Honourable John Horgan, BC Premier, andHonourable Michelle Mungall, BC Minister for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resourcescc Andrew Weaver, BC Green Party Leader
Dear Premier Horgan and Minister Mungall,
Environment and sustainability
Last year, more natural gas was produced in British Columbia than at any point in the past 10 years.
That may come as a surprise to some people who thought that growth in BC’s natural gas industry hinged on the emergence of a Liquefied Natural Gas sector. It does not.
VANCOUVER—A promised “review” of natural gas industry fracking operations should be broadened to a full Public Inquiry that examines all aspects of the dangerous gas extraction technique, says a coalition of community, First Nation and environmental organizations.
The call on the new BC government is to broaden a promise first made by the NDP during the lead-up to the spring provincial election, and comes on the heels of new revelations about the fracking process, including:
This report card reviews the federal government's progress in 16 key policy areas at the halfway mark of their term. It finds that, despite some positive first steps, the Liberals’ ambitious talk hasn’t been backed up with the action needed to make these promises a reality.
With two years left in the term, the report card includes suggested next steps to help the Liberal government fulfill the progressive agenda they committed to leading up to the election. Among the recommendations:
The future of oil extraction and transportation is one of the most contentious issues in Canadian politics. Plans for the construction of new pipelines to both the East and West coasts has entrenched old divisions between Eastern and Western Canada and opened up new schisms in Western Canada between sites of extraction and communities along pipeline routes. At the local level, people living in oil and gas-producing communities are being mobilized by oil advocacy groups to defend their industry from (perceived) attacks from urban environmentalists concerned with climate change.
Regina — In the wake of “The Price of Oil” investigation into oil industry impacts in Saskatchewan by the Toronto Star, National Observer and Global News, the realities of living with the health and environmental effects of oil are beginning to receive public attention.
First published in the Winnipeg Free Press Oct. 5, 2017
A draft “Climate and Green Plan Town Hall Toolkit” circulated within the Manitoba government proposes a flat $25 carbon tax. While this is only a discussion document, and not yet policy, it’s a worrying sign of what the much-trumpeted “Made-in-Manitoba” climate policy might look like: a piece of largely-pointless window-dressing.
Resource Policy Analyst Ben Parfitt sent this letter to BC’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) in response to Progress Energy’s extraordinary request to retroactively exempt the Lily and Town dams from environmental reviews. Such reviews should have been conducted before the dams were built. Not only did those reviews not happen, but the company also failed to obtain other authorizations that it should have well before the dams were built. The Town dam was built in 2012. The Lily dam in 2014.
In this issue:
(Vancouver) The Site C dam is not necessary, and moving forward to completion is likely to have adverse impacts on BC Hydro and ratepayers of all classes. That is the conclusion of a submission to the BC Utilities Commission’s (BCUC) consultations on the proposed Site C Dam, authored by Senior Economist Marc Lee from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – BC Office (CCPA-BC).