Please mark your calendars to attend the Community Safety Forum on Wed. June 5th at the Village Hall 7-9:00.  This is the annual Block Watch training and much more. This year the focus of the forum will be on Fire Prevention - preparing for a safe summer should it be a hot one.  Speakers include:

Call for Artisans and Musicians 

Artisan Festival Saturday June 8th, 10-4

The Gleneagles Rec Centre is holding its first Artisan Festival. It will feature local "higher end" artisans and crafters selling their wares, product demonstrations and workshops, and musicians passing the "hat'. Workshops, demos and plays will be an important part of the festival.

It's an exciting month of May at the Brankendale Art Gallery (BAG). Check out the great line up in this article and on the poster.

Fri. May 10 7-11:00 pm
Squamish Montessori School presents Young at Art.
Featuring Live Music with
Violinist Yuko Iwanaga & Guitarist, Singer Songwriter Dean Reorda
Wine & Tapas. Auction of Artistically Decorated Rain Barrels!
A fun, social evening enjoying the display of children's art! All welcome!
Tickets $15 for Montessori family members (includes a framed piece of your child's art) $10 for guests.

Available at http://www.eventbrite.ca and SMS 604 892 1180

Howe Sound Gravel Mine an Environmental Catastrophe

There is a new axiom in BC, evidently, which says, ‘You can’t be against EVERYTHING."

Unhappily, this had led the NDP and Energy critic John Horgan to support Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plants in northwest BC for export. This is turning out to be an unmitigated disaster and my prediction is that there will be no LNG plants in BC thus no market.

But this new axiom, so critical to those who would take away our heritage, is also permitting a gravel pit to be developed in Howe Sound at McNab Creek. This is not for want of private opposition – it is alive and very well indeed. What it’s lacking is public awareness.

Howe Sound is a world-class area. It’s taken a hell of a beating since my Dad, Mom and I fished it back when if you didn’t get a fish you must have forgotten to put a hook on your line. Eagles have returned to how they were in the days when I was a boy and so have porpoises. Whales are being sighted again. Salmon runs, except the ones dependent on the Ashlu, which has been ruined by a private power company, are returning. Howe Sound is for boaters, canoeists, and a paradise for kayaks, as it may well become again for fishermen.

The El Nino, a fifty foot wood boat was found to be sinking slowly off of Anvil Island recently. It was located near the old decommissioned BC Ferry that was being scrapped in over 250 feet of water. The El Nino was abandoned, and has become a hazard to navigation and is leaking pollutants into Howe Sound. Despite contacting Coast Guard who visited the foundering vessel while it was still precariously tied to the shore on Anvil Island, it was left alone. DFO, Transport Canada and BC Ministry of Environment also declined from taking any action.

This vessel came loose and drifted over to Sunset Marina. The vessel came very close to drifting into the BC Ferry lanes and still poses a potential hazard for both navigation and the environment in Howe Sound. Local resident John Buchanan and his son took the time and effort to remove 800 pounds of material off of the hulk. It seems that derelict vessels seem to be falling through the cracks of all of the government departments.

Meanwhile Bowen Island residents seem to be suffering from the same problems with abandoned vessels coming loose and ending up on shore or sinking. This seems to be a Canada wide problem on both of our coasts. Proper registration regulations could work towards creating the accountability required for action to be taken.

The question remains whether any government department is willing to take on the responsibility of dealing with this important issue. Will it take a BC Ferry to have a collision with an abandoned vessel before something is done?