For their final projects in the spring 2010 term, UBC journalism students reported stories related to local land and food issues. This map shows where their stories are situated in the greater Vancouver area.

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Ocea Ringrose and Colin Meacham's laneway home will face this alley.

Related: Costs piling up for laneway houses in Vancouver

A species at risk

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Barn owls are blue-listed provincially and listed as a Special Concern under the federal Species At Risk Act. Photo courtesy of Sofi Hindmarch.

Located alongside fragile Burns Bog land, the Nottingham farm remains one of the most ecologically valuable areas in the Lower Mainland.

With the new provincial highway cutting through Nottingham’s property and other areas in Delta, environmental specialists worry that barn owls face increased risk.

“If we continue to urbanize the landscape and new highways are coming in, it’s going to be tough for barn owls to survive,” said Sofi Hindmarch, a Masters of Science student researching barn owls at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Wildlife Ecology.

A fragile species

A 2006 report identified barn owls as the species most prone to traffic collision in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Central Fraser Valley.

Number of owls collected from different regions of B.C. as a result of vehicular collisions. Source: Preston, M.I., G.A. Powers. 2006. High Incidence of Vehicle-Induced Owl Mortality in the Lower Mainland, B.C. Wildlife Afield (3):1, Supplement.

The study collected dead or severely injured owls found on roads between 1987 and 2005 to identify the most vulnerable species. The barn owl – a low-flying and nocturnal bird – was the most frequently collected bird. Sixty percent of owls found in the Delta area were barn owls.

Hindmarch said road development and urbanization pose a significant threat to bird species in the Lower Mainland. The $1 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road project – scheduled for completion in 2012 – may pose a greater risk to the province’s already declining barn owl population, she said.

“These birds are good at adapting to change,” she said. “When it comes to a point where barn owls are not able to subside in a landscape, I think it’s a signal that the land has become too degraded and it’s hard for any wildlife to live on.”

New route for commercial traffic

The provincial government began construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road in 2009. The 40-kilometre highway is designed to reduce traffic congestion in Delta and Surrey and improve commercial transit across the region.

It is part of the $3-billion Gateway Program that is intended to improve transit in Metro Vancouver.

Gateway Program director Geoff Freer said the Ministry of Transportation assessed the best route for the new highway with specialists and experts to minimize its impact.

“We’ve adjusted the alignment of the road many times to try and strike a balance between various interests – bog values, farming values, wildlife, fisheries,” Freer said. “At the end of the day, it made the most sense to plan an economic corridor that would link the railways, ports and highways going east and to the U.S.”

View South Fraser Perimeter Road in a larger map

The Nottingham farm is one of the most ecologically valuable areas of the route, according to a 2007 environmental assessment of the South Fraser Perimeter Road project. In the report, Environment Canada identified the potential risks faced by barn owls and other vulnerable species in the area.

Plan for protective hedgerows

In response to concerns about risk, Freer said that hedgerows would be built by the province alongside certain areas of the highway to force barn owls to fly up and over highway traffic.

But according to an Environment Canada report, the effectiveness of hedgerows to reduce birds’ collision with traffic remains unknown.

For Warren Nottingham, the province’s commitment to build hedgerows is both necessary and important to protect the barn owls on his property from the new highway’s traffic.

“The diversity of wildlife that are using the acreage here is so great that I always thought it should be expropriated and added to the Burns Bog park,” he said.

“But promises have been made to build a barrier so now we have to wait and see what happens.”

What began with a single cow in her back yard has now erupted into a legal and personal headache for Home on the Range operator Alice Jongerden.

“I have nothing to hide,” said Jongerden, seated on a bale in her hayloft. “Our intent was never to be in the black market or to be under the table.”

The Fraser Valley Health Authority initiated a cease and desist order after an inspection at the Chilliwack dairy farm two years ago. The authority concluded that Jongerden was violating the provincial Public Health Act by packaging and distributing a hazardous product: raw milk.

Provincial Supreme Court Justice Gropper upheld the injunction in March determining that the Public Health Act did not require proof of a specific health hazard.

