supply and demand

And more!

City of Vancouver to eliminate
natural gas by 2050

> Green initiative brings hefty bill and controversy

Mercedes Deutscher
News Editor

 

he City of Vancouver, known

for its green initiatives such
as green bins and bike lanes,
announced its next goal—to
eliminate the use of natural
gas in the city by 2050.

The shift from natural gas is
part of Vancouver’s Renewable
City Strategy, which aims for
Vancouver to become the greenest
city in the world. The first step
will be to reduce the overall
use of energy. From there, any
remaining energy used will be
created by renewable resources,
and the city will work to increase
the supply of clean energy.

According to the Renewable
City Strategy, only 31 per cent of
the city’s energy is renewable.
As for the remainder, 45 per

cent of the energy is provided
by natural gas, and the rest
comes from fossil fuels.

Sadhu Johnson, a city
manager, told Global that there
are no current plans to outright
ban natural gas use. However,
it will become less accessible
as buildings replace their

 

energy sources, and appliances

are upgraded to operate on

other sources of energy.
Vancouver’s plan is

already under scrutiny, not

just from economists, but from

environmentalists as well.
Environmentalists applaud

the idea, but claim the people

will be reluctant to change energy
sources, because renewable
sources of energy cost more.

“Tt says this is how much
you've consumed this year,
therefore all of that consumption
needs to be replaced with a
ridiculously high price for
electricity and biomethane,”
analyzed Mark Jaccard, director
of the Energy and Materials
research group, for CBC.

Jaccard suggested that the
most effective way to install
the plan into the city would be
to get residents to reduce their
overall energy consumption.

In an editorial to the Province,
the director of the BC branch
of the Canadian Taxpayers
Federation wrote: “This will cost
individual residents thousands
of dollars—and was approved by
Robertson and his council without

New Westminster Food Bank coping
with rise of supply and demand

> Community provider now needs providing for

Aaron Guillen
Staff Reporter

 

I 2011-12, hunger was an
excruciating reality for roughly
1in 10 BC homes, or around half
a million citizens, according
to a study from the University
of Toronto and BC’s Provincial
Health Services Authority, as
reported in the Vancouver Sun.

According to Food Banks
Canada, 13 per cent of Canadians
live in a state of food insecurity.
Whether it be money issues or
location-based (the northern
regions cost much more due to
accessibility), getting nutritious
food is a tough journey.

Being ina city with rising
grocery prices, it’s tough to
feed oneself or family on a tight
budget. That’s where the Greater
Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB)
steps in. For those who truly
have nowhere else to turn, the
GVFB is there to lend a helping
hand. With more than 25,000
mouths to feed on an average
week, the GVFB, open since 1982,
provides over 4-million pounds
of food every year to residents

in New Westminster, Burnaby,
Vancouver, and the North Shore.
Unfortunately, while the demand
might be rising, the supply is
rapidly declining.

“Our shelves are now at a
critical level,” Ariela Friedmann,
communications director of the
GVFB told MetroNews.

“We have never, ever seen

them so low. [It’s almost] to
the point where we are actually
planning over this next month
to be spending $150,000 [from
the budget] to buy canned food,
peanut butter, and fresh produce,
so we can give people a meal.”

In a recent effort to boost
shelf stock, the GVFB reached out
to the community in a one-day

 

 
 

Image via www.straight.com

blitz campaign drive, hanging
38,000 bags on doors. While they
did receive 42,000 pounds of food,
it fell short of their goal of 100,000
pounds, and paled in comparison
to the 450,000 pounds collected
by volunteers at the Calgary Food
Drive in mid-September.

With Hunger Awareness

{ Spotlight: Forget being hopeless, find focus
(¥ New Westminster Food Bank coping with rise of

(¥ Leaders of Tomorrow program finds a home at Douglas

any thought to the affordability
crisis in Vancouver. This plan
will make it more expensive for
people to heat their homes and
to buy things from businesses in
Vancouver, and it means higher
taxes to cover rising costs for
hospitals, schools and buses.”

While costly, Jaccard
defended the initiative, and said
that it was still a better option
than the alternative of continuing
to burn through natural gas.

Yet many are still arguing
that natural gas is very much
needed by the city. FortisBC—who
provides natural gas to 108,000
customers in BC—said in a letter
to the city that it’s important to
give customers a choice, and that
natural gas can still be offered
ina 100 per cent renewable form
while still costing 14-42 per cent
less than energy from BC Hydro.

Week having just concluded
(September 19-23), the need
for donations couldn't be more
urgent. While the food bank had
expected low amounts of food
to trickle in during the summer
months, they had never expected
such low numbers come fall—and
to make matters worse, the GVFB
isn't getting what they need,
nutritionally.

“We don’t need more
candy and more cookies, we
need healthy, nutritious food,”
Friedmann said to Burnaby Now.

“We can’t give somebody a
box of cereal and a bag of pasta.
You can’t make a meal with that.
So, if we're going to give somebody
some pasta we need to provide
some sauce, some vegetables,
some protein [...] enough that
they can make a meal out of and
sustain themselves for a few days.”

To top it all off, the New
Westminster branch has been
given six months to find a new
home, due to redevelopment
claims.

“Hunger doesn’t end—
it’s [happening] every day,”
Friedmann said to MetroNews.