Member of Parliament John Weston didn't promise to raise the derelict former Coast Guard ship Ready from the waters off Britannia Beach this past weekend. But he did promise to raise the issue brought to him by a local environmentalist with federal Minister of Fisheries Gail Shea.
Weston hosted a small but passionate town-hall meeting at the Squamish Public Library on Saturday (Feb. 12), and it featured a number of discussions ranging from the dredging of the Mamquam Blind Channel to his thoughts on volunteerism.
John Buchanan, a Squamish-based environmentalist, brought up the recent sinking of the Ready, urging Weston to advocate for sweeping changes to rules regarding the use of volunteers to clean up oil spills.
Buchanan pointed out that B.C. law mandates that only paid workers can help clean up environmental spills. He told Weston Canada should move to the type of model that Great Britain introduced. There, every provincial and municipal environmental department was dissolved and moved under federal jurisdiction.
The Jan. 17 sinking of the Ready released a small amount of oil into Howe Sound. Buchanan has called for it to be raised because of the potential long-term environmental impact of leaving the ship where it is.
"It was certainly a deepening of my understanding of this issue," Weston said of Buchanan's presentation. "I encouraged him to present this issue in a way that I could then easily relay on to the appropriate persons.
"My yelling does a lot more good when an informed citizen puts together a one pager to me explaining the situation," Weston said after Buchanan told him to do some yelling on this issue in the House of Commons. "I can work with the Minister of Fisheries. I see her on a regular basis and I think she will listen."
Buchanan reiterated his concerns about a proposal to dredge the Mamquam Blind Channel - he's against it on the grounds that it could contaminate local waterways with mercury and other toxic elements. Weston said Buchanan is doing all the right things as far as making people aware of this issue.
Although attendance at the town hall meeting was sparse, those who did attend were knowledgeable about their topics and kept Weston on his toes.
"I thought the talk was rich in depth," he said at the end of the two-hour session. "The people of Squamish never fail to surprise me."
Star Morris also attended and expressed her concerns about the Canada's fresh water supply becoming a bargaining tool in talks intended to lead to a Canadian-European Trade Agreement (CETA).
"The way that I like to look at this topic is, are we owners or trustees of our water supply?" Weston asked. "I like to think we're trustees."
Weston also spoke on three issues that he said he feels passionate about as a leader.
"The three things I would talk about if this were a speech would be volunteerism, collaboration and planning," he said. "I think the three really go together. I've found that Canadians are so good at sharing their expertise and helping inform elected officials of situations like these. And it's always volunteers who get the ball rolling and enable governments to do the things that they do.
"If elected officials are wise, they're going to be listening to people who show up and hopefully those channels are open to help us process this type of information."
Contact information for his office can be found at www.johnweston.ca.
