The Livable Blog

by Eric Doherty

Bus lane in Brooklyn - Photo www.mta.info

About 15 years ago one of the hot topics in the Vancouver papers was the plan for an at-grade light rail line from Coquitlam to UBC that would have taken up two lanes on Broadway and the Lougheed Highway. The plan was that rapid transit would connect Coquitlam and central Broadway within a few years. Shortly thereafter, the provincial government suddenly switched to a much more expensive - and never completed - SkyTrain line: today’s Millennium Line. Both Coquitlam and UBC are still waiting for rapid transit, and they may wait for decades, given the estimated $4.2 billion needed to connect both with SkyTrain on elevated guideways and subway tunnels.

The long-promised Evergreen Line SkyTrain branch to Coquitlam and the Northeast Sector is estimated at $1.4-billion but only $800 million has been committed by senior governments, leaving a $600 million gap. Translink is so strapped for cash that it was forced to mothball one of its three Sea Buses to reduce operating costs. The $2.8 billion estimated cost of extending the Millennium line to UBC is so daunting that it makes this funding gap insignificant.

In New York, the squeeze on the transit system is more intense. As transit ridership is growing rapidly, the aging subway system needs billions in upgrades, and even a modest extension to one line would cost billions they don’t have. But instead of crying about the expense of new subways, New York is putting rapid transit on the street with Bus Rapid Transit.

Full text at http://thecanadian.org/k2/item/226-doherty-bus-rapid-transit

Doug McArthur of SFU's Policy Centre explains how the BC Liberals Premier has endorsed failed Danish Policy.

"Danish Investigate Policy Copied by Campbell" (BC Liberals)

The Vancouver Sun profiled Premier Gordon Campbell on Friday in Denmark endorsing not the Copenhagen Accord, but the Danish policy of subsidizing private wind power at the expense of taxpayers. He claimed that Denmark sets an example for us if we want to develop clean energy. And indeed it appears that his government has been in many ways following the Danish example. Unfortunately, neither he nor his advisers appears to have taken the time to discover how wrong the Danish approach has turned out to be and how costly it will be to Danish taxpayers.../snip

snip/...Meanwhile, it is perhaps worth noting that on the very week that Campbell profiled the Danish program, investigators in Denmark commenced a corruption investigation into the arrangement there. Perhaps a closer look at what is happening here in BC is warranted after all. Especially since the BC program is almost a total replica of that of Denmark.

Here's one that should fan the flames...

Trash is a resource and burying it is wasteful. Incinerators also
produce fewer pollutants than landfills do
LOIS E. JACKSON,
SPECIAL TO THE SUN
SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Intuitively, burning our garbage seems outdated. Some people believe
it's the wrong thing to do.

That's not what leading public health, environment and waste management
experts have told Metro Vancouver.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/burning+garbage+best+option/2045694/story.html

Our perceptions as laymen and professionals can differ widely at times, which is why I posted this article. We all know that BC has vast amounts of Hydro electricity and the geo-climatic resources to produce even more. As for tidal power, as a relative layperson I do know that our geography probably would lend itself well to relatively cost efficient installations, despite the fact that the tidal power industry is still in its relative infancy compared to the wind and especially hydro power industries. Wind power is booming across the world right now, despite the "on again-off again" nature of wind. I would have assumed that BC being a coastal and mountainous province with high plateaus it would be a natural for wind power. Recently however, I was speaking to a BC'er who is an installer of large, (300'+) German wind turbines, and when asked why he is doing all his work in the US or Europe his reply was that there is no appetite for wind in BC. Because the renewable power market is simply controlled and driven by hydro projects.

Will BC ever become the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy? Even now the question itself cannot be easily answered.

B.C. Liberals selling out our energy future

Climate and terrain could make us the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy
Ralph Keller, Arthur Caldicott and Jim Abram, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, January 28, 2009

There is an energy "gold rush" happening in British Columbia. With our mountainous terrain and wet-coast climate, we are poised to become the world's Saudi Arabia of sustainable energy from a variety of sources including run of river, wind and tidal power.

If fully exploited, these resources could create four times more power than B.C. Hydro currently produces, and give us billions of dollars for provincial coffers. But only if the resource remains a public asset, managed for public benefits.

Former PMs tout green stimulus

Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service -
Retired leaders urge Ottawa to follow U.S. lead
Four former prime ministers are urging the Harper government to follow Barack Obama's lead and use a "green stimulus" to help jump-start the economy.

"It is time to vault Canada into the green economy,"says a statement signed by former Conservative leaders Joe Clark and Kim Campbell, and Liberals Paul Martin and John Turner, to be released today. "Green stimulus creates jobs and will jump-start Canada's role in the new global economy."

The statement comes on the heels of a call Tuesday from leading environmental, union and forest groups urging the federal government to inject billions of dollars into a Green Economy Action Fund to "supercharge growth in the green economy."

The groups want the upcoming federal budget to include a $41-billion stimulus package over five years to make Canadian homes and buildings more energy efficient, ramp up renewable energy; expand public transit and support cleaner manufacturing.

The one-page statement signed by the former prime ministers does not put a price on the stimulus needed, but says an infusion of spending on green initiatives would create jobs quickly and boost the economy. "In one stroke, green stimulus provides solutions to our biggest problems," says the statement calling for energy retrofits of homes and buildings, acceleration of renewable energy production and spending on public transit and "low-carbon" infrastructure.

Environmental activist Tzeporah Berman, executive director of PowerUP Canada, who lobbied the former prime ministers to sign the statement, says there is no reason for Canadians to lag behind Americans on the green front. "Barack Obama is planning millions of green jobs," she says. "Why should Canadians be left behind?"

The Canadian organizations pushing for the multibillion-dollar stimulus package have more than 850,000 members. The list includes the Canadian Association of 45Plus (CARP), the United Steelworkers, the National Union of Public and General Employees, the Pembina Institute, Environmental Defence, ForestEthics and the Forest Products Association of Canada, which represents Canada's major wood, pulp and paper producers.

Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, describes the proposed green stimulus package as a "no-brainer," saying it could fight both the recession and global warming.

"There are jobs just waiting to be created and businesses poised to grow," he says.

The Canadian groups are calling for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to launch a national program that harmonizes with both the U. S. and provincial initiatives.

Their proposed action fund, which the groups say could be financed with loans of $18.6 billion and federal spending of $22.7 billion over five years, calls for retrofitting of government real estate, housing, commercial buildings and accelerating the creation and use of renewable energy and clean technologies.

The groups say some of the money could be raised through "green bonds," which they say have proved popular in Europe and "provides a safe investment vehicle in times of financial distress."
http://www.powerupcanada.ca/newsrelease/2009/01/news83/
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