Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT)

Shovels are in the ground for Hwy1 bus lanes, but has the U-turn happened, or will the next big funding announcement be for a highway expansion boondoggle? (Highway expansion makes traffic worse and increases carbon pollution). See www.gvat.ca/blog/wins-95... #yyj #bcpoli @gvat.bsky.social

It's not too late to register for our Foundations of Community Organizing training! You will learn essential leadership skills that will help you to navigate the divisive, polarizing times that we are in.

More info: www.gvat.ca/events

Join GVAT for our Foundations of Community Organizing. You will learn essential leadership skills that will help you to navigate the divisive, polarizing times that we are in. This training is a proven way of empowering leaders and communities to make positive change.

More info: www.gvat.ca/events

Want better bike lanes? Make room for wheelchairs and mobility scooters So far, Quebec is the only Canadian province that has updated its legislation to allow wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes and low-speed roads.

. @gvat.bsky.social asked candidates if they “support having the provincial government clarify... that people using #wheelchairs and mobility scooters have the right to use all ages and abilities bike and roll routes” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/30/o... #yyj #bcpoli @ericdoherty.bsky.social

That's why GVAT is launching our first listening campaign since the pandemic, to connect with the struggles facing our communities. For the next several months, we'll be holding table talks with communities throughout the region and sharing some of the stories that we hear. Stay tuned. 2/2

Photo of seven people sitting around a square, wooden table, in a well lit room. There is a reflective sheen over the image, as it is likely taken from behind a pane of glass. The people appear to be sitting in some kind of cafe, with shelves of dishes in behind the table, and a window seat to the left. The group seems to be looking at one person in the group, who's smiling.

All good works begin with listening. Whether to help someone feel heard or understand a problem or point of view, listening is an integral part of community organizing. 1/2

Gaps in BC mandate letters threaten progress on climate and biodiversity commitments | Sierra Club BC Sierra Club BC Director of Campaigns and Programs Shelley Luce offers the following statement in reaction to mandate letters sent to Cabinet ministers today.

Gaps in BC mandate letters threaten progress on climate and biodiversity commitments

sierraclub.bc.ca/gaps-in-bc-m...

#climate #biodiversity

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT - Events & Training GVAT offers trainings and workshops to empower its member organizations in change making, and highlights events put on by our community that relate to our efforts and celebrate our diversity.

GVAT is hosting this Fundamentals of Anti-Oppression event, which members from member organizations are welcome to join! Find more info here: www.gvat.ca/events-train...

Contract awarded for project to connect bus lanes from West Shore to Victoria Construction will be starting in early 2025 to build bus-on-shoulder lanes, which will connect the lanes from the West Shore to Victoria.

Good news! "There will be dedicated bus or bus-on-shoulder lanes along [Douglas & Hwy1] from Herald Street in Victoria all the way to Six Mile Road in the West Shore" in about 2 years. cheknews.ca/contract-awa... #yyj #yyjpoli #bcpoli @gvat.bsky.social @bctransit.com @cheknews.ca

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT - Win! Victoria & CRD Vote for Wheelchairs & Mobility Scooters on Bike and Roll Routes GVAT’s efforts to have wheelchair and mobility scooter users welcomed on bike and roll routes is gaining momentum. Not only did we get the Capital Regional District (CRD) board and Victoria City Counc...

And @gvat.bsky.social has been working with other groups, including Capital Bike, to get the legislation updated, and to have bike and roll routes designed with the needs of wheelchair and mobility scooters users in mind. www.gvat.ca/blog/win-vic... #yyj

First Responses are in for GVAT's BC Election Survey! Check out detailed responses from Victoria - Swan Lake's Christina Winter of BC Greens and Nina Krieger of the BC NDP. More #yyj responses coming soon. gvat.ca/blog/first-r... #bcpoli

Join Greater Victoria Acting Together as we learn skills to facilitate effective listening campaigns. We will cover the importance and impact of deep listening, and how to run an effective table talk (group meeting).
Sept. 18, 7pm - 8:30pm., online eventbrite.ca/e/listening-... #yyj

First Responses are in for GVAT's BC Election Survey! Check out detailed responses from Victoria - Swan Lake's Christina Winter of BC Greens and Nina Krieger of the BC NDP. More #yyj responses coming soon. gvat.ca/blog/first-r... #bcpoli

YouTube video by Stephen Hicks How climate change triggered a landslide tsunami in a Greenland fjord, vibrating Earth for 9 days

WATCH: How #climate change triggered a landslide tsunami in a Greenland fjord, vibrating Earth for 9 days #ClimateQuake youtu.be/60T9TKuuujs?...

Image of letter to editor in Times Colonist titled We need a U-turn on transportation funding. Link to full text of letters in post (second letter)

"We must meet or beat every one of our climate targets. And that can't happen without a U-turn on transportation funding" GVAT letter in Times Colonist. #yyj #yyjpoli #bcpoli www.timescolonist.com/opinion/lett...

"Income #inequality is rising due to unequal access to education, limited employment opportunities and inadequate social services, as well as regressive tax policies" UN Environment Programme wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.50... #TaxTheRich #ClimateJustice

Image of letter to editor in Times Colonist titled We need a U-turn on transportation funding. Link to full text of letters in post (second letter)

"We must meet or beat every one of our climate targets. And that can't happen without a U-turn on transportation funding" GVAT letter in Times Colonist. #yyj #yyjpoli #bcpoli www.timescolonist.com/opinion/lett...

