Climate Justice ART Campaigns

Overhead view of buses in bus lane where crosswalk and bike & roll route crosses

Transportation and Built Environment

GVAT’s Transportation & Built Environment accomplishments include a ground breaking new CRD policy on transportation prioritization in the region, focused on meeting regional sustainable transportation, affordability, and greenhouse gas reduction targets. This could see hundreds of millions of provincial and federal dollars invested in electric rapid bus lines, cycling routes, and sidewalks. It could also get climate pollution from transportation trending down rather than up. Ensuring implementation is one of our main ongoing campaign focuses.

Another ongoing campaign focus is making it so people using wheelchairs and mobility scooters can access All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bike and roll routes.

We are also advocating for:

  • Improved public transit, walking, bicycle and rolling access to parks so people without cars can better access recreation. (This is already included in the new CRD transportation prioritization policy)

  • Municipalities and the provincial government to reallocate existing road space to bus lanes and AAA bike and roll routes

  • Provincial approval for a 30 km/h speed limit on residential streets without center lines, as requested by several municipalities in the region

  • Frequent and affordable transit service to communities on Vancouver Island, including frequent service from Victoria to Nanaimo and other major destinations as well as multiple buses a day to smaller communities such as Port Renfrew / Pacheedaht First Nation 

  • Lower transit fares, and targeted free / discounted fares for youth and lower income people

  • Rapidly transitioning the BC Transit fleet to electric buses

  • Switching from natural gas to electricity for space and water heating in new and existing buildings

    Transportation and Built Environment Campaign Successes:

  • GVAT led campaigning for the ground breaking new CRD policy on transportation prioritization which was approved unanimously in July 2021. GVAT’s Climate Justice Team co-leads wrote this op-ed about the significance of this new policy.

  • Victoria City Council voted unanimously in favor of investigating allowing wheelchairs and mobility scooters to use bike and roll routes in October 2021. GVAT featured prominently in the CBC and Times Colonist coverage of the campaign.

Forestry Campaign Goals



GVAT’s current forestry work is directed at the provincial government. Our Asks include “an end to logging of at-risk old growth ecosystems” and “mandatory forestry practices which preserve the natural ecological functions of the forests and restore those functions where they have been diminished”.

We are pushing for a Green New Deal in BC for forestry workers and communities, including Indigenous communities, to make the transition to a sustainable forestry industry and diversified economies, all in accordance with UNDRIP and in an actively anti-racist manner.  GVAT supports the 14 recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel and is pushing for timely, fully funded implementation, especially immediate old growth logging deferrals.

Tuesdays for Trees

GVAT’s forestry accomplishments include its ongoing Tuesdays for Trees campaign which has inspired hundreds of people to a greater appreciation of trees and forests and their crucial role in stemming climate change. Tuesdays for Trees helped lay the foundation for the significant citizen engagement happening on the south Island as people speak out and stand up for old growth forest protection

The main thrust of Tuesdays for Trees is having different organizations do actions/events/celebrations on Tuesdays to raise public awareness and pressure decision-makers regarding the importance of trees and forests in protecting us from climate change and keeping BC healthy and beautiful. Tuesdays for Trees also takes place each Tuesday on GVAT social media. Any group (including a family) can host a Tuesdays for Trees event or help amplify GVAT’s online reach.

Letter Writing Campaign


GVAT member organizations wrote the Minister of Forests in support of GVAT’s forestry goals to ensure that the Ministry is hearing from diverse groups of British Columbians rather than only individuals and environmental organizations.  The Forestry Sub-Committee on behalf of GVAT continues to write to various other Cabinet ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries to lay out for them how BC’s poor forestry practices affect their responsibilities and urge them to speak up.   We also do Letters to the Editor. 

Forestry Campaign Successes

Organizations have displayed great creativity in hosting Tuesdays for Trees events during various stages of Covid.  Events, often outdoors or online, include a mini-demonstration, educational/inspirational speakers, weekly prayers, a tree-themed song and poetry evening, tree planting, documentary viewing and invasive species removal.  Host organizations so far include Broad View United Church, Camosun College Student Society, Holy Cross Catholic Parish, Sierra Club BC, Sisters of St. Ann, Congregation Emanu-El, St. John the Divine Anglican Church, Climate Justice Victoria, The Church of Truth, Threshold Housing Society, First Unitarian Church of Victoria, Society of Friends of St. Ann’s Academy and Fairfield United Church.

We met with Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, in June 2021 and have had ongoing communication with the Ministry of Forests since then.

CRD Foodlands Access Program campaign

GVAT expects a climate justice lens to be applied to all decision-making with respect to food and agriculture systems to ensure those systems: 

  • Have low Green House Gas emissions, 

  • Sequester carbon through natural processes, 

  • Increase plant-based food production for human consumption, 

  • Increase human consumption of plant-based foods, 

  • Increase food security, 

  • Have built-in resilience to disturbances, including climate change, 

  • Support access by Indigenous peoples to lands and waters providing food, including traditional foods, 

  • And treat workers fairly, regardless of citizenship status. 

Therefore, GVAT supports the proposed CRD Foodlands Access Program and asks that CRD Directors and staff support it and ensure that its implementation furthers the above goals. 

 Background Info on the proposed Foodlands Access Program 

The Foodlands Access Program would use land owned by the CRD or CRD municipalities and would lease parcels of that land to farmers (mainly new and younger) who currently cannot access land to farm (due to high land prices). The land would be used to grow food and the farmers on it would get support, mentor-ship and training. If done right, it can be a showcase for farming practices that are easy on the environment and sequester carbon rather than release it.