Ian Gartshore

Too often citizens feel frustrated and unheard/valued by elected officials and their staff. In Nanaimo on October 4th about 100 people gathered for a community event that heard both local and international folk talk about how they are creating more vibrant communities by putting waste resources into better use. This reduces pollution, saves resources, creates jobs, and brings decision-making back into local control. The results of the day are phenomenal! Great ideas are being sent to the Regional District's solid waste management plan (who needs an incinerator!). A local Zero Waste organisation is likely to be formed, and could be the base of B.C.'s Zero Waste chapter. This is what happens when citizens are given an opportunity to learn and then be heard!

With Metro Vancouver threatening our immediate coastal communities with up to 7 garbage incinerators, the international zero waste community is coming to Nanaimo to help us defeat this plan with some sane, sustainable, solutions that create way more jobs, too! International Zero Waste Conference in Nanaimo Oct 2-4, 2014 Next week, starting Thursday the 2nd, over 30 international speakers who know how to put waste materials back into use and create jobs, will be coming to Nanaimo. First time in Canada! They normally meet in major cities. We convinced the host, Zero Waste Canada, to pick us over Toronto and Vancouver! Nanaimo welcomes them! If you care about reducing global warming, increasing local jobs and economic opportunities, and providing a future for our children then do come to one or more events! Pre-conference Monday the 29 th 6:30 p.m. The film Trashed will be shown at the Nanaimo VIU campus, Building 356, Rm. 109. This is a very informative film...

My fellow community members: Fred Pattje You may not be aware that Nanaimo’s city councillors and mayor have taken a huge pounding over their decision to disallow a leadership conference in May. While they regret their decision, and apologised for it at last evening’s special council meeting (July 3/14), they are still getting pounded. I consider that campaign to be psychological warfare. The councillor who moved the motion to prevent the event, and who yesterday bravely moved the motion to rescind that decision, is councillor Fred Pattje. He has been the one who has taken the greatest hit from these phone calls and e-mail’s. This has been a dark time for him. Quite apart from the rightness or wrongness of his original motion -it is how he has been treated, mostly by people living outside of our city, that has gone far beyond disrespectful. One writer wished him to die of AIDS. I appeal to you to do one simple, yet humane thing : write him a one or two sentence ...

The City of Nanaimo has just released its proposed Transportation Master Plan . This plan is designed to take us 25 years into the future. Very tragically the proposed Plan does little to take us away from the very expensive existing car-centric city we currently pay for. In this 13 page document I outline how it could be vastly improved so as to save us money and improve the city's sustainability, leading us to better health, lower costs, and far more. It requires us to work together, adjust to significant (positive!) changes. It means making it possible to cycle safely, use buses that are frequent and fast, invest in infrastructure and in carsharing, and more. To view the slides and text to my 5 minute presentation to City Council May 26, 2014, click here. To see the Council meeting and the 10 presentations about the Transportation Plan, including mine (second one on the list) you can view it here . The presentations start at about 15 minutes. The picture above could ...

Pictured: Ian with a piece of Styrofoam; Photo credit: Terry Lee Wagar RDN presentation March 25, 2014   25 years ago the NRE led all of us into becoming one of the most progressive communities in Canada. They inspired us to do more. As you know the letters, petitions and phone calls to you Directors indicate the importance of this community leader. Unfortunately the previous staff report on the value of the NRE failed to capture its true value.    1)    As is the practise in solid waste management, the weight of the materials the NRE diverts from the landfill was reported to be very small. (Show Styrofoam). This material represents up to 20% of the volume of landfills, yet weighs way less than 1% of the total material. If the NRE did not collect Styrofoam our landfill would fill up much more quickly. This is but one example of the visionary leadership of the NRE that we fail to appreciate.    2)    The NRE is an inspir...