On March 28, Climate ART Co-Lead Jane Welton facilitated a wide-ranging Zoom conversation with members of the Social & Eco Justice Committee at Holy Cross Catholic Parish. Jane began by defining the difference between “climate change” and “climate Justice,” giving examples of how economically advantageous countries like Canada could work to achieve the latter.

My point of view is that if GVAT is to make a difference it will do so because its action research teams have developed holistic views of the problems we seek to address and have revealed the root causes of the problems we have identified. Such understanding can provide meaningful context to the concrete proposals that we make.

In October 2021 the BC government adopted a new target to reduce “distances travelled in light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2030, compared to 2020.” GVAT has requested that the City of Victoria thank the provincial government for this bold target, and commit to meeting or beating the CleanBC 25% by 2030 target.

Attending GVAT meetings over the last couple of months has confirmed our intuition that the voices of our parishes would be a great fit for this group. The campaigns that GVAT endorses emerge through teams focused on three present crises: mental health and addiction, climate change, and affordable housing. All of these domains have been included in the conversations I have had with parishes about Transforming Futures and about the concerns they have for their communities.

GVAT works to take on the toughest questions of our day: the need for affordable housing, lack of access to quality mental health and addictions care, and the looming threat of climate change. These three areas of common cause each have their own Action and Research Team (ART), shared study and campaign development groups composed of interested individuals from member organizations.