2018 in review | A year of impact
January 31, 2019
Tracey Saxby
As I reflect on 2018, the feeling that overwhelms me is one of gratitude. The My Sea to Sky community is truly amazing. We achieved some incredible things together in 2018, and I would like to thank you so much for your support.
Key highlights from 2018:
- Reaching new audiences: My Sea to Sky was invited to present at VIMFF in North Vancouver and Squamish to share our concerns about Woodfibre LNG and the Burnco gravel mine.
- #StopBurnco campaign success: The Sunshine Coast Regional District voted a unanimous "No!" to rezoning the land at McNab Creek to allow a crushing mill onsite for the Burnco gravel mine.
- #StopWoodfibreLNG campaign success: Following a sold-out all-candidates event, we released a report card on municipal candidates to help inform Squamish voters. The result? Squamish elected a strong council that will hold Woodfibre LNG accountable and ensure that they don't wiggle out of paying their fair share of municipal taxes or stop the general public from accessing an important boat launch at Darrel Bay. (To understand why it was important to make Woodfibre LNG an election issue in Squamish, LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST or READ THIS LETTER.)
- Climate accountability momentum: Squamish, Whistler, and West Vancouver have all agreed to send letters to the top twenty fossil fuel producers, holding them accountable for their role in causing climate change.
2018 by the numbers:
The amount of time and energy that our volunteers bring to My Sea to Sky never ceases to amaze me. Please join me in thanking our incredible team of volunteers! If you want to volunteer, sign up here to join our team.
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More than 3,265 of you took action via our website in 2018, whether that was sending a letter or signing a petition. We've gathered 17,774 signatures on the Howe Sound Declaration and will be delivering this to key MPs and MLAs again soon (and also in the leadup to the 2019 Federal election). Have you signed the Howe Sound Declaration yet? Please take a moment to add your name!
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Whether it's newspapers, TV, radio, or podcasts, we made the news 79 times last year. Maybe more, it's hard to keep track. We were also busy writing 14 letters to key politicians at all levels of government, to raise awareness about key issues with Woodfibre LNG, encourage leadership on climate change, or help fix our broken environmental assessment process to name just a few.
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Our volunteers made 1,585 phone calls to help get out the vote in the lead-up to the Squamish municipal election, resulting in 47.8% voter turnout, 12.2% higher than the average voter turnout. Then we switched gears to text 32,872 people across BC to get out the vote for Proportional Representation. This time around we didn't succeed, but that is still an incredible effort to try to fix our democracy in partnership with other organizations across BC. With ProRep, our fight to protect Howe Sound would be so much easier. Next time.
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Our campaigns in 2019 are already heating up and we'll be in touch again soon with critical updates on Woodfibre LNG. Thank you again for supporting our campaigns - we really couldn't do this without you.
With sincere thanks,
Tracey Saxby
Executive Director, My Sea to Sky
Can you chip in to support our campaigns? Since our launch in 2014, we are incredibly proud and grateful to say that we rely on the My Sea to Sky community for small donations that provide the majority of our funding. Your generous contribution will help us to run our critical campaigns to protect Howe Sound. Every dollar helps.