By Keith McNeill
Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar, the Opposition critic for the environment and climate change, met with members of Citizens’ Climate Lobby-Canada (CCL-C) in Victoria last week.
As a non-partisan grassroots organization creating the political will for a livable planet, the CCL-C group took part in several days of meetings with party caucuses, cabinet ministers and individual MLAs.
CCL-C annually lobbies M.P.s in Ottawa, but this was the first time colleagues from across the province lobbied in Victoria.
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Discussions with Mr. Milobar and fellow Liberals showed the desire for climate action crosses party lines.
This undertaking began while one of the group was working as a registered nurse in a remote coastal First Nation community.
“I was working in a community whose marine-dependent livelihood is threatened by ocean acidification and the prospect of oil tanker traffic through their territorial waters,” explained nurse Dona Grace-Campbell, who normally lives in Kaslo.
What started as a notion to engage a few MLAs, quickly became a substantial lobbying campaign – one in which BC’s youth would play a prominent role.
“B.C. has blown by its 2020 emission targets, and some places in our province are already experiencing a 2ºC rise in temperature, which is above the upper global limit agreed upon by the nations at the Paris Summit,” said 17-year-old Caelen Cook of Cowichan Valley, who joined the lobbying team. “Creating and implementing the roadmap to these targets is urgently needed if we are to inherit a province free from the worst economic and environmental ravages of climate change.”
The group met with 16 ministers and MLAs, including the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources, and MLAs from all three parties.