While proponents of the project claim this is a “tragedy for Canada,” there’s a more positive way of looking at things. After several years with B.C.’s economic policies held hostage to the myopic idea of an imminent LNG boom, letting go of the increasingly unfeasible LNG pipe dream presents a valuable opportunity to reimagine economic development in rural B.C.
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Downtown Eastside SRO units becoming pricey microlofts
Wes Regan, executive director of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, told the Straight that younger, middle-income earners are being overlooked in the housing debate.
Continue readingKinder Morgan Trans Mountain review delay reveals a larger problem in Canadian democracy
Just this past Friday the National Energy Board (NEB) halted the review process for the proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline twinning. It wasn’t because scientists and concerned residents had been arrested on Burnaby Mountain in protest; it wasn’t because of collective statements from the Mayors of several Lower Mainland cities and First Nations condemning the project; it wasn’t even because scores of intervenors wrote public letters about the horribly flawed process that many of us subsequently walked away from altogether.
Continue readingSenate sets Canadian democracy ablaze with Bill C-51
They say Nero fiddled as Rome burned. While it may not feel as if Canada itself has been lit ablaze, it feels like Canadian democracy certainly has. Conservative and Liberal MPs doused it in gasoline with the passing of Bill C-51 in Parliament; the latter committing themselves to making corrections and edits once the fire was lit.
Continue readingCanada Day a time for celebration and reflection
Today I was out celebrating Canada Day with friends and neighbours, but I was also doing a lot of thinking. I was thinking about the Wampum belt. About the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. About the future of an increasingly multicultural and urban Canada. About Canada, the Iroquois word for “village” and “the land” and Canada the serial winner of Fossil of the Year for its lack of leadership on climate change.
Continue readingEveline Xia and Wes Regan: Middle-income earners must take stand for affordable housing in Vancouver
For years Vancouverites have raised alarm bells about the loss of affordable housing in low-income communities like the Downtown Eastside; now we are starting to see the dots connecting. Middle-income earners are beginning to understand what feelings of anxiety and powerlessness due to a lack of housing options feels like.
Continue readingKill Bill C-51, choose courage, Canada: Opinion
In my opinion, Bill C-51 is not a response to terror. This bill is “fear itself.” Across Canada on March 14, Canadians will come out to show courage and strength and protest Bill C-51.
Continue readingBill C-51 could be the biggest bait and switch Canada has ever seen: Opinion
In the spring of 2011 the Government of Canada was renamed the Harper Government. While to some it may seem a relatively minor issue of semantics, in retrospect it has come to signify something much greater: the dismantling of the Canada you grew up in, and its replacement with a strange and frightening new Canada birthed behind the closed doors of the Prime Minister’s Office. While Canadians have complained about the unchecked power of majority governments in the past, this one feels like a landslide that just keeps coming.
Continue readingCity hopes Downtown Eastside plan will transform neighbourhood, stabilize low-income community
“Wes Regan of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association also has concerns with the plan, and says business owners were forgotten. “We have felt this has largely been a housing and social planning focused plan. Businesses in many respects were unfortunately an afterthought. Now we are working with the city to play catch-up.”
Continue reading500 Coffees #65 on Vancouver is Awesome
Meet Wes Regan. Member of a few boards, Executive Director of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, a founding Director of the Vancouver Urban Farming Society and a founding partner at Urban Stream Innovation, which is a food systems tech startup.
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