Dogwood Initiative

The Dogwood Initiative is a Canadian non-profit public interest group based in Victoria, British Columbia. The organization's goal is to help British Columbians reclaim power over their environment and democracy.^[1] The organization focuses on three main campaigns, No Tankers, Beyond Coal and Ban Big Money.^[2]

With more than 260,000 supporters, Dogwood is British Columbia's largest citizen engagement organization.^[3] Their goal is to build a grassroots base of engaged citizens ready to take action outside of the existing party system. They look for tipping points: places where enough citizen pressure can rewrite a law, reverse a bad decision or convince a politician to take a stronger position. They work steadily to identify thousands of like-minded voters in key constituencies. They build organizing teams made up of local people committed to each other and the place they live. Then they mobilize by channelling large-scale citizen action both online and offline. This might be an election, a leadership race, court case or regulatory review.

History

Conceived in autumn 1998 at a meeting of First Nations, environmentalists, community advocates, and labour leaders, Dogwood Initiative began operating in 1999.^[4]

At first campaigns focused on logging. Dogwood campaigners worked to stop the privatization of nearly 300,000 acres of public land on Vancouver Island.^[5] They convinced the government to redistribute 10 per cent of MacMillan Bloedel’s logging tenures to First Nations and local communities.^[6] They helped limit raw log exports, launched the British Columbia Community Forest Association^[7] and used the Softwood Lumber dispute to reallocate 20 per cent of logging tenures across B.C.^[8]

As oil and gas began to replace logging as the government’s top priority, Dogwood began to adapt. Beginning in 2001, the Liberal government in Victoria began to fast-track fossil fuels, starting with coalbed methane.^[9] By blowing apart coal seams, companies like Royal Dutch Shell planned to release vast reserves of methane gas held in place by groundwater. Dogwood worked with activists and First Nations in Telkwa, Cache Creek, Smithers, Princeton, Fernie, Iskut, Dease Lake, and throughout the Peace Region, and were able to shut down commercial coalbed methane everywhere in B.C. Dogwood’s early support for Tahltan opposition to Shell’s massive coalbed methane plan in the Sacred Headwaters led to a high-profile victory when Shell pulled out for good in 2012.^[10]

To date Dogwood is best known for their No Tankers campaign, aimed at stopping the expansion of oil tankers off British Columbia’s magnificent but fragile coast. What began as a small, focused Enbridge campaign with northern First Nations grew into a political juggernaut that arguably contributed to the Harper government’s 2015 defeat, after the pro-tanker Conservative party lost more votes in B.C. than in the rest of the country combined.^[11]

The No Tankers campaign first gained prominence with the “Oil Tankers are Loonie” initiative, where people put No Tankers decals onto Canada’s $1 coins, turning people’s pocket change into a viral advertisement for stopping the expansion of oil tankers off BC’s coast. At one point there were more than 1.5 million decaled coins in circulation.^[12] Next, the “Mob the Mic” campaign signed up thousands of concerned No Tankers supporters of all political allegiances to participate in public hearings on the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal.^[13] Although the vast majority of those who testified opposed the proposal, Stephen Harper’s cabinet approved the project anyway. Spotting a powerful wedge issue, Justin Trudeau committed to rejecting the Enbridge pipeline and legislating a crude oil tanker ban on British Columbia’s North Coast.^[14] The next big battle is in southern B.C., as citizens fight to stop Kinder Morgan’s proposal to load more than 400 oil tankers a year in Burnaby.

Back in 2010, Dogwood decided that stopping the expansion of fossil fuel export infrastructure in British Columbia was the biggest contribution they could make to the growing climate movement. Coal, the worst global warming villain of them all, was an obvious but overlooked target. They zeroed in on the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks facility, part of the federal port authority’s plan to turn Vancouver into the continent’s biggest coal port. By organizing municipal leadership and residents in affected communities—six years later the expansion plans have stalled. But the struggle continues as U.S. thermal coal companies become increasingly desperate to send their product to power plants in Asia. With five export terminals rejected in Oregon and Washington State, B.C. is the obvious back door.^[15]

In B.C. the biggest democratic battles are often around resource extraction, but they also work on less-sexy democratic reforms to promote government accountability and transparency. They've been involved in efforts to modernize provincial Freedom of Information laws as well as the province’s outdated and ineffective political donations laws. The recently launched Ban Big Money campaign builds upon Dogwood’s success in 2006 in getting the province to make political donations available online.^[16]

Recent campaigns

No Tankers

As world leaders finally move on climate action, investors in Alberta’s oil sands are desperate to liquidate high-cost bitumen reserves before slowing global demand locks them underground. Companies from China and Texas have come up with a reckless and greedy proposal: the Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion. On November 29, 2016, in a direct betrayal to his campaign promises, Prime Minister Trudeau approved the Kinder Morgan expansion project.^[17] The final political barrier for the pipeline is a provincial approval. If B.C. Premier Christy Clark approves Kinder Morgan, Dogwood is planning to launch a Citizens' Initiative.^[18] This a direct democracy law, unique to British Columbia, whereby citizens can put the issue to a vote, much like with the HST referendum.

Beyond Coal

American coal companies are using B.C. to access international markets because citizens in Oregon and Washington have shut down five coal export terminals in a row.^[19] Coal trains leave a trail of toxic dust and climate destruction, in return for scant economic benefits. But federal port authorities are champing at the bit to expand coal exports, while provincial politicians are giving them a free pass on health and environmental assessments. Fraser Surrey Docks wants to ship up to eight million tonnes a year of U.S. thermal coal to power plants in China.^[20]

Ban Big Money

In April 2016, Dogwood launched their Ban Big Money campaign. British Columbia is the "Wild West" of political financing: any corporation, union or wealthy donor anywhere in the world can give unlimited money to municipal or provincial politicians.^[21] Citizens are overwhelmingly opposed to Big Money in provincial politics, with 86 per cent of British Columbians supporting a complete ban on corporate and union political donations – like at the federal level.^[22] Yet millions of dollars continue to pour into B.C. elections from real estate developers, foreign oil & gas companies, construction unions, trophy hunters and more.^[23] Many of these donations are anonymous, hidden or otherwise untraceable.

References

External links

• Official website