“There is no dispute that Ms. Jongerden, doing business as Home on the Range, has breached the Public Health Act, and its regulations,” wrote the judge. “The remedy for the petitioners (Home on the Range) is to convince the government to change its legislation.”

Home on the Range “is community-supported agriculture” said Jongerden, pulling at straws of hay as she spoke. “It’s just a group of members that cooperatively come together, own these cows, pay me to take care of them, and they get the dividends (milk) from the cows.”

Jongerden continues to provide approximately 1,800 litres of raw milk to nearly 400 shareholders on a weekly basis. In order to respond to the health authority’s concerns, Home on the Range now marks its unpasteurized milk as “not for human consumption.”

Alice Jongerden believes it's her right to package and distribute raw milk from her shareholder's 21 Jersey cows.

The raw milk community

“The raw milk thing has turned into a political battle, but its only part of a larger issue,” said Sophia Baker-French, who is in charge of University of British Columbia’s Food System Project, a program that coordinates student access to transparent and enduring local food systems.

Baker-French said people search out whole foods or raw milk for diverse reasons including health concerns and interest in supporting local farmers.

“When your food system is kept local you can see the consequences,” said Baker-French. “Our population can see it, feel it and change it.”

Jongerden said that people have the right to choose how their food is produced.

“On commercial dairies they (the cows) are being constantly pumped with food and (are) constantly working, so they’re producing high quantities,” said Jongerden. “We don’t push them. We just let them live their life in their environment.”

Gordon Watson, a whole foods activist and original shareholder of Home on the Range said there is a huge demand for raw milk.

“They are informed consumers,” he said. “They have come to find this stuff by themselves. That it is really important, that they seek it out.”

Watson takes exception with the health authority and the legal system interfering with his access to the food he wants.

“The milk will keep on flowing,” said Watson, explaining that he plans to appeal the latest court ruling. “I am confident that we will find a legal way.”

Consequences?

Fraser Valley Health warned that unpasteurized milk can be tainted with disease-causing bacteria including E-coli, salmonella and campylobacter.

Nearly 400 households in Greater Vancouver consume milk produced at Home on the Range

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall cautioned against the continuation of the dairy’s production.

“From the public health perspective, it’s unwise,” said Kendall, explaining that it’s difficult to force adults to change their actions. “I do have a problem with that milk being provided to children who don’t have the ability to make decisions for themselves.”

Sui Ryu, Chilliwack resident and mother of three, decided to drink raw milk after visiting several local dairies.

“Sometimes eager people tell me how my parenting can be improved,” said Ryu. She acknowledged Kendall’s concern but explained that her decision to serve her family raw milk came after diligent research, and that she has a genuine desire to consume milk from “the original source.”

Jongerden said that independent food production is at risk.

The ruling “means that any farmer in his community that has a commercial dairy farm, puts milk in a jar and brings it to his house, can be charged with causing a health hazard,” said Jongerden, before heading back into the dairy parlour to help her son finish up with the evening milking.

Chickens in Vancouver face a vote at city council deciding the conditions for keeping them in backyards. For some chicken owners, the new regulations could be a curse, rather than a blessing. Daniel Hallen has the story.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Having a little cottage behind her home has always been a dream for Ocea Ringrose.

“Growing up as a kid I always loved the idea of having a little coach house or a little studio house,” Ringrose said. “It’s just so cool.”

In one year, Ringrose will have that cottage.

She and her partner, Colin Meacham, are tearing down their home, built in 1927, and rebuilding it along with a laneway house, an option they wouldn’t have had a year ago.

The City of Vancouver passed a bylaw last July to allow laneway housing in areas currently zoned for single-family dwellings.

“Being at Trout Lake, we’re on a peat bog here. So everything’s sinking,” Ringrose said. “We waited long enough for the city to implement laneway housing so we feel really lucky that now we have an opportunity to do something special.”

Photo gallery: Laneway housing in Vancouver

Ronda Howard, a senior city planner, said Vancouverites expressed interest in housing aging parents near caregivers, and providing starter homes for adult children in their own communities.

