514 litres of water
  • At 15 litres per minute, pressure washing for four hours can use 3,600 litres
  • toilets account for 45% of all indoor water use in a typical residence and 20% of toilets leak
  • a running toilet can leak 4 litres of water per minute which adds up to 5,760 litres per day.
  • storm drains are not a part of the wastewater system – don’t wash your car near them

Here are some helpful links:

H2 House - how to detect water leaks around your home
Environment Canada water use calculator
Drinking Water Week - take part in the BC Community Water Challenge

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Island Grown Argicultural Survey

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Do you know where your food comes from and if it is grown here on Vancouver Island?

You are encouraged to take a survey about your locally grown food on Growing Our Future www.growingourfuture.ca. The online survey is open until June 11, 2012.

The Regional District of Nanaimo has a ‘Agricultural Area Plan’ that is intended to celebrate and expand local food production and identifying barriers and opportunities for growth in the local agriculture industry.  You can find out more about what’s being done to secure local food sources. Also, background reports and information are also available on the site.

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Gabriola Island Pole Painting

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Gabriola is considering painting its poles. Earlier this year, the Gabriola Arts Council was approached by BC Hydro, asking if they would consider painting some of the hydro poles on the island. BC Hydro told them they will not approve designs, just locations. They also suggested that the Arts Council let the public know what images are proposed, how many poles it intends to paint in total, and that it has a pole paint maintenance budget.  Apparently, this discussion about painting power poles has polarized Gabriola, with some people for and others against the idea.

Elsewhere, other communities, such as Burnside Gorge in Victoria, are seeing pole painting as a way to deal with graffiti.

 

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Scotch Broom Busters on the Island

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The Scotch Broom Containment Campaign is on right now.  BroomBusters are busy and need your help to cut the invasive Scotch Broom on Vancouver Island.

Here is times and locations of their scheduled broom cuts, every person makes a difference.

Their tagline is ‘cut broom while it’s in bloom’, so keep an eye out for those bright yellow blooms!

For more info go to www.BroomBusters.org.

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