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This Week May 30, 1990. Page M3

TOP STORY

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= t allows kids to have a voice in
environmental concerns. We no-
ticed the kids were more in-
volved in it than the adults
were. We wanted to offset the apa-
thy,” said Ballard. 53
The Youth Wildlife Club has more
than 3,000 members at the present
time — mainly children in School
District 61. Next year, Ballard hopes
to approach the two adjoining school
districts.
In 1982, Canada Life got involved in
the preservation of wildlife through
the World Wildlife Fund’s endangered

_ species program. Someone from the
organization contacted Canada Life to -

ask whether they were aware that the
white pelican was on the endangered
species list. A likeness of the bird
makes up part of the company’s logo.

“Being a life insurance company,
the last thing we wanted to see was
the disappearance of our symbol.
Canada Life put the necessary funds
aside and in 1988 we received an
award because the white pelican was
the first animal ever taken off the
endangered species list.”

Ballard found himself more in-
volved in the protection of endangered
species when he was approached by
the Sierra Club’s Vicky Husband in
1987 about the possibility of helping

ONCE ENDANGERED, the white peli-
can compelled Canada Life to pur-
sue environmental goals. Saving ihe
bird which graces its company logo
was the business’s first environmen-
tal-protection victory.

to save the habitat of grizzly bears in
the Khutzeymateen Valley, 40 km
northeast of Prince Rupert.

While the grizzly is not an endan-
gered species, it has dwindled from
numbers that reached as high as
100,000 to 7,000. The grizzly, which
once wandered as far south as north-
ern California, is being pushed far-
ther north.

Ballard convinced head office to
come up with money to do a study of
the grizzly bear. The government was
pressured into placing a moratorium
on logging the Khutzeymateen. Al-
though the moratorium is scheduled

THE GREENING OF
DON BALLARD

MOTHER AND CHILD grizzlies now roam the Khuizymat-
een Valley and, if Don Ballard has his way, they'll

continue to do so. Ballard is part of a campaign to mateen.

to be taken off in 1991, Ballard is
confident the area will be preserved.

Ballard thought the story of the
Khutzeyateen would capture the im-
agination of area youngsters and,
using a lovable stuffed bear as a
mascot, he approached the school dis-
trict. Thorndyke the bear is taken to

-the schools and children are invited to

join the Youth Wildlife Club: They can
become members for $1 of which 50
cents stays in the school to go towards
an environmental project. The rest of
the money is used to support the
effort to save the Khutzeymateen.
Money is also raised through the sale
of an attractive poster featuring a
grizzly bear and cub.

Ballard is now toying with the idea
of using the Youth Wildlife Club to
bring other environmental issues into
the forefront. One such issue under
consideration is waste management.
He’s hoping the Environment Festival
will become a major way to educate
the public about the damage we're
doing to our environment and how we
can turn things around. He’s hoping
that Victoria and Vancouver Island
can become a world centre for envir-
onmental awareness.

Ballard hasn’t always been an advo-
cate for the environment. He says it
was his four children that brought
home to him the importance of being
environmentally aware. He resolved
to do something after reflecting on a
dinner conversation with the teenag-
ers in which the idea was expressed
that the hydrogen bomb was no longer
the threat that it was once.

“The kids had all thought about it.
It was a much deeper problem within
them than I had conceived of. Then
they turned around and asked the
question that changed things for me.
That is, ‘What did you leave us
with?’ ”

“That made me make a decision. If I
can run a business, maybe I can help
somebody do something. It was quite
simple.”

Ballard says he’s motivated by a
sense that he can actually do some-
thing about the environment.

He rejects the label of environmen-
tal activist; rather, he says he uses his
business skills to make something
happen, to bring environmental is-
sues to the fore.

“In business you have to get what-
ever, task done that’s in front of you.
Through creative thinking or man-
agement, things happen. I just
thought I'd put it into practice.”

Ballard says he’s making headway
applying business principles to envir-
onmental concerns. He says the field

“has “unquestionable potential”.

“I've never seen anything with more

potential. I can see the business that’s
available here.”
_ Ballard said in past weeks he has
been putting as much as 50 per cent of
his office time into his environmental
activities. He has the full blessings of
head office.

Photographs of company president
David Nield and chairman of the
board Edward Crawford beam down
on Ballard from the wall of his office.
How could they do anything but smile
approvingly about their man in Vic-
toria’s activities? — the Victoria
branch’s sales jumped 40 per cent in
the past year.

But Ballard doesn’t believe that
financial gain must necessarily be
separate from social concern.

“There’s a real hard line there. We
have the largest agency on the island.
We're a service business. People have
to go elsewhere to make their money,
then we provide financial products
that they purchase. In actual fact, If
we didn’t have a good society here, I
wouldn’t have a very good business.
That’s why we're doing this — to put
something back into the community.”

Ballard admits that some people
are skeptical about Canada’s Life’s
involvement in environmental issues
— especially children in the schools.

“That was one of the biggest sur-
prises. I never would have thought
they would think that way — they
want to know what is a business
doing here? What is a corporation
doing? What do you expect? How are
you getting paid?”

Ballard says he tells them he’s just
glad to be there.

“Marketing is something that’s
sometimes hard to conceive of. It’s my
feeling that in the 90s corporations
like us have to be in the forefront of
being service oriented — dealing with
people. If we're doing a lot of service
things in the community, it certainly
wouldn’t hurt our image. Indirectly, it
is a way of marketing.”

declare the valley a grizzly bear sanctuary: a temporary
moratarium has been placed on logging in the Khuizy-

Victoria-born Ballard agrees that a
40 per cent increase in business with-
in a year is quite remarkable. He says
it’s not due to the public awareness of
the company’s policy and practices as
much as it is due to how Canada Life
agents feel about themselves.

He admits that his bosses must
sometimes wonder about what's hap-
pening in Victoria, the sixth largest of
the company’s branch in Canada but
“the east is away behind the west as
far as environmental issues are con-
cerned,” says Ballard, in the same
way New York is behind California in
many areas.

“Blame it on the weather or our
green-ness or whatever it is, people
out here are just so much more in-
volved.”

Ballard has worked for Canada Life
since 1972. He has been branch man-
ager since 1977. He says corporate
involvement in environmental issues
is the wave of the future. And there’s
a big future for Victoria as “the centre
for environmental studies for the
world.”

He says the Environment Fair to be
held at the Memorial Arena June 8-10
will be unique in that it will be the
first time that students, business and
environment groups are all involved.
It will be a great opportunity for
people to get answers on environmen-
tal issues.

Ballard says he’s seeing a remarka-
ble change in public opinion of late
and a change in the way political and
social change is coming about.

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