By Katherine Gordon, January 2012

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Ah-in-chut Atleo thinks the situation at Attawapiskat is one of many signs Canada is at a tipping point in its relationship with First Nations. The system has failed, says Atleo: it’s time to “smash the status quo” and start over again.

National Chief Ah-in-chut Atleo was speaking at a philanthropy conference in Toronto last October when stark images of families in Attawapiskat, Ontario, living in uninsulated tents without power or running water, started flashing across Canadian television screens. 

By Rob Wipond, January 2012

On January 31, a panel of local experts will talk about new ways to ensure your savings, RRSPs, and investment dollars help strengthen our community sustainability and resilience. We offer a preview of some of the ideas they’ll address.

During her presentation at the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria’s recent annual general meeting, economic development expert Nicole Chaland brought out a perspective-shifting number: $360 million. 

That’s how much Greater Victoria residents invested last year in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs)—enough to effectively double last year’s growth in Greater Victoria’s entire gross domestic product. Yet instead of boosting our economy or helping improve our community, most of that enormous wealth of ours was simply drained away into globalized mutual funds.

By Ross Crockford, January 2012

What happened to the plans for commuter rail?

For a few hours in 2008 and 2009, residents got an idea of what it would be like to take a commuter train between Langford and Victoria. 

One Saturday in August, in both those years, Jim Sturgill ran a 70-passenger VIA Rail “Budd” car back and forth between Goldstream Avenue and the old CPR roundhouse in Vic West, as part of E&N Days, a summer celebration of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway. “It worked very well,” says Sturgill, a veteran trainman who operated locomotives on the E&N for 30 years. During 2008’s one-day test, he made six round trips, taking about 25 minutes each way—a challenge for any car driver trying to reach the same destination by navigating the stop-and-go traffic on Douglas Street or Craigflower Road. 

By David Broadland, January 2012

Two competing visions emerge on how to mitigate climate change at the regional level.

This community’s most notable response to the threat of climate change—BC Transit’s proposal to spend $1 billion on light rail transit (LRT) from Downtown to Langford—has been guided by the belief that the bulk of population growth in the CRD over the next several decades will inevitably occur in Langford and Colwood. The idea is that LRT will lower the carbon emissions associated with more people travelling between Langford-Colwood and the core municipalities (Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, View Royal).    

By Aaren Madden, January 2012

With a vision of environmental and social justice informed by travel and history, Ben Isitt is keen to shake things up at City Hall and the CRD.

As we sit in the warm, wood-panelled glow of Ben Isitt’s partially renovated kitchen, it becomes clear he has wasted no time embracing his new positions as Victoria city councillor and CRD board member. Six days after the civic election, he has already pored over the 2008 orientation manual for new councillors, last year’s finances, and this year’s operating budgets for both the City of Victoria and the CRD. He’s met with numerous community and business groups, colleagues and the mayor. He is, he says, “trying to get my head around the numbers, seeing the whole range of projects and policies that are being undertaken right now.”