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Letters: Thank you Gibsons, for courage and vision to sue big oil

'Congratulations to the Gibsons town council for bravely and prudently leading the province in municipal efforts to pay for the soaring costs of damages due to climate change. On Tuesday, March 7, the council voted unanimously to set aside $1 per citizen to join a class action suit against the world’s five largest oil companies.'
Gibsons municipal hall b
Town of Gibsons municipal hall

Editor:  

Congratulations to the Gibsons town council for bravely and prudently leading the province in municipal efforts to pay for the soaring costs of damages due to climate change. On Tuesday, March 7, the council voted unanimously to set aside $1 per citizen to join a class action suit against the world’s five largest oil companies. 

That suit will seek to recover from big oil their fair share of the costs of climate-related damages. Those costs are now paid exclusively by taxing citizens, while big oil reaps massive profits and pays nothing for local damages, despite their own science from decades ago predicting the climate crises we are now experiencing. The council agreed to work on this initiative with other B.C. municipalities and First Nations across the province. 

Gibsons becomes the first municipality in B.C. to commit fully to the class action suit. Work is under way in Powell River, Nanaimo, Whistler, Greater Victoria, Burnaby, and other communities for them to follow Gibsons’ lead. The Sue Big Oil campaign was initiated by West Coast Environmental Law and taken up locally by dozens of Sunshine Coast volunteers. On behalf of those volunteers and the hundreds of Gibsons residents who have signed a petition in favour of this action, I warmly and enthusiastically applaud the council’s courage and vision. 

Dawn Allen, Organizer 

Sunshine Coast Sue Big Oil