Category: UBCM Resolutions

WE DID IT! Thank you to the executive of the Rockland Neighbourhood Association for agreeing to support my request, and Marg Gardiner for bringing to City of Victoria Council agenda and Chris Coleman for seconding.

Many thanks to Rockland Neighbourhood Association for supporting a request to ask Victoria City Councillor Marg Gardiner (seconded by Chris Coleman) to put on the Council Agenda, and voted unanimously. Great workshop via Sierra Club BC 🌲🦅🦋

Thanks to the excellent work of our ‘dial movers’ and their success in five municipalities, last week our resolution, EB32 Supporting Biodiversity in Local Communities, was endorsed by the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM)!

Here is what that means and what we do next.

The EB32 resolution calls for the B.C. government to create a Local Natural Areas Protection Fund that would provide a mechanism for the province to allocate money to municipalities, regional districts, and First Nations to support land acquisition for ecosystem health. In other words, consistent funding to protect and restore biodiversity.

With EB32’s UBCM endorsement, the next phase of this program will focus on activating and expanding SCBC’s ‘dial movers’ network to support councillors and mayors to connect with provincial government officials and facilitate the creation of the fund.

The next step is advocating for a provincial Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health law. This law is long overdue in B.C. Our second resolution in the Move the Dial Program is for ‘dial movers’ to call on their municipalities to indicate strong support for a provincial law for biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Despite being the province with the most biodiversity, B.C. has the most species at risk of any province in Canada and many ecosystems are near their breaking point. At its core, this work is about protecting and restoring healthy habitats, which provide clean air and water, streams for salmon, homes for pollinators and migratory birds, cooler temperatures when the thermometer rises, and so much more.

Our Move the Dial program is proof that when people are empowered with the skills to take action in their communities, they help shift the paradigm towards healthy ecosystems and climate resilience. Let me know if you would like to learn more about the program and help move the dial with us!

We were invited to join a workshop to help move the dial on biodiversity in local communities, and reached out to City of Victoria Councillor Marg Gardiner to consider bringing a motion to council agenda Supporting Biodiversity in Local Communities (UBCM Resolution). It was seconded by Councillor Chris Coleman. The resolutions were passed at June 22nd, 2023 Committee of the Whole Meeting. On Vancouver Island the following municipalities have passed unanimously––Saanich, Metchosin, Esquimalt, Qualicum Beach – and now Victoria.

BACKGROUNDER FOR UBCM RESOLUTION
JUN 22 2023
CITY OF VICTORIA

Protecting and restoring biological diversity is consistent with Canada’s commitments under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and BC’s commitments in the Together for Wildlife Strategy, as well as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoplesand BC’sDeclaration onthe Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Acting now to protect and restore biodiversity contributes toward more resilient and healthy local communities – advancing community health and healthy waterways, watersheds, airsheds, and plant and animal species. These actions also make financial sense, containing emergency management and infrastructure costs in the context of climate change. Creating a Local Natural Areas Protection Fund provides a mechanism for the Province to partner with local governments, allocating funds to municipalities, regional districts and First Nations to support land acquisition for biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Document
https://pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=90765

Meeting Agenda
https://pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=2be910a8-1f0e-481a-9443-e8acf287ce8b&Agenda=Merged&lang=English&Item=18&Tab=attachments