FRIDAY JAN 10 2014 VOL. 41, NO. 02
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‘Revolution’
Pedalling for Papua
Shhh...
Award-winning film showing through the Green Film Series
The end of the road
Hondro hits the library
Planning for the future of the Sound The 11 governing bodies that make up the Howe Sound Community Forum, including Bowen, are committed to co-operation MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Howe Sound is a place where watersheds and boundaries converge. Bowen is one of five governing municipalities on Howe Sound. Also governing this region are the Islands Trusts, three regional districts, three forestry districts, First Nations, as well as provincial and federal governments. Elected officials from the communities whose watersheds feed into the Sound have been meeting for a decade to discuss issues of common interest, they come together under the banner of the Howe Sound Community Forum. At their last meeting, the eleven signees (which include municipalities, regional governments and the Squamish Nation) agreed to work together to urge the federal and provincial governments to help build a coordinated strategy for the Sound. At their next meeting, on January 14th, they are hoping to hear what higher levels of government are willing to give to the process. Bowen municipal councillor Wolfgang Duntz will be attending this meeting as a representative of Bowen but also as a trustee from the Islands Trust. “Part of the reason I ran as a trustee with the Islands Trust is because I wanted to change the fact that the organization was so inward looking, so focused on the issues just affecting the specific Gulf Islands,” says Duntz. “And I can tell you that that has changed drastically in the past year as now the region is seeing an avalanche of threats.” The “threats” Duntz points to include shellfish farming, whose impact he says people in the Southern Gulf Islands were relatively naive about five years ago. “After a number of these projects have gone through, people see what it does to the landscape and they don’t like it,” he says. “And they see all the debris and damage that gets left behind when they close down.” Duntz says new proposals for similar projects (including the farming of geoducks, which is entirely new to the region), plus industrial plans that will mean tankers shipping, coal, oil and liquid natural gas will be going through the area have raised the alarm. “Before we make judgements on these things, we need more information,” says Duntz. The islands in Howe Sound face a whole other set of projects proposals that could drastically change the region’s landscape:
Karen Hughes and a few of her “homies” at the end of the school day at BICS. Meribeth Deen photo
School bus driver says “goodbye” MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
On the last day of school before Christmas, Karen Hughes said goodbye to her ‘homies.’ Her homies are the kids she gets to school and back every day, and when she told them she was leaving some broke down and cried. “Then I cried too, and cried the whole way driving back from the school,” says Hughes. She says she loves the kids and she loves the job, but her circumstances have changed. When she started the job three years ago, a part-time gig with a summer holidays was perfect. Now, the steadier employment and higher pay that goes with driving Bowen’s transit bus is what she needs. She’ll keep driving the school bus two afternoons and one full day a week until a replacement is found, but she’s leaving big shoes to fill. “You need to be a good driver, of course, but also you need to know that when you get that bus full of kids it’s
a whole other story.” Hughes said she learned quickly that, for her at least, threats were not the answer. “I remember one rainy afternoon early-on when the homies were particularly wild. I pulled the bus over to the side of the road, turned around and looked at them and said, ‘Who wants to walk!’ They all shut-up, and calmed down. Then this one little kindergarten getting off the bus at his stop and asked me when he was going to get to walk. I had to explain to him that actually he’s not allowed to walk… when you make a threat, you’ve got to be willing to follow through on it.” Hughes says knowing the kids according to their ages and stages helps, but knowing them all as individuals is even better. “I know if they’ve got siblings and if so who they are. Sometimes I even know if they’ve got cousins around.” continued, PAGE 2
- a large hotel-marina complex in Gibson’s landing - a gravel mine in McNab Creek - the Woodfibre LNG proposal - a massive waterfront re-development in the city of Squamish - the Sea-to-Sky Gondola - a proposed ski resort at Garibaldi -a massive housing development in South Brittania -the addition of 25 percent of Gambier’s lands to active logging (on top of the 15 percent that are already being actively logged) -a run of river power project that will impact three creeks that run into McNab Creek. “We need to make decisions about the region as a whole, moving forward,” says Duntz. “We need to decide what we want to be industrial areas, recreational areas, residential areas, and you don’t just let those things happen by accident.” Geologist and former mayor Bob Turner says that historically, Bowen has had the privilege of being somewhat removed from industry in Howe Sound. “In the 1990s, the big issues in the Sound were pulp-mill pollution, the Brittania mine, and industrial forestry in the back woods. All of those issues were part of an angst about the Howe Sound that was present at that time,” says Turner. continued, PAGE 6