Barry McLean, a fourth generation farmer from a Manitoban town of 300, moved to Victoria eight years ago to care for his mother. He wasn’t necessarily planning on staying, but he has since married and started a business, so the rest is history, so to speak. I had heard that Barry was making incredible advancements in his zero emission landscaping and gardening ventures here in Victoria and I was keen to learn more about his innovative business.

He started Clean Air Yard Care in 2010 inspired by his grandparents who practiced advanced organic farming techniques for 75 years. Earlier that year he had been redoing the landscaping in his front yard to include more native and drought resistant plants. After the fourth neighbour stopped by to admire his work, saying “you should go into landscaping!” he decided to give the idea some serious thought.

   “Looking at the industry in Victoria,” he said, “there are a lot of guys who have just thrown a mower in the back of their truck. But I’ve never been much of a follower so I looked for an underserved niche.” Caring for the environment is a family tradition, Barry told me, building his business based on those values was a given.

What if he created a zero emissions lawn and yard care business, powered by solar energy that made no pollution and no noise? Not wanting to do anything half way, he decided to build a solar trailer that could power all of his equipment. The trailer has four solar panels (the complete unit is worth nearly $30,000) that feed DC power inside into a battery bank which is then converted to AC power. With that, Canada’s first zero emission yard care company was born. Even on a cloudy day, Barry told me, his solar trailer can run for weeks. If needed, he can plug it in and bulk charge the battery, but he has only needed to do that twice in the last two years.

Barry has a few residential clients, though appreciates the year round contracts found with strata and commercial contracts. His team has expanded to include more landscapers and a horticulturist, which he said are a huge assets to their company. They can advise clients on plant care and help them incorporate drought resistant or native plants into their garden.

The cumulative environmental impact of yard care in Canada is huge. Barry explained how a gasoline powered lawn mower emits about 106 lbs of greenhouse gases in one season. “They are very inefficient. Running an old lawn mower for an hour, for example, can produce as much air pollution as driving a new car 550 kilometers.” In addition, Barry continued, the impact of air, ground, and noise pollution associated with yard care in our communities is immense. He argued that “5 percent of Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emissions come from landscaping, not accounting for waste, and the sound of gasoline landscaping equipment can lead to hearing loss and increased anxiety in people nearby.”

Despite the serious drawbacks of conventional landscaping techniques (gasoline, oil, noise)  people seem to resist altering their behaviour. “People get entrenched in the way they do things. The landscapers, but also the people who hire them don’t want to change,” Barry told me. “It comes down to the dollar. People will recycle and use organic fertilizer, but they won’t invest more… They just keep doing things the old way.”

Even when you focus on the dollar, however, Barry’s services are comparable to traditional landscapers. He charges $50 per labour hour, usually working out to around $150 to $200 per month in the summer. It’s tough being undercut by companies who haven’t made a significant upfront investment like he has with his solar trailer and equipment, but the “rampant greenwashing” in the sector is even more disheartening to him, he said. “Some ‘green’ landscapers drive up to consultations in electric cars and then come back for the job with a truck full of electric equipment that they’ve charged by plugging into the grid the night before.”

Moving the emission-intensive work behind the scenes or one step removed isn’t enough when it comes to addressing our personal contributions to climate change. There are other effective options, Barry concluded, but you have to be willing to do things differently.

“The other challenge we face,” Barry said, “is that 99% of the purchasing or contract agents give no environmental weight or considerations when evaluating tenders.”

“People need to understand the impact that the gas and noise of their machines have on their neighbours and the environment. They need to know there are alternatives.”

Clean Air Yard Care has been awarded both a Saanich and CRD Eco-Star Award for “Climate Action” and “Green Energy Leadership.” In 2015 Barry was a finalist for the CRD Eco-Star Awards for Eco-Prenuer of the Year.

Today Helen and I had the distinct honour of attending the Chinese New Year Gala 2016 at the University of Victoria, Farquar Auditorium.

I am profoundly honoured to have been asked to say a few words at the opening of the gala. Below is the text of what I said. Gong Xi Fa Cai — Gong Hey Fat Choy — 恭禧发财.

Test of Introductory Remarks

It is an honour for me to join you for the 2016 Chinese New Year Gala hosted by the Victoria Chinese Community Association and the Victoria Chinese Students and Scholars Association. It is our privilege to have this event held at the Farquhar auditorium at the University of Victoria in the constituency of Oak Bay-Gordon Head where I serve as MLA.

This is sure to be a wonderful evening of cultural celebration. It is an opportunity for the Western community to get a sample of the cultures and traditions of many regions in China in just one evening.

