BC

The Victoria Chapter held its AGM on November 21st at the Oaks Restaurant - combined with a food and pub night. There were around 35 attendees including a contingent from Salt Spring Island. We heard outgoing Victoria Chapter Chair Marion Pape speak about our successes in the past year.

What are the first thoughts that come to mind when you hear the words “road trip across Canada”? Most likely, you’ll think of something like a narrow road stretching far into the horizon, cutting through a mountainous landscape blanketed with evergreen forests, majestic lakes and pristine rivers. An iconic Volkswagen Westfalia rumbles and growls its way across the landscape while the stereo blasts Fleetwood Mac.

BCSEA and Sierra Club BC endorsed a package of measures designed to help low-income customers of BC Hydro, in a BC utilities commission proceeding in October. The two groups threw their weight behind the BC Old Age Pensioners Organization (BCOAPO) and other groups represented by the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre (BC PIAC) who are asking the commission to assist the hundreds of thousands of BC men, women and children who are struggling to cope with the high and rising costs of electricity service from BC Hydro.

The BCSEA Victoria Chapter hosted 'THE BIG TOWN HALL: Saanich: Pathway to 100% Renewable Energy' on Saturday October 29th, together with partners Sierra Club BC and SFU Renewable Cities. And it was just that; BIG! Big attendance, with over 135 attendees clustered in round tables listening to highly credible speakers and putting their minds to work on how Saanich could accomplish the goal of 100% renewable energy. At this Town Hall, we began the most crucial first step in convincing Saanich to adopt a 100% RE policy with the mobilization of public officials and the general public. 

Climate leadership can take on many roles: it involves setting realistic targets rooted in scientific principles, developing an effective plan to achieve those objectives, and perhaps most important of all, inspiring citizens to take meaningful climate action.

Climate leadership can be carried out at different scales; most notably governments should be responsible for leading by example, therefore encouraging citizens to follow along their footsteps.

The Board of Directors hereby gives notice of the 2016 Annual General Meeting to take place on Saturday, November 19, 2016 at The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews in Vancouver.

‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,’ BCSEA and Sierra Club BC told the BC utilities commission in a late September argument on FortisBC’s electricity net metering program. FortisBC wants approval to ban net metering customers from having generating equipment big enough to regularly generate an annual surplus of net energy. BCSEA and Sierra Club told the regulator that an annual net surplus is not a problem. In fact, they said, it is highly desirable, assuming the price is reasonable and the equipment is below the maximum 50 kW generator size.

BCSEA Kamloops is looking for two or three volunteers to join our steering committee!

BCSEA is a provincial organization, but each chapter is semi-autonomous, choosing our own activities and managing our own funds.  The steering committee is the decision-making and organizing group for the local chapter: we are volunteers who work together organizing Kamloops events and initiatives, spreading the message of a renewable energy future, reduced dependence on fossil fuels and the urgency of climate change.