Frances Bula header image 2

Robertson creates a Green City team

January 28th, 2009 · 12 Comments

I feel bad that I’m not on an advisory committee to the mayor. Everyone else in town seems to be. First, there was the homelessness action team, a high-powered group that meets Sunday afternoons to figure out how to get 1,500 people out of shelters and off the streets ASAP. Then, there was the developers’ committee to advise the mayor on how to deal with the Olympic-village mess, which includes a pack of big names.

Now, Mayor Gregor is creating a Greenest City Action Team that will be headed by him and David R. Boyd, described as an environmental lawyer, professor, author and former special adviser on sustainability to the federal Privy Council Office. They’ll be appointing nine other members and, of course, former Green Party member Andrea Reimer, now a Vision councillor, and David Cadman, COPE’s travelling environmental councillor, will be part of the group. For those of you too lazy to Google, here’s one link to a little more about Mr. Boyd.

I’m waiting to see what this group will come up with. The mandate is to kickstart some new actions with a “quick start” report and then come up with a longer-term report. This is an issue pretty near and dear to the mayor’s heart — I first started hearing from him back in 2006, shortly after Sam Sullivan was elected — because he was alarmed at the tug of war going on about sustainability issues on the Olympic village site. He said to me frequently back then that Vancouver had lost its position as a leader on sustainability and that it should be acting aggressively to take it back. I’m betting that this is a committee that will come up with some strong new ideas.

In the meantime, how about that media advisory committee? I really think that it’s time to have one of those, meeting weekly and eating those excellent snacks that city hall typically provides.

Categories: Uncategorized