Rarely, sitting down to write a column do I find that there is too much to write about. But I’ve just returned from holidays and find that there are a myriad of interesting things happening. This isn’t going to be a column per se but more a collection of random thoughts and a preview of things to come.
I was wondering just how much the ferry adds to my carbon footprint. It burns something in excess of 7,500 litres of diesel fuel every day. That would be enough for 1,000 cars full of commuters to travel 100 kilometres daily. When you look at it that way you realize that we all have an outrageously large carbon footprint before we even start to look at all of the normal things we do. Just to put this into perspective; the average Canadian family generates approximately 12 tonnes of CO2 per year. A family of three on Bowen has a footprint of six tonnes just because they live on this island. Of course the ferry will continue to run whether or not you or I live here but it does give us an insight into why some people are so dead set against getting a larger ferry. The only way to reduce our carbon footprint is to make do with our existing ferry as our population increases. On a more positive note, the ferry capacity can be increased by adding a mezzanine deck on one side, it could probably be stretched without putting in larger engines and we could lower the footprint by adding bio-diesel to the fuel. From a social engineering perspective we could also increase capacity by giving preferred loading to smaller vehicles thereby providing incentives for people to drive smaller cars. As the moral implications of carbon footprints penetrates more deeply into our collective psyche we may wish that we had been more proactive at reducing ours.
Some commentators are saying that we are almost out of our current economic recession while others are warning that it is just beginning. Public policy on Bowen tends to ignore the happenings in the broader world. We rarely update our Official Community Plan and when we do we tend to prefer policies that obstruct growth rather than promote it. While this attitude serves us well on several levels it also defines us as a typical drawbridge community. The attitude we project is “We’re an elite suburb and we want to keep it that way.” While we don’t want some developer trying to throw up hundreds of condos we should remember that we have to build twenty five or thirty houses each year to keep our local construction industry healthy. The multiplier effect of these local jobs is huge and helps to determine whether our service businesses make it through each winter. As we update our Official Community Plan over the coming months we should be looking at ways of attracting green collar workers to Bowen. Like nature, entrepreneurs abhor a vacuum. If there is a niche to be filled micro businesses like microorganisms will strive to fill it. There are ways that Bowen could make itself the destination of choice for some of those green collar micro businesses and we should be looking at ways to position our island accordingly.
The Cape Roger Curtis (CRC) debate has taken yet another bizarre turn. First of all here’s an update on the ongoing process. Our municipal Approving Officer is reviewing the subdivision application put forward by the developers who own CRC. He will approve their subdivision application subject to them meeting certain conditions. Until we know what the conditions of approval are there is not much point in discussing the likelihood of the developers being able to proceed with their plans. But, back to the bizarre twist. You may recall that councillors Hooper and Poole undertook to see if they could come up with ways to preserve part of the property for parkland. They’ve been working away behind the scenes and it appears that they may have gotten the interest of Parks Canada. Apparently national parks are just not a very big deal in the minds and hearts of most Canadians. Our parks people would like to change that. While most parks are a long way from cities more and more Canadians are migrating to large urban areas. To increase the relevance of national parks to city dwellers Parks Canada would like to have a park close to a very large Canadian city. There is already a Gulf Islands National Park Reserve that includes ecologically important areas on a number of islands. The hope is that CRC combined with Apodaca Marine Park combined with our Crown Lands will create a package that Parks Canada can’t refuse. Of course they would have to reach an agreement with the Provincial Government and the CRC owners but even the possibility that such a large portion of Bowen could be preserved as park reserve is quite an exciting idea.
So there you have a preview of what I’ll probably be writing about over the coming months.
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