Gary Coons

VICTORIA – The B.C. Liberals are marking the memorial for missing and murdered aboriginal women by refusing to convene a public inquiry into these disappearances and deaths, say the New Democrats.
“Despite forty years of aboriginal women going missing or being found murdered along provincial highways, B.C. Liberal Minister George Abbott still insists it is not [...]

Racism cited as a reason the murders and disappearances have not received more attention
B.C. needs a public inquiry and a multi-agency police task force to examine the many cases of girls and women who have met violence on B.C. highways, say two community leaders who have been vocal about the so-called Highway of Tears case.

Hansard October 20, 2009
G. Coons: The rain forest coast of British Columbia is the largest remaining intact temperate rain forest left in the world. While it is often the beauty of our rain forest which captivates visitors, it is the productiveness of these forests that makes them so vital. They feature the highest biomass per [...]

 An incident involving a 187-metre bulk freighter traveling between Vancouver and Kitimat last weekend shows why the northwest should be leery of allowing tanker traffic in north coast waters, says Skeena – Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen.

United federal-provincial voice opposing Enbridge pipeline project
HAZELTON — An historic first meeting between all currently elected provincial and federal representatives in northwest BC took place in Hartley Bay on the traditional territories of the Gitga’at First Nation July 20 to highlight widespread concerns over Enbridge’s proposed oil pipeline, the associated oil supertanker traffic that will [...]

The Campbell government is jeopardizing the future of a comprehensive marine plan for the north coast by refusing to come to the table, says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.

Evidence that sea lice from fish farms is not only driving Broughton Archipelago salmon runs towards extinction, but also impacting herring stocks should be setting off alarm bells says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
“We must take immediate action to protect herring and salmon in British Columbian waters by implementing the recommendations of the Special Committee [...]

Both the federal and the provincial governments need to take the advice offered in the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation’s report: Factors Affecting The Use of Student Financial Assistance by First Nations Youth, says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
“The foundation has laid out a roadmap for our governments to enhance access to post-secondary education among First [...]

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the kind of world I’d like to see, and what it would take to make that world a reality. I think, having recently discovered the First Nations Ten Commandments (in the Elders Gathering program) that they just might be the key to the kind of world I would wish for. [...]

The fact that hundreds of people from throughout the northwest traveled to the Gitanmaax Hall in Old Hazelton on a sunny Saturday afternoon proves that there is a critical groundswell of opposition to coalbed methane development in the Sacred Headwaters say North Coast MLA Gary Coons and Skeena MLA Robin Austin.
“People came to this meeting [...]