But building and development permits, electrical and water hookups, construction fees and landscaping fees make laneway housing expensive.

This laneway house at McGill and Slocan in East Vancouver is nearly complete.

“It’s not really what I would call affordable,” Ringrose said.

The city estimated the cost for a laneway house would total around $150,000. But Michael Geller, a Vancouver architect, planner and developer, said the actual costs are closer to $250,000.

One builder said his laneway houses cost between $230,000 and $300,000.

“If you think of what you get for that price it’s quite remarkable,” said Jake Fry, who owns Smallworks, a company that builds prefabricated laneway homes. “If you think of something akin to a one-bedroom apartment or a condominium … you’re really not getting into much under $450,000 or $500,000.”

Related: Laneway house budget for homeowners

A housing package

But unlike a condo, a laneway house can’t be sold on its own. It can only be sold with the whole property, including the main house.

Jason Yuen, a Vancouver contractor, said many homeowners are looking to add laneway homes while rebuilding their main houses to reduce costs and disruptions.

But homeowners have to pay for separate building and development permits on each new building, meaning their application fees to the city can be up to $2,500 for both structures.

Yuen said this adds unnecessary costs and obstacles for homeowners.

“It doesn’t make sense that they’re double dipping,” he said.

The city’s Ronda Howard said separate permits are required for each building so that one house can be inspected and approved before construction on the second house begins.

“As often happens, people would like to start living in one while working on the other,” she said.

33 permits

The city has also touted laneway housing as a way to increase rental-housing stock.

Ringrose and Meacham had to remove one tree from their backyard for their laneway house. They say they'll be planting at least three new trees to replace this one.

Ringrose and Meacham said their laneway house would have to be rented out to recoup the high costs of building.

“It will help us bring in a bit of income after the big expenditure. And hopefully someday, if we can afford it, have it as our own,” Ringrose said.

But Geller said laneway housing is not a viable way to increase rental-housing stock.

“I just don’t think, at least in the short term, enough people are going to go ahead,” the architect said.

Since the bylaw passed in July 33 permits have been approved, according to the city’s March report. About 34 more applications await approval.

“That’s really not a lot,” Geller said. “There was at one time speculation that the first hundred units would be taken up very, very quickly and people would be crying to allow a lot more to be built.”

But Howard said this type of change happens gradually.

“It will really help when people see built precedents,” she said.

One person’s street art is another’s nuisance. Katie Dangerfield, Daniel Hallen and Yvonne Robertson look at how new limits on the amount and type of street art allowed during the 2010 Winter Olympics are making it difficult for artists.

By Lara Howsam

Rod Gash is a resident of Kitsilano’s first homeless shelter. A recovering addict, Gash lived in area carports before the shelter opened Jan. 15 on West 4th Avenue between Pine and Fir Streets.

Residents enter the shelter through this back door.

Gash was among the sixteen people who arrived opening night. The shelter reached its 40-person capacity within days of opening, on Jan. 19.

Gash said being in Kitsilano helps him stay out of trouble and away from the Downtown Eastside, which is where many of the services for homelessness are currently provided.

“If it wasn’t for this, I would still be living in that carport over there,” said Gash pointing across the alley from the shelter.

Why Kits?

The shelter, which is scheduled to be open only during the winter months, is part of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s goal to end homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.

Celine Mauboules, housing policy planner for the City of Vancouver, said the four new shelters the city has opened in the last month were put in areas that presented the greatest need. Mauboules said Kitsilano was one of the chosen areas because it lacked any services for homelessness.

The non-profit charitable organization Motivation Power & Achievement Society (MPA) operates the shelter in Kitsilano.

“You know, you can open a shelter in another part of the city but that is not necessarily going to address the needs of the community.” Executive Director of MPA, David MacIntyre said. “Many people have been living in the parks in Kitsilano for an extended period of time, and if you went looking for homeless you’ll certainly find them.”

The shelter in Kitsilano is a HEAT shelter. It is part of the city’s Winter Response Plan. The shelter is only to be open until Apr. 30, 2010.  The Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) was created by Mayor Gregor Robertson in 2008.

