As of Monday evening, every resident of Bowen Island has the right to live in a healthy environment including the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, consume safe food, have access to nature, know about pollutants and contaminants released into the local environment and participate in decision making that affects the environment. The cities of Richmond, Vancouver, Port Moody, Squamish and Port Coquitlam have all passed similar declarations, which will be brought forward to the province with the aim of enacting an Environmental Bill of Rights.
Councillor Sue Ellen Fast said she looked to the declarations made by other communities and tailored those to meet the specific concerns of Bowen Island. Point three of Councillor Fast’s declaration, that Bowen Island will consider the precautionary principle when making decisions, came under some scrutiny by other members of council.
Councillor Gary Ander stated his concern that potential costs might be incurred by declaring residents have the right to participate in decision making that will effect the environment, and asked that someone speak to point three.
It is written as follows: Bowen Island Municipality will consider cost effective measures to prevent the degradation of the environment and protect the health of its citizens, and the absence of full scientific certainty will not be viewed as sufficient reason for Bowen Island Municipality to postpone such measures.
Councillor Fast used Howe Sound examples to explain her point.
“We can’t say for certain that an oil spill is going to kill all the little larval forage fish. And some organizations would say, well, you’re not sure it’s going to kill them all, so you shouldn’t do anything. That’s an argument we’re hearing from the LNG proposals. We’re hearing claims that the water-filtration system that is going to cool the plant would not harm the marine ecology. There’s other evidence that says it might. How can you have 100 percent certainty? The point is… you don’t need full scientific certainty.”
Councillor Michael Kaile followed this up with further concerns that the proposed declaration would simply be another layer of legislation that sits on top of other pieces of legislation that say the same thing.
“And I’m sorry but the term, in absence of full scientific certainty is not going to be well understood. It is going to be confusing, people are just going to shake their heads,” said Kaile.
Councillor Maureen Nicholson argued that this concept is comparable to risk-management in finance or in the investment field, when professionals are forced to make decisions without 100 percent certainty of the outcomes.
“I don’t see much difference from what happens in this context to what happens every day in the financial and investment fields,” she said.
Councillor Fast reminded the group that the need for this declaration was brought forward by a citizen, Carolyn Neu, who made a presentation to council in March about the Blue Dot Campaign.
“This is a way that communities in the Howe Sound area and in the Lower Mainland are moving together. A lot of communities are signing in to this movement as a way to let the province and the federal government know that their citizens are concerned, that they’re listening to their citizens who are concerned about LNG and oil pipelines and all kinds of things we see in the news.”
A majority of council members voted in favour of the declaration, which will be forwarded to the Lower Mainland Local Government Association, the Union of BC Municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