July 30 - New bus lanes to line TCH to Westshore Plus: Canadian women stun French in Olympic rugby sevens

Win! Bus lanes to Westshore finally get long overdue funding commitment. Capital Daily credits GVAT member group @climatejusticeyyj.bsky.social for keeping pressure on. newsletter.capitaldaily.ca/p/bus-lanes-... #yyj #bcpoli #climateaction

July 30 - New bus lanes to line TCH to Westshore Plus: Canadian women stun French in Olympic rugby sevens

Win! Bus lanes to Westshore finally get long overdue funding commitment. Capital Daily credits GVAT member group @climatejusticeyyj.bsky.social for keeping pressure on. newsletter.capitaldaily.ca/p/bus-lanes-... #yyj #bcpoli #climateaction

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT - Newsletter from Greater Victoria Acting Together - What a night! So what comes next?

More about the Assembly, in case you missed it. www.gvat.ca/blog/newslet...

Better transit strategy would help Sooke traffic The extreme traffic congestion that occurred Friday on Sooke Road emphasizes the need for reliable and fast transit from downtown Victoria to Sooke. The rapid bus lanes being created along Douglas Street by Victoria and Saanich to the planned provincial bus lanes on the Trans-Canada Highway are a good start. However, we need a continuation of bus lanes and bus queue jumpers through View Royal, Colwood, Langford and into Sooke. This will help facilitate a shorter more comfortable commute for transit riders. It would also reduce our carbon footprint and the number of vehicles on the road leading to less congestion. It’s a relatively inexpensive action that can happen quickly. Michael Strong Sooke

"We need a continuation of bus lanes and bus queue jumpers through View Royal, Colwood, Langford and into Sooke."
Michael Strong in Times Colonist www.timescolonist.com/opinion/lett... #yyj #yyjpoli

Saanich clears hurdles for non-market housing Approval of development permits will be delegated to staff, and rezoning won’t be needed to build to the maximum height allowed in the official community plan.

Win! #Saanich has implemented the rapid non-market housing policy Mayor Dean Murdock
committed to at our housing assembly in 2022. timescolonist.com/local-news/s... #yyj

Old-growth forest on a hillside in unceded Ahousaht territory, with wisps of cloud drifting through the treetops. Photo by Agathe Bernard.

As these hot summer days wear on and more wildfires spark and grow, it's important to remember that the BC government continues to permit the logging of non-renewable, more fire-resilient old-growth forests right across the province at virtually unchanged rates.

📷: Agathe Bernard

Vic High students take their quest for solar panels to the legislature The school has just had a four-year, $100-million seismic refit and expansion that includes several energy-efficient features, but solar panels were not among them

Vic High's Environment and Climate Action Club aims "to show that young people care about climate issues, as was seen with a student walkout for climate action on May 31." www.timescolonist.com/local-news/v... #yyj #bced

Trevor Hancock: We are deeply connected to and kin with all of life We need a reverence for the Earth and all it contains, an awareness of a connection to nature that is, at its heart, spiritual

“Reconciliation will never occur unless we are also reconciled with the earth” - Truth and Reconciliation Commission qtd by Trevor Hancock www.timescolonist.com/opinion/trev... #climatejustice #yyj

Better transit strategy would help Sooke traffic The extreme traffic congestion that occurred Friday on Sooke Road emphasizes the need for reliable and fast transit from downtown Victoria to Sooke. The rapid bus lanes being created along Douglas Street by Victoria and Saanich to the planned provincial bus lanes on the Trans-Canada Highway are a good start. However, we need a continuation of bus lanes and bus queue jumpers through View Royal, Colwood, Langford and into Sooke. This will help facilitate a shorter more comfortable commute for transit riders. It would also reduce our carbon footprint and the number of vehicles on the road leading to less congestion. It’s a relatively inexpensive action that can happen quickly. Michael Strong Sooke

"We need a continuation of bus lanes and bus queue jumpers through View Royal, Colwood, Langford and into Sooke."
Michael Strong in Times Colonist www.timescolonist.com/opinion/lett... #yyj #yyjpoli

GVAT's Ltr to editor in the TC today. "Hopefully the new 24/7 bus lane signs will be posted before September... The future of humanity depends on thousands of decisions like this in small and medium-sized cities around our planet." timescolonist.com/opinion/lett... #yyj #yyjpoli

GVAT's Ltr to editor in the TC today. "Hopefully the new 24/7 bus lane signs will be posted before September... The future of humanity depends on thousands of decisions like this in small and medium-sized cities around our planet." timescolonist.com/opinion/lett... #yyj #yyjpoli

This is the letter we sent to Victoria City Council requesting that both parts of this work be accelerated. One was, and that is one good step forward. We need many more steps like this to happen at a faster pace! drive.google.com/file/d/1aksA... #yyj #yyjpoli

Douglas Street transformation set to begin this year, with plans to extend bus lanes Council directed staff to establish by the end of this year 24/7 bus lanes between Herald Street and Hillside Avenue, currently designated as bus lanes only at peak travel times.

Faster & more reliable public transit, less traffic, safer streets, accelerated climate action. Yes please!! Read: timescolonist.com/local-news/d... Our ltr in 🧵 #yyj #yyjpoli