Congratulations to the community leaders, event organizers and many volunteers who work tirelessly to present this gala. All of the groups involved in tonight’s event contribute greatly – both within their own community and within the community of Greater Victoria.

I am very pleased to see so many young people and families engaged in cultural activities. I understand that tonight we will be treated to modern and traditional performances by BC’s Chinese Community, creatively combined with western performing arts. I have really been looking forward to this.

I would like to welcome all the visiting performers that are with us here tonight. I hope you have a very enjoyable stay in Victoria.

Thank you to the Victoria Chinese Community Association for your dedication to promoting the spirit of multiculturalism and promoting cultural awareness in the community. It is an honour for our beautiful city to have been chosen as the new home for so many families of so many different backgrounds.

My very best wishes to everyone for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year of the Monkey.

Have you walked along Gyro beach in Cadboro Bay lately? It looks like a graveyard for derelict vessels.

Dealing with derelict vessels can be a jurisdictional nightmare. To make matters worse, the municipal boundary between Oak Bay and Saanich puts some of these vessels in the Saanich intertidal zone and some in the Oak Bay intertidal zone. It’s even possible that one of these ships is half in Saanich and half in Oak Bay.

This is not a new situation in British Columbia. In 2014, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations released a comprehensive report entitled: Dealing with problem vessels and structures in BC waters. The report outlines the jurisdictional conundrum and specifically notes:

Often, there is no simple answer to the question: Who should be dealing with this problem?”

In addition, the report provides information as to who should be contacted if a derelict vessel is found. The contact information is quite detailed to specific cases but fails in the larger case when numerous derelict vessels are washed ashore. This is the situation in Cadboro Bay. In addition, the report has a caveat in the form of the following disclaimer:

Readers are cautioned that this paper is not legal advice. It is the intention of Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to update this paper as provincial and federal programs evolve.

My colleague, Adam Olsen has written a blog entry detailing longstanding municipal concerns regarding the lack of federal and provincial leadership in dealing with derelict and abandoned vessels that pollute our coastline. Most recently he worked to raise awareness of the plight of the Chilcotin Princess at the abandoned fish cannery in Namu, BC. The good news is that province and the federal government worked to remedy the situation at Namu, but the piecemeal approach to the management and disposal of derelict and abandoned wrecks is not working.

On Friday January 15, I walked the length of Gyro Beach to get a sense of the scale of the problem we are facing in the riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head. It was far worse than what I had expected. For quite some time, there has been one derelict vessel (see thumbnail to the right above) that was difficult to reach (except at low tide). Last year I’d inquired as to the possibility of removing it and quickly realized the complexity of the jurisdictional quagmire. But the situation now is very serious. Below I show a few images of the vessels that were present.

So where do we go from here? Clearly the status quo is not working and clearly this is neither a new problem nor one that will go away any time soon. Perhaps a way forward is to explore the innovative steps that have been taken by our friends in Washington State.

While I will be exploring broader policy solutions in the months ahead, I have sent the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations a letter (reproduced below) urging him to deal with an immediate and urgent problem. One of the many wrecks (see image below) on the beach in Cadboro Bay is immediately adjacent to Gyro Park which has been extensively upgraded and improved over the last few years. Gyro park is a regional treasure and has been the playground of several generations of young children (including my wife and me in the 1960s and 1970s and our children in the 1990s and 2000s). Having this wreck so close to a children’s playground is certainly unsafe. And we do not want to wait until an accident happens to have it removed.

Letter to Minister Thomson

Via email to: FLNR.minister@gov.bc.ca

Honourable Steve Thomson
Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
Room 248, Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC V8V 1X4

Dear Minister Thomson:

Re: Derelict wreck in Cadboro Bay

I have been contacted by residents in my riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head and the Cadboro Bay Resident’s Association (“CBRA”) with respect to the beached derelict vessel Pacific Sun King that washed up on December 5, 2015. The residents are very concerned about the vessel as a hazard in Cadboro Gyro Park where it is located, on the Crown Provincial foreshore in the upper inter-tidal zone of Cadboro Bay. The vessel is interfering with public access and presents a danger to children who play in the park and in the area. This area is heavily used by the public and especially children.

The CBRA have been in contact with the Municipality of Saanich and their representatives have confirmed that the responsibility for the removal of the wreck does not fall to Saanich since it is located seaward of the formal boundaries of the park.

