New documents: (click title to view)
- 2011 Local Government Candidate Responses, November, 2011.
- Green Solutions Trade Show, , March 19-20, 2011.
- Community Sustainability Plan, Sept 8, 2010.
- SG recommendations for Gabriola OCP, Sept 8, 2010.
| Community sustainability meeting, October 24th | ||||||
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This website has been designed to bring together all the individuals and organizations on Gabriola dedicated to creating a healthy, vibrant, sustainable future for generations to come. This is a grassroots initiative, led and supported by volunteers, building on the energy and efforts of dozens of individuals and organizations committed to long-term sustainability for Gabriola. We truly believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and this initiative is a living demonstration of that belief.
We are very appreciative to the Islands Trust for introducing the work done by the Whistler community to develop a sustainability plan. We learned a lot from examining their approach. But the most significant lesson we learned was that sustainability planning needs to come from the community and be owned by the community. There is no other place on earth like Gabriola and our approach to sustainability must reflect and build on our unique challenges, strengths and opportunities.
On May 9th, 2009, 30 people attended the inaugural Gabriola Sustainability meeting at the Haven, in an open style session with participants self-selecting topics for discussion.
The group began the process of defining sustainability from a Gabriola perspective and topic discussions were recorded on themes such as energy; community resiliency and well-being; recreation and health quality; agricultural land and food security; water; sustainable community economics: community currency; and housing & multi-level seniors' care facility. Other topics proposed but not yet explored are transportation; waste and recycling; youth; safety and security; art and culture; and, protecting and sustaining ecological systems.
The next steps will include building on the initial discussions and finding people interested to tackle topics not yet addressed. This website is where all the activities underway will be profiled, linking all interested organizations and groups, and providing opportunities for all Gabriolans to comment and provide input into what actions we can take to achieve and maintain sustainability.
This is a grassroots voluntary effort and all are welcome to participate. If you are interested in learning more or in being involved please contact communitysustainabilityplan@gmail.com. We invite you to join us in crafting a plan for the future. Click here to go to the contact us page