What do we do with a summer like this one?
The West Coast pipeline is moving toward approval. Years of environmental protections are being rolled back, one at a time and astonishingly fast. Tariffs are stoking a fear of their own, and the news cycle rarely lets up.
It would be reasonable to feel that none of this is within our control. And here is one thing you can do.
On August 1, the federal government opened a public comment period on whether to designate the West Coast Oil Pipeline a project of national interest, fast-tracking it past the usual environmental review. The notice arrived during a summer that needed no more bad news: the same weekend it was published, more than five thousand British Columbians were under evacuation orders, as wildfires burned across the province.
The comment period closes September 18. It is a real, legally required step, and it becomes part of the public record no matter what the government decides.
We are asking members of the ORCIE community to send a comment: not a form letter, a few honest paragraphs, in your own words, about why this decision matters to you.
It takes about 20 minutes. Read one section of our short guide, choose the argument that speaks to you most, and write. The guide walks through the five legal factors the government has to weigh. For anyone who wants the deeper context on the public money already behind this industry, our backgrounder on fossil fuel subsidies is here: Care for Creation, Not Extraction: Understanding why Canada must end fossil fuel subsidies.
We will not undo years of policy in thirty-one days, and that is not the point. This fight is made of moments like this one: small, bounded, ours to join. What we can offer is public witness: dissent, spoken plainly, put on the record, whatever the government decides. That, too, is faithfulness.
Guide to public comments on listing the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest in ENGLISH and FRENCH.