On any given night, up to 1,600 people in Vancouver sleep outside or in shelters, according to an official count performed in 2008 and reported by the city in a January document.

The shelter in Kits is a low-barrier shelter, meaning that carts and pets are allowed inside.

Getting the shelter up and running

Mauboles said the shelter in Kitsilano was opened hurriedly with little or no notification in the surrounding community. She said the priority was to get the shelter open as quickly as possible.

The Mantra condos are currently for sale. Some residents have already moved in.

“It was a kind of a short notification process,” Mauboles said. “But, you know, the idea of doing a lot of consultation with the neighbors, I guess there was some concern that that would take a lot of time.”

MPA operates community resource centers, and supported and licensed housing programs throughout Vancouver and the greater area, but this is their first time operating an emergency shelter.

MacIntyre, claims that the MPA is not aware of any significant issues since the opening of the shelter in Kits.

“We have been very pleased with the response from the neighbours,” MacIntyre said. “They are just pleased to see that a much needed service is being provided. We haven’t had any issues or concerns. We have been very, very pleased with how things have gone.”

Neighbourhood diversity

Directly beside the shelter is a new condominium and retail space that was completed in late 2009, The Mantra. Condos within the building run upward of $800,000.

Remax real estate agent Louise Boutin said that residents are concerned about security.

“Hire security. That is probably the best thing.” Boutin said. “I don’t know why the city doesn’t do that, I mean it is not as if it costs an arm and a leg. That’s the only issue, because it brings with it other people that might not necessarily use it (the shelter), but may be hanging around.”

Mauboles says that the city is working closely with Vancouver City Police to ensure that safety is not a concern.

“The city is well aware,” Mauboles said. “If there are some concerns related to increased crime or those kinds of issues, and it is related to the shelter, we will definitely respond quickly.”

Why now?

Both MacIntyre and Mauboles said they do not believe that the shelter will be open past its Apr. 30 close date.

Mauboles said that the funding, which is provided by both the municipal and provincial governments, is only guaranteed until the end of April.

Seeing people collecting bottles in the alleys of Kitsilano is not an uncommon site.

The city has not been secretive about its push to address the homeless problem, and many wonder how much this has to do with the upcoming Olympics, and the many international visitors that are about to descend on the city.

Mauboles points out that the four emergency shelters, including the one in Kits, will be open long after the end of the Olympics.

“This is an ongoing concern.” Mauboles said. “And unfortunately, even though we have opened these additional shelters, there are still going to be homeless people on the streets during the Olympics. So you know, what we are trying to do is respond to critical need in the city, not just because of the Olympics.”

MacIntyre said that even though the shelter is only open for a short time he hopes that through the help of the MPA outreach workers some more long-term solutions can be provided to those who want it.

“We are the operators, so what our goal is for the shelter of course is to provide an immediate need,” MacIntyre said. “But our goals are much more far reaching than just immediate housing. Our goal is not just temporary, but actually looking at long term solutions to the homelessness situation in Kitsilano.”

Up to 35 positions are scheduled to be eliminated from the City of Vancouver Department of Engineering, but so far, one group appears to be safe.

Vancouver City Council passed its 2010 operating budget Dec. 18, 2009, which included cuts to programs and jobs proposed in November.  According to a union official, jobs will go as early as 1 January 2010.

The employees of the Four Pillars Supported Employment Project, who work for six-month terms over the summer, are currently being protected from the cuts.

It takes people who experience high-barriers to being employed, people recovering from drug addictions, and helps them get jobs within the Department of Engineering.

‘Walking dead’

The project is small: it’s employed 18 people in total over three years.

Anderle surveys a wheelchair ramp he helped build during summer of 2009

Mark Anderle, 41, is one of those people.

“It gave me a chance to, in a sense, recommit myself to life,” said Anderle.

Anderle has battled addiction for the last 10 years.  For the past seven years, he lived on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in a run-down skid-row hotel.

He kept what little clothing he had in a garbage bag.  He would clear a one-foot path on his bed to sleep between three- and four-foot tall piles of trash.