I am writing to ask the Provincial Government to take the necessary steps to deal with this urgent matter. In addition to a safety issue for children and residents who access the park and beach, the vessel contains a diesel fuel tank and potential seepage that is an environmental hazard.

I look forward to a reply at your earliest opportunity.

Best wishes,
Andrew Weaver, MLA
Oak Bay-Gordon Head

Background

On January 6, 2016 concerned Shawnigan Lake residents invited the media, politicians and the public to come and see the contaminated soil facility operating on Stebbings Road and to listen to their concerns directly. Residents, local councillors and others were in attendance to answer questions. The media and politicians were also taken on helicopter rides over the site in order to get a bird’s eye view of the operations. Indeed I was one of the many politicians who was on one such helicopter ride.

I have written earlier on the wisdom of dumping contaminated soils in the Shawnigan Lake watershed and I have twice collected samples from the effluent running off Lot 21, immediately beside the operating contaminated soil facility.

The results of my water samples collected on April 2, 2015, together with my observation that a significant amount of fill had over run Lot 21 and was on the neighbouring parkland, led me to subsequently ask the Minister of Energy and Mines and the Minister of Environment questions during Question Period.

The results of my sediment samples taken on May 15, 2015 at the same site as my earlier water samples led me to ask the question as to what, if anything, has been buried on Lot 21 that could produce the Thorium, Lead and other heavy metal enrichment in the sediments.

As the months have passed, residents of the Shawnigan Lake region have continued to raise substantive concerns as to whether or not the operations at the contaminated soil facility are in compliance with the requirements of their relevant permits. On November 16th I rose in the legislature to call for an emergency debate on a recent failure of the contaminated soil site storm water containment and clarification system at the site. I did this after Island Health issued a no-water use advisory “advising residents not to use water taken out of the lake from the south end of Lake Shawnigan, south of Butler Avenue and Verlon Road, due to suspected overflow of water from South Island Aggregates’ site.” This means that residents were being advised “not to use or draw water from the area of the lake for residential or commercial use, including bathing, personal hygiene, drinking and food preparation.”

The Water Containment and Clarification System

It doesn’t end there.

On December 1, 2015 I issued a press release calling on the BC Government to immediately cease operations at the site after the Cowichan Valley Regional District released a report from Thurber Engineering Ltd. The report identified serious concerns about surface runoff and throughflow potentially becoming contaminated but not adequately being contained or treated. In particular, the Thurber Engineering Ltd report noted that:

“The presence of the large volume of water emerging from under the rock armour at the head of the ephemeral stream indicates that runoff storm water sourced from the SIA site is bypassing the sediment pond (i.e by flowing under it) and is being discharged directly onto the land owned by the CVRD”.

This occurred despite the fact that the BC Government mandates that all surface water is required to be “contained on the property and treated in accordance with the permit”.

The water containment facility is shown in Figures 1a and 1c. Figures 1b and 1d illustrate a pool of water immediately beside the treatment facility. The Thurber report identifies this as potentially a source of water that feeds the ephemeral stream and bypasses the containment facility. Frankly, it would be incredibly easy to verify this by simply tagging the water with a dye as is commonly done in municipalities when potential storm/sewer crossovers are detected.

a)    b)

c)    d)

Figure 1: Photographs of the water containment system and the standing pool of water immediately beside the containment system taken on: a), b) November 16, 2015; c), d) from a helicopter on January 6, 2016.

In my view we have a serious situation where contaminated soils are being delivered to the site on an ongoing basis. Yet at the same time very troubling questions have been raised by an independent engineering firm about the functioning of the water containment system. I am beyond astounded that the Ministry would continue to allow contaminated soils to be delivered while the “permittee and their qualified professional(s)” review the situation as per the functioning of the water containment system.

I also remain troubled by the frequent referral to an ephemeral stream in numerous reports. By definition, an ephemeral stream is one that exists “only briefly during and following a period of rainfall in the immediate locality.” Yet I was given a tour of the contaminated soil facility on August 5th, 2015 and it had been very dry. At that time the stream was running and the pond was still present. This suggests to me that a component of water found in the pond has originated from below the surface.

Sulphur and Sodium Chloride Contaminants

The Shawnigan Lake residents most recently have been expressing increasing concern over the fact that contaminated soils high in sulphur and salt (sodium chloride) from Pacific Coast Terminals in Port Moody are being dumped in the operating facility.

