Sierra Club Comox Valley is the youngest group of Sierra Club BC. Gathered initially to oppose a proposal for a gas station in a high-risk earthquake area, the core group expanded their vision to address the sustainability of the entire Courtenay River watershed. The group approached Sierra Club BC in early 2009 and became a fully accredited Sierra Club local group in September. View the inaugural event in Comox.

Read our mission statement.

Campaign history: In early 2008, the Comox Valley Regional District issued a development permit allowing a businessman to develop a gas station on the Dyke (Comox) Road that runs along the edge of the estuary.  In the opinion of Sierra Comox, and the opinion of a large segment of the community, the location is not appropriate for a gas station due to the high risk of environmental damage and the danger to human life because of heavy traffic flows on a very narrow road.  

Though we are still seeking an alternative to the gas station in the proposed location, we have become increasingly aware that the project is part of a much larger problem that will continue to affect the estuary. 

Since we began our struggle with the proposed gas station, the world has entered the most severe economic global meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.  We are also witnessing the rise of global warming and the continued destruction of Earth’s life support systems. We are in a time of massive and fundamental changes.

Sierra Comox Valley members enjoying the eagles across from the proposed Gas N Go Station.

 But our laws and organizational processes are not adapting to change.  Not only are the existing laws failing to protect the estuary and the life forms that inhabit it, but they are impeding the ability of the “protectors”—our various government departments—to work together with one another and with citizens in a coordinated manner. 

For many centuries the ancestors of the K’omoks First Nation enjoyed the fruits of the estuary and cared for it. But today things are different.  There are no laws designed to protect a whole estuary.  Instead, responsibilities for an estuary are parcelled out among a number of discrete government ministries and agencies—Environment, Transportation, ICBC, Fisheries and Oceans, Health, the Archaeological Branch of the Ministry of Tourism, etc.   The laws then restrict individual departments from interfering in the mandates of other departments. The refrain “not our area of responsibility” echoes around the estuary.

With the lack of integration and the breakdown of life support systems there is clearly a need for new ways of thinking, new forms of governance, new ways of doing business, new ways of addressing the challenges of development. 

The realization that we are in a time of massive change coupled with our experiences over the past number of months has helped us clarify and define the mission, role and guiding principles of Sierra Comox Valley.