“I was essentially committing suicide without the guts to end it quickly,” he said.

“I was dead in any way that mattered: emotionally, spiritually, financially, physically, I was the walking dead.”

The project helped him stay drug and alcohol free, following a detox period. Through manual labour, keeping to a fulltime schedule and receiving job counseling from this project, he’s been sober for almost 18-months now.

The supported employment project is a segment of the Four Pillars Drug Policy Program, founded by former mayor Philip Owen with Donald MacPherson, the first coordinator of the program.

It’s a collaborative effort between the Drug Policy Program, the Department of Engineering, and EMBERS Staffing Solutions, a not-for-profit temporary staffing agency in the Downtown Eastside.

Related: Other supported employment projects in Vancouver

“We bring them into the workforce by giving them a leg up.” said Zarina Mulla, current coordinator of the one-person-run Drug Policy Program.

Trimming jobs

Now, the city has a budget deficit of $28 million dollars. It’s looking to cut costs.

Engineering will be hit hard. Of the more than 150 positions the city will slash, up to 35 will be from within that department.

For now, the Four Pillars program appears to be safe.

“It’s never been part of the discussion,” said Murray Wightman, in charge of Street Operations, when speaking of where the department will look to trim jobs.

The people employed through the employment project are not unionized.  Instead, they are employed through EMBERS, who then contract them to work in positions for Vancouver.

“We oppose any type of contracting out of public services,” said Mike Jackson, President of the union chapter responsible for the engineering department, CUPE Local 1004.

“But recognizing that these are individuals that get a second chance on life, we’re compassionate, we understand that, so we work through this to allow it to happen.”

Union rules

Although Jackson said he supported the project and the idea of giving people “a second crack at a new life,” he is still beholden to union rules.

In the event the city does lay-off city employees from the engineering department, those employees go on a recall list, said Jackson.

The union guarantees all laid-off unionized employees are re-employed before any new people are hired – including people from the Four Pillars program.  Jackson said this is due to the collective bargaining agreement between Vancouver and the union.

Through the project, people have worked for Sewer Operations, Water Operations, and like Anderle, forming, detailing, and finishing concrete for the Street Operations department.

Working with a small crew, Anderle helped create sloped wheelchair ramps for sidewalks, including gunnels for water-run off and non-slip surfaces, and numerous other projects making life easier for Vancouverites.

Much of the work the project employees do happens during the summer months. Jackson said many full-time engineering employees take extended vacations during the summer.  This leaves gaps with lots of work to be done and limited time before winter – gaps that people employed through the project can fill.

Wightman explained the project was not considered for cutting because its benefits outweighed its costs.

Award-winning program

On Nov. 2, the City of Vancouver was named one of the top 100 employers in Canada for 2010.  Vancouver’s provision of six-month work experience terms to individuals recovering from drug addiction is one of the five main reasons for this distinction.

The Four Pillars Supported Employment Project is the vehicle that provides these work terms.  The project is cited as an example of positive community involvement.

Donald MacPherson, former coordinator of the Drug Policy Program, including the employment project, received the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for achievement in drug policy on Nov. 13.

Anderle now lives with a roommate he met while addicted. “At that point there was nothing in our lives but drugs and alcohol,” said Anderle, talking about his experiences before he entered detox.

“He’ll be clean two years in February; I’ll be clean two years in July.  We have a beautiful home in Burnaby, we both work full-time; we both have the most amazing women possible in our lives.”

Nearly 500 surveillance cameras in downtown Vancouver do not post information about who owns them, making it impossible for people to find out who is watching them and why.

Each red dot on this map represents a surveillance camera in Vancouver.

The cameras, 200 of which are in alleyways, skirt privacy laws and breach official guidelines for overt video surveillance by private companies. These guidelines require notification to be provided about who owns the cameras and for what purpose.

The cameras were uncovered by a mapping project, completed in September by the Vancouver Public Space Network and Simon Fraser University students.

The team does not know how long these unidentified cameras have monitored city streets. It also has no information on who might own these cameras and for what purpose.

