Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 26, 2015
Conservation and Canada’s Future
CEDAR – “We’d like to see the goals and promises of Canada’s former Environment Minister honoured and furthered,” said Laurie Gourlay, referring to the May 26th, 1986 opening statement of the Honourable Tom MacMillan to the World Commission on Environment and Development.
The president of the Vancouver Island and Coast Conservation Society has just sent a letter to Federal Party Leaders, requesting their support for a ‘Five Point Conservation Plan for Canada’ – one that reflects the ambitions of Canadians and their government some twenty-nine years ago today.
“In 1986 the Minister noted the reputation of Canadians as pioneers in addressing environmental interdependence and inter-country co-operation, and also observed that ‘the environment won’t recover if just left alone’,” Gourlay’s letter states.
Gourlay was in attendance at the WCED meeting in Ottawa, and is also referenced in the final report of the Brundtland Commission, ‘Our Common Future’.
“Mr. MacMillan’s recommendations included the proposal that a process be in place to share information on environmental policies,” states Gourlay, “a multidisciplinary approach that would transcend nation-state thinking – anticipating and preventing problems.”
By way of requesting the Government of Canada invest in such conservation solutions VICCS also refers to similar economic and environmental objectives expressed by our government one hundred years ago. In 1915 Canada’s Commission of Conservation stated that,“Each generation is entitled to the interest on the natural capital, but the principal should be handed on unimpaired.” VICCS believes this bottom-line approach should again guide Canada’s efforts for sustainable development.
With our heritage, and our common future in mind VICCS has asked Federal Party Leaders if they will promise to reinstate Canada’s Commission of Conservation by 2017 if elected to govern the country this fall.
“We are seeking your consideration and reply to five steps that will foster the Conserver Society which Mr. MacMillan proposed to the WCED,” Gourlay notes, adding that each week over the next month VICCS will again write the Federal Party Leaders.
VICCS hopes to hear support for ‘Five Conservation Points’, from all Federal Party Leaders by early July. All responses will be posted as they are received.
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For more information:
Laurie Gourlay
President, VICCS
(250 722-3444)
Vancouver Island & Coast Conservation Society, Box 333, Cedar BC, V9X 1W1; (250 722-3444), <www.viccs.vcn.bc.ca>, <viccs@shaw.ca>