Bowen Islanders Betty Morton and Anton Van Walraven jumped at the opportunity to stand outside the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in West Vancouver while federal ministers and members of parliament an action plan on sockeye salmon Tuesday.
“We wanted to get a letter about Woodfibre and the proposed cooling system into the hands of Fisheries Minister Dominique Leblanc,” says Van Walraven. “That didn’t happen, but still we drew attention to the issue.”
Betty Morton says the protestors were greeted by West Vancouver MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones.
“She said she appreciated the welcome party,” says Morton. “Lots of people driving by waved and honked, because we are all on the same page, we want to protect the Sound.”
Morton says that she’s happy to hear the government is putting money in this year’s budget to hire 29 new scientists on the west coast, but it’s not enough.
“Hopefully with new, young scientists working, we will have better data to make decisions here in Howe Sound and elsewhere, so that will have an impact,” she says. “But the public has to keep showing up to let the politicians know what matters to us. The system is not designed for public input – we only found out about this meeting the night before. Also, this UNESCO thing came out of left field. I will certainly be drafting a good letter to Catherine McKenna about designating Howe Sound as a World Heritage site, I hope other people will too.”
On Monday, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna asked Canadians to suggest places of cultural, historic and natural significance for world heritage status by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO).
Go to the Parks Canada website to fill out an applications for your nomination:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/progs/spm-whs/
