We’re turning up the heat on B.C. MLAs to end fracking
August 2, 2023
It’s getting hot in here.
Only this time we’re not referring to the climate – but to all the heat we brought to MLA offices across the province for the Frack Free BC week of action at the end of July!
Frack Free BC activists rally outside Environment Minister George Heyman’s office in Vancouver-Fairview during the week of action.
In Vancouver, Surrey, Vernon, Victoria, Nelson, the Sunshine Coast, Powell River, Squamish and beyond, Frack Free BC members visited their local representatives with colourful signs and powerful chants. It was so inspiring to see folks coming together to demand an end to fracking: B.C.’s biggest source of climate pollution and the sector responsible for poisoning billions of litres of freshwater every year.
As B.C. and Canada suffer through the worst wildfire season in history, and the world experiences its hottest week on record, these protests are helping raise awareness with MLAs and the public about the harmful effects of fracking on the climate, fresh water and communities, and advocate for a phase out of the industry.
We’re calling on the B.C. government to:
- Set a date to stop issuing new fracking permits;
- Begin a phase out of existing wells and fracking infrastructure;
- Support local communities to transition to more sustainable industries.
You can check out the week of action re-cap video on Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube. And read some of the local coverage of the rallies in Vernon, Squamish, and the Sunshine Coast.
Frack Free BC activists with an awesome tent set up in Vernon-Monashee for the week of action.
If you’re still new to this topic, or wondering – what’s the big deal about fracking anyways? Let us explain.
Beneath Treaty 8 territories in Northeastern B.C. is a huge deposit of fossil fuels known as the Montney Shale Formation, which can only be accessed through fracking. There are enough potential greenhouse gasses in this region to blow past Canada’s 2030 emissions targets 30 times over!
If the half dozen LNG terminals that are proposed for the coast of B.C. are built, the number of fracking wells in the province could double in the next decade. Which would make it impossible for B.C. to reach its climate targets.
The Provincial Government is the only jurisdiction that has the power to end fracking – and there’s a precedent. Climate leaders like Quebec, Nova Scotia, New York, and California have all banned or made plans to phase out fracking, and they did it by building movements like Frack Free BC.
This summer of action to turn up the heat was just the latest in our series of efforts to educate the public about the fact that fracking is B.C.’s biggest climate problem, and make it a political issue that the BC NDP can’t ignore.
Frack Free BC community members have been meeting with their MLAs for months now, holding regular rallies, signing petitions, talking to their friends and neighbours, and more.
Frack Free BC activists rally outside Premier Eby’s office in Vancouver-Point Grey.
Earlier in July, over 50 people showed up to disrupt the world’s largest LNG conference that took place in Vancouver, to greenwash the industry and promote LNG as a ‘clean, green’ energy source.
Activists outside the world’s largest LNG conference in downtown Vancouver in early July.
This conference was proof that politicians and corporations are still planning to expand the fracking and LNG industry, turning a blind eye to the climate disasters they’re causing. It’s up to us to build a massive Frack Free BC movement that will force politicians to pay attention, and we have to do it quickly.
But our efforts to turn up the heat will only be successful if we make them impossible to ignore, and that means surrounding politicians in the real world, AND online, with our message.
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