Water in the “ephemeral creek” has been tested several times by the Ministry of Environment. The Ministry of Environment reported (see SW1) that water in the ephemeral creek (about 15m from where the containment pond discharges into it) on November 14, 2015 had:

1. a sulpher concentration of 56.1 milligrams per litre
2. a sodium concentration of 21.8 milligrams per litre

Samples collected by the Ministry of Environment on November 17,2015 at the same location on November 14 revealed (see E292898):

1. a sulpher concentration of 23.2 milligrams per litre
2. a sodium concentration of 9.16 milligrams per litre

A summary of these results was put together in the media package provided by Shawnigan residents on January 6, 2016.

On the same day I took the opportunity to collect further independent samples. After the aerial tour of the site, I hiked around the property and collected two samples (Figure 2a and b) in the vicinity of where the Ministry of Environment collected their samples. I collected a third control sample in Shawnigan Creek upstream from the contaminated soil facility at almost the exact same location of where I collected my control sample in my earlier sediment analysis (see Figure 2c).

a)    b)

c)

Figure 2: Photographs of the location of where the two water samples were taken in the ephemeral creek: a) at a location a few metres upstream from where the Ministry of Environment collected their water samples (UP POND in the January 6, 2015 water analysis data); b) at the location where the Ministry of Environment collected their water samples (DOWN POND in the January 6, 2015 water analysis data). c) Photograph of the location where I collected my control sediments for my earlier analysis. The control water sample was taken a few metres north of this location (Control at bridge in the January 6, 2015 water analysis data).

My three resulting water samples were analyzed by Jody Spence at UVic using a Thermo X-Series2 Quadrupole ICP-MS. All water samples were filtered through clean (new) polyvinyl filters (0.45 um). A separate filter used for each sample. The first 10 mL of each sample was flushed through to condition the filter before collecting the 10 mL aliquot for analysis. After filtration, the samples were acidified with 0.2 mL of 16 Molar Environmental Grade Nitric Acid.

The resulting January 6, 2015 water analysis data reveal the following results:

Sample 1: UP POND; Figure 2a

1. a sulpher concentration of 33.3 milligrams per litre
2. a sodium concentration of 13.5 milligrams per litre

Sample 2: DOWN POND; Figure 2b

1. a sulpher concentration of 32.4 milligrams per litre
2. a sodium concentration of 13.1 milligrams per litre

Sample 3: Control at bridge; Figure 2c

1. a sulpher concentration that was undetectable to the limit of machine precision
2. a sodium concentration of 1.85 milligrams per litre

These results are consistent with the elevated sulpher and sodium concentrations found by the Ministry of Environment back in November.

Two additional observations are worth noting. On the day I collected my samples there was no water pooled in the water containment facilities sedimentation pond (it was largely covered with snow). The pond immediately beside it was quite large and the surface appeared to be frozen. In addition, a distinct smell of sulpher hydroxide was noted at the property line where the containment facility allows water to enter the ephemeral creek.

Summary

Based on several independently-collected water samples collected over the last few months it is clear that water in the “ephemeral creek” leaving the property contains elevated levels of sodium and sulphur. The fact that sulphur was undetectable in the control sample makes it pretty clear that the contaminants originate from the Pacific Coast Terminal soils that have been dumped in the operating facility.

While it is clear to me that there is no immediate health concerns to the residents of Shawnigan Lake from the samples I collected, questions still remain. In my opinion it would be prudent for the Ministry of Environment to immediately cease operations at the facility in order to:

1. Ensure the water containment facility is actually functioning as required by permit;
2. Determine where the water in the pond is coming from and whether it drains into the ephemeral creek;
3. Conduct an assessment as to the cumulative effects of high sodium, sulphur and potentially chemicals that will make there way to Shawnigan lake through the ephemeral creek. The site has only just opened and will be in operation for decades.

Failing to take these immediate steps I believe would be a continued dereliction of duty by the Ministry of Environment.

Media Statement January 9, 2016
Attack on Syrian Refugees Appalling
For Immediate Release

Victoria B.C. – “The pepper spray attack on Syrian refugees in Vancouver is appalling” says Andrew Weaver MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head and Leader of the B.C. Green Party.

More than two dozen men, women and children were treated by paramedics outside the Muslim Association of Canada Centre in Vancouver the evening of January 8 as they were peppered sprayed while attending an event welcoming them to Canada.

“British Columbian’s from all communities and all walks of life have opened their hearts, homes and wallets to support refugees from Syria. It is a testament to our collective compassion and the basic values we embrace as Canadians.” says Andrew Weaver. “This attack is shocking and I want to reassure all newcomers to our communities our welcome remains as strong as ever.”

Media contact

Mat Wright
Press Secretary – Andrew Weaver MLA
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca
1 250 216 3382