The National Park debate is heating up very quickly. And an excellent debate it is. People whom you would think would be horrified at the prospect of Bowen becoming a tourist destination are in favour of the idea and business people who would prosper with the growth are lamenting the potential destruction of our lifestyle. [...]
Also tagged National Park, Snug CoveThis could be one of those personality tests “which position most closely matches yours?”
Position #1) Snug Cove is an embarrassment. It should be upgraded to look like the entrance to a prosperous community.
Position #2) Snug Cove is great. In a world where every small town feels the need to make itself over into a model [...]
Our OCP Update Committee has released a draft of our new Official Community Plan and in most respects I think that it captures our collective aspirations quite well. The committee working on the Plan spent a lot of time consulting with community groups about what should be included in the update and they included a [...]
Also tagged OCP, Snug CoveWhile the “Burning at Eddie’s Pit” story is quite an interesting tale of a classic Catch 22 it has also brought to the forefront a whole series of discussions about waste management and CO2 reduction.
Also tagged CO2 Emissions, green collar jobs, Island Life, waste management“Addicted to Development” is a phrase that may describe our current municipal condition. Between 2001 and 2010 our budget will have grown by at least twice as much as our taxes have increased. Our island municipality is spending about 8% more every year than it did the year before – but our property tax goes [...]
Also taggedLast Monday night Municipal Council considered a proposal, prepared by staff, which outlined how we could provide the $712,000 that our municipality will have to invest in the Snug Cove sewer upgrade. Of course council didn’t approve it. They deferred their decision until after more community consultation. But this time the good old deferral trick [...]
Also tagged Snug Cove, Surplus LandsWhat Does it Mean to be “Green” on Bowen?
In the spring of 2008 fourteen islanders, selected by Council, sat around tables in Municipal Hall and began to answer this question. They came from a variety of backgrounds, with expertise in climate change solutions, social justice, green buildings, affordability, waste reduction and ecosystem protection – approaches [...]
The committee that’s working on updating our Official Community Plan (OCP) asked all of the various groups on the island to submit ideas for a forum that they held a couple of weeks ago. More than twenty submissions have been posted on the bowenocpupdate website. Taken as a whole, they provide an excellent insight into [...]
Also tagged OCPElinor Ostrom just won the Nobel Prize for economics. If this momentous occasion slipped by without you taking much notice, I’m sure that you weren’t alone. But Elinor is a radical. She has rocked the world of economic theory by showing how people are not just units of consumption, taking as much as they can [...]
Also tagged Elinor Ostrom, waste managementRarely, 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 [...]
Also tagged Cape Roger Curtis, CO2 Emissions, Ferry, green collar jobs, Island Life, National Park