Public Private Partnerships Alive And Well In N.C.
Upcoming presentation on gas, and tree bylaw August 6th!
Dear COAP members,
We would like to make you aware of two items on the agenda for North Cowichan Council meeting tomorrow at 5 p.m. if you should so wish to write in ( council@northcowichan.ca) attend virtually, or show up in person.
https://www.northcowichan.ca/EN/main/municipal-hall/meeting-agendas.html
https://pub-northcowichan.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=01b3e8b2-817b-49ef-a5d6-eb1251da6cc4&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English
The first is a delegation brought to you by the Cowichan Climate Hub which is a hub under The Climate Hub and Climate Reality Project both national and international NGOs. Some quotes from their letter to council: “Retrofitting existing buildings to eliminate fossil fuels is also needed from a health and safety perspective, as extreme heat waves become more common and more intense.” and “ This can be done by adopting Zero Carbon bylaws at level 4 (EL4) of BC’s new Zero Carbon Code, which means full electrified on with no fossil (methane) gas included. We are asking North Cowichan Council to establish a bylaw where all building permits submitted for Residential (Group C - up to 6 story) on or after September 1, 2024, are required to meet both BC Energy Step Code 3 energy efficiency requirements, and BC Zero Carbon Step Code 4 (all electrification). With all building permits submitted for residential buildings over 6 stories and commercial buildings (Group D and E) on or after January 1, 2025, required to meet these same Zero Carbon requirements”.
This proposal was brought forth by Jane Kilthei ( of One Cowichan and Transition Cowichan), Dr. Shannon Waters, and Valerie Russell.
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Another letter of interest is being brought forward by Peter Rusland requesting council create a bylaw to stop allowing forest removal for wineries, join with the Coastal Douglas Fir Alliance, and create a tree protection bylaw for all residents.
What council may be unaware of is that this whole area was already mapped years ago in a 300-page detailed report. -
https://www.cdfcp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/TEM-Report-CDF.pdf
What we see is groups like Coastal Douglas Fir work alongside trust groups like Nature Trust, and Ducks Unlimited to ‘map’ an area and then ask private or public owners of the land to turn over the stewardship of the land ( typically for 10 years) to one of the NGOs in a ‘Fee Simple structure. You can view the latest acquired lands and the current lands ‘run’ by NGOs just on the island here: https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/a306e21b-58d6-4b71-bac7-f3b1c8a4c779/resource/3179c2ae-6b6b-4ce5-b1d0-69537ff1ece9/download/british-columbia-conservation-areas-summary-report-2021.pdf
North Cowichan is being solicited heavily from the FSC to Coastal Douglas Fir Alliance, for the forests they have managed for over 30 years, and why? North Cowichan has done an amazing job and the NGOs would love to acquire and steward the lands from here on in. Maybe you agree, or maybe you don’t, let council know.
As for a tree bylaw that restricts what you can and can not do on your land, we seem to be creating less incentive for folks to move here as we seem to constantly be met with more and more restrictions on what we can do on our private land. council@northcowichan.ca
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Bonus : For those of you interested in seeing how far back things like this go :
Read the Municipal Primer : https://shelaghformayor.webcatt.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/municipal-primer-copy-4.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
We will be at the meeting tomorrow, maybe see you then!
Sincerely,
The COAP team
coap.ca