GTEC Canada

06/03/2026

Did you know that June 3 is Canada’s Clean Air day (first Wed of June)? Lets take a moment to reflect on the importance of clean air, for our health, environment and economy.

Climate change is causing longer, drier summers (and springs!), and this leads to increased wildfire risk.

In 2024 and 2025, GTEC presented the “Preparing Your Organization for the Wildfire Season” webinar and in 2025, we created a “Wildfire and Smoke Preparation” kit. The Kit provides useful materials to community social services organizations and health care sectors as they face wildfires and smoke.

You can view the Webinar and download the Wildfire and Smoke Preparation kit for free on GTEC’s Resources page:
https://gteccanada.ca/resources/

Photo credit: Terry Stone, B.C. Interior, 2024

06/02/2026

Canadian Environment Week highlights the collective action we are taking to build a healthier, more sustainable future.

GTEC hopes to contribute by opening Canada’s first Climate Response Centre as a pop-up at Arbutus Neighbourhood House in Fall 2026.

Learn how climate change is impacting your neighbourhood and discover actions that you can take through compelling art installations in the Neighbourhood in the 21st Century exhibit.

https://gteccanada.ca/neighbourhood-in-the-21st-century-exhibit/

Students at the Fraser Academy have created powerful narratives and visual images for the exhibit that illustrate how students see their world now and in the future.

Photo credit: Brandon Young, “Call to Action” Evening with Miranda Massie fundraising event April 15, 2026

06/02/2026

As some cities in Metro Vancouver are experiencing temperatures nearing 30C this afternoon, notice of Stage 3 Water Restrictions has been announced too.

Stage 3 restrictions will begin June 8 (refer to graphic for more details).
https://metrovancouver.org/services/water/water-restrictions

06/01/2026

05/26/2026

This is not the new normal!

Vancouver Island's snowpack is at 11% of normal. The Okanagan is at a record low. The Gulf Islands are asking visitors to bring their own drinking water.

This is what happens when we treat watersheds as an afterthought. Healthy forests hold snowpack longer. Functioning wetlands recharge aquifers. Connected floodplains buffer against both floods and droughts. None of this is new, it's just been ignored.

We've spent decades clearcutting the forests that catch and store snow, draining the wetlands that filter and bank water, and charging industrial water users next to nothing for a resource that families, farmers and fish all depend on.
BC has the tools to turn this around. Restoring functioning watersheds isn't just good for the environment, it's drought-proofing. It's flood defence. It creates jobs.

And it's a lot cheaper than the economic hit that comes when the Okanagan wine industry, South Coast agriculture, and Vancouver Island tourism all face water scarcity at the same time.

We don't have to accept this as the new normal. But we do have to stop pretending that shorter showers are a water strategy.

Read the full story here: https://www.codebluebc.ca/media-links

05/25/2026

“Talk about a rupture in the political response, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality, how about the extent to which Canada’s federal government is pretending that we have climate change in hand, that big oil has carbon sequestered and renewables can wait while fossil fuels burn with minimal limits or constraints.

But we want you to know that many people and organizations, ordinary folks and climate change organizations alike, are not powerless. We have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, climate justice, regenerative approaches, solidarity, the territorial integrity of Indigenous communities everywhere.
The power of the less power starts with honesty.”

Read Arden Henley’s reworking of Mark Carney’s Davos address in the GTEC’s Communication and Media:
https://gteccanada.ca/oh-no-the-emperor-really-doesnt-wear-any-clothes-a-reworking-of-mark-carneys-davos-address/

05/20/2026

05/15/2026

A new provincial snow survey shows the mountain snowpack sitting at 83% of normal levels.

On Vancouver Island it's at 27% of normal.
The Okanagan: 31%.
South Coast: 45%.

In a normal year, only about 6% of the snowpack melts by May 1. This year, 28% is already gone.

This is the fourth year in a row BC communities have faced drought conditions. The pollution blanket trapping heat around the planet is accelerating the melt season, squeezing the window between snowmelt and summer dry spells when rivers, farms, and communities depend on that water being there.

Functioning watersheds with healthy forests, intact wetlands and connected floodplains, hold and release water slowly, the way they're supposed to. That's drought-proofing for our communities. It's flood prevention. It's defending the water supply that BC's farms, fisheries, and communities run on.

We already know what we need to do. We just need the political will to ramp up investment in watershed security across BC.

Tell your MLA to raise industrial water rates and invest in BC’s watersheds: https://www.codebluebc.ca/letterwriter



Read the full story here: https://www.codebluebc.ca/media-links

05/11/2026

Arts and culture programming has the power to transform and inspire climate adaptation/action in communities!

Join us in Fall 2026 for the opening of our Neighbourhood in the 21st Century exhibit at Arbutus Neighbourhood House
https://gteccanada.ca/neighbourhood-in-the-21st-century-exhibit/

05/11/2026

We are sharing a news release from Urban Climate Leadership in our blog:
"BC is getting hotter and smokier. By upgrading 5,000 low-rise buildings with energy-efficient heat pumps, BC can turn heat traps into safe havens for over 175,000 residents. Saving lives. Saving money. And creating jobs."
https://gteccanada.ca/urban-climate-leadership-news-release-
keep-it-cool-initiative/