The project found more than 2,000 cameras downtown and in the Downtown Eastside that capture public spaces. These include sidewalks and parks, but not areas that are privately owned such as stores or office buildings.

Most cameras downtown are privately owned, operated and monitored, with businesses using them for security in case of an incident.

The SkyTrain and Translink cameras form a network. The footage is monitored in a central location in New Westminster. This service operates with funds from taxation revenues.

During the Winter Games in February 2010, an additional 900 security cameras will be put in Olympics venues, and between 50-70 will be installed in public areas, according to the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit.

The footage from these cameras will stream directly to the Emergency Operations Centre on East Pender Street in Vancouver.

Privacy policies

Constable Anne Longley of the Vancouver Police Department said that the police do not own or operate any of the claimed, or unclaimed, cameras. Neither does the city.

Police look at video footage from private cameras when they need information about a crime. “It is a matter of practice to look for evidence everywhere, and that includes cameras,” said Longley.

Any organization needs consent before it collects personal information from people, including images. Organizations must display clear notices that inform the public of video surveillance and provide the owner’s contact information, according to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Organizations must also provide all records of personal information to an individual upon request, according to B.C.’s Personal Information Protection Act.

Josh Paterson of the Vancouver Public Space Network said the key difference between public and private cameras is that private cameras are not networked. The footage from the cameras downtown is not available at a central location.

Paterson said there should be more public consultation about the cameras. He hopes the mapping project will raise awareness about the amount of surveillance that already exists in public areas in Vancouver.

Problems for protesters

Saghar Tofigh, Carmen Hung, Richard Smith, and Heather Forbes from SFU worked on the mapping project.

Richard Smith, a communication professor at Simon Fraser University who specializes in surveillance, said people make slight changes in their actions when they think they are being watched.

He described the small changes in behavior due to video cameras as “tiny cuts to democracy.”

“What if everyone were a tiny bit less active and less engaged in our democracy?” asked Smith.

Michael Vonn of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said she was concerned about the implications of surveillance during the Winter Olympics.

Free speech zones have been created as protest areas around heavily watched Olympic venues.

“The cameras erode public anonymity and reduce the expressive topography available for protest,” said Vonn.

Performing for the cameras

One of the Simon Fraser University students who helped complete the surveillance inventory was Saghar Tofigh. She found dozens of surveillance cameras at Vancouver’s brand new waterfront convention centre, which was the scene of rallies this summer to show solidarity with the Iranian democratic movement.

A suveillance camera monitors people in the public space at the convention centre.

It was an ironic place for her to protest. “Deep down, without even wanting to, the first thing that came to my mind was those cameras,” said Tofigh, who grew up under Iran’s authoritarian government.

But she acknowledged that there was a role for surveillance cameras.

“The problem is the security and transparency of those cameras,” said Tofigh. She said the cameras would be fine if the public knows they exist, and for what purpose.

Setareh Shohadaei, a graduate student of political science, organized the Vancouver rallies for Iran this July. She said thousands of protesters attended the events over a period of more than a week.

She said many people would have been uncomfortable had they known about the cameras. Protesters did not want their images captured for fear of consequences if they chose to travel to Iran, she said.

Shohadaei said that because she is an active protester, she does not plan to return to Iran in the near future.

“As soon as there are eyes, everyone is performing a role,” she said.

Where are the cameras?

• The SeaBus and SkyTrain – These quasi-public spaces have heavy surveillance. There are three cameras at street level at the Waterfront Station on Cordova Street. A central operating station in New Westminster controls all images recorded by city transit.
• The Convention Centre – Video cameras heavily populate this area and capture images of people who pass by. Activists may use this site to protest during the Olympics.
• The street/store camera – Cameras often monitor high-end stores. Many grab images of the public because of outdoor placement. These cameras serve a dual purpose: they provide security for the store, and they record images for the police to use in event of a crime.
• The mall – Surveillance cameras help to manage commercial space. It is one of their key functions.
• The surveillance store – A spy store on West Pender Street sells the equipment needed to watch and to monitor people.

Source: The Surveillance Games Research Workshop walking tour led by Professor Richard Smith.