This letter was sent to Minister Penner, Premier Campbell, DFO, as well as Mayor and Council of Salmon Arm. I am submitting it as an open letter for your publication if it is of interest.
Huguette Allen.
Mr. Penner,
The intent of this letter is to get your support to stop the backward and destructive activities referred to as "developments" that are happening throughout BC and are particularly popular throughout the Okanagan Shuswap. Recent statements regarding BC becoming more environmentally active gives me hope you will take action while there is still time.
Climate scientists are warning us that significant and urgent changes are required if we are to avoid tipping point events that will result in catastrophes. They have recently warned us that the time to act was now measured in years, not decades.
In 2006, Sir Nicholas Stern, former senior economist to the World Bank estimated that unchecked climate change could result in a $7 trillion hit to the world economy, water shortages for 1 in 6 people, the extinction of up to 40% of Earth's species and up to 200 million environmental refugees.
We now know these estimates were optimistic. Everything is happening much faster than estimated and the impacts are much worst than originally feared.
Isn't it time to change?
The Big Picture:
Many European countries have already made the changes needed. Bicycles and non-gasoline cars are replacing gasoline vehicles in towns and cities, small is replacing big, and local is replacing global. The results are quieter and friendlier places, stronger and more stable economies, and products that are interesting and diverse with a local flair.
Such changes create jobs close to home, add value to resources that are harvested, and encourage environmental innovation.
Why is Canada, BC, and Salmon Arm insisting on doing the reverse? The projects being approved in BC make no sense whatsoever in an era of climate change. They encourage driving, destroy much needed wetlands and forests, pollute rivers and lakes, and pave over the little habitat that is left for species others than human. As well, they are harmful to the local economy and create unfriendly atmospheres and unhealthy environments.
Isn't it time to design cities around the child rather than around the car?
Example: Salmon Arm's proposal:
The 370,000 sq. ft. retail proposal being planned in Salmon Arm, adjacent to the Salmon River as it enters Shuswap Lake, offers a prime example of the nonsensical retrograde projects happening in this province.
This is the same Salmon River that is officially designated as an "Endangered River" by the Recreation Council of BC, and has great salmon spawning potential.
Because the site for the proposal is on the Shuswap Lake flood plain, the development will require between two and three metres of fill over 40-60 acres of intermittent wet land. For much of this spring, Shuswap Lake covered part of this land.
As well, there are two small tributaries of the Salmon River which are both adjacent to and crossing this fill site. The weight and volume of such a construction will affect the local hydrology of these streams, at least one of which is fish bearing. The plans include redirecting Hobbs Creek entirely, by culvert, to a drainage containment pond. This pond will be between the parking lot and the Salmon River. My understanding is that it has been designed to a 50-year flood standard, which I believe to be substandard and will not meet the needs of environmental protection given the endangered status of the Salmon River.
One wonders why this is happening, particularly given that Salmon Arm already has numerous stores that are almost empty. There is no need for more stores, and certainly no need for a Wall-Mart, which would be the principle tenant of this "development". As you know, Wal-Mart, despite it's many claims of "turning green" has a less than pristine record vis-à-vis the environment. Of the thirty-three Wal-Marts constructed in the State of Connecticut, twenty-two were found in contravention of that state’s environmental laws. This has been a pattern across North America.
Isn't there a better vision for BC?
A vision for our future:
What could happen in BC, and especially in Salmon Arm, to stimulate the economy while preserving what we have? How about shifting from resource extraction to resource celebration?
The wetlands and wonderful aquatic habitat around Salmon Arm offers ample opportunities for celebrations of all sorts. Again, Europe offers us a model to follow. Think of all the festivals and events that would bring people downtown, to the small unique restaurants, markets and businesses, to buy locally produced foods, art and manufactured products.
Protecting the wetlands in the middle of Salmon Arm instead of paving them is sustainable, and the only way to build a future for our children and grandchildren. Think of the air one would breathe, the vistas one would see, and the ambiance that would exist in such an environment. Then let us imagine what it would be like instead in a 2,000 car parking lot.
A mandate for our leaders:
As ministers, mayors, councillors, your job is to help people attain the best future possible. The keywords here are "people", since it refers to the community of inhabitants and not just to a few, and "best future possible". The latter surely needs to be sustainable if it is to refer to more than one generation.
Creating environments we know lead towards catastrophe is not sustainable. Paving over wetlands destroys what sustains us. Shuswap lake and its surroundings need those wetlands as filters.
As leaders, it is your mandate to create a vision that enshrines the rights of future generations to clean air and clean water. Please look across the oceans to Europe for model developments we should follow, instead of south of the border, and lead us in a direction that will make Canada, BC and Salmon Arm leaders, rather than laggards, in smart developments.
Time is short and resources are disappearing fast. Isn't it time to go forward rather than backwards?
Huguette Allen
Okanagan Shuswap Candidate, Green Party of Canada.
Critic, Business & Industry.
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