Oil and Gas Cap to Proceed While Feds Respond to Supreme Court IAA Ruling

The Trudeau government is assigning a new cabinet working group on regulatory efficiency, chaired by Labour and Seniors Minister Seamus O’Regan, to look at possible changes to the country’s environmental assessment process in the wake of last Friday’s Supreme Court decision on the federal Impact Assessment Act.

The court ruling “has prompted a rethink by the government on how to best manage the regulatory process for major projects, namely energy and mining developments,” iPolitics reports. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has “made it clear that the working group is focused on getting ‘big projects built,’ with a focus on slashing red tape and making the regulatory process more efficient,” the news story adds, citing an unnamed government source.

Working group members include Environment and Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, among others, iPolitics says.

Meanwhile, the government will press ahead with its forthcoming cap on oil and gas emissions and Clean Electricity Regulations, the Globe and Mail says. “The opinion of the court does not call into question other regulatory initiatives under development, and we are confident that they are within the purview of the federal government,” Guilbeault told the paper in a statement. Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/2023/10/17/breaking-impact-assessment-act-breaches-provincial-jurisdiction-supreme-court-rules/ www.theenergymix.com/2023/10/1…

#ImpactAssessmentAct #ucp #SurpremeCourt #environment #emissions #abpoli #cdnpoli

Suncor Boss Doubles Down on Oil’s Future, Ducks MP’s Questions on Fossil Liability

Kruger’s committee appearance began just half an hour after two environment groups warned that the expansion plan for Suncor’s Fort Hills oil sands mine in northern Alberta will produce an estimated 732 million cubic metres of new tailings waste over the project’s lifetime, enough to fill 60 square kilometres of new tailings ponds. That’s “an area large enough to cover the island of Manhattan,” the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-Northern Alberta and the Alberta Wilderness Association said in a release.

“If this project moves forward, we will be forced to watch the destruction of a place that took 10,000 years to develop and only a few years to destroy,” said Gillian Chow-Fraser, boreal program manager at CPAWS-NA. “The company plans to destroy an ancient wetland and fill it with tailings ponds, not only losing important habitat and stored carbon but also replacing it with even more dangerous hazards to communities, wildlife and water.”

“Recent incidents, such as the leak and spill at Imperial’s Kearl mine, show that the tailings situation has reached a crisis point in Alberta,” added AWA conservation specialist Phillip Meintzer. “New and expanded oil sands mines mean the destruction of more wildlife habitat, while also adding more tailings to the landscape. The risk of environmental catastrophe is already too great.” Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/2023/10/17/suncor-boss-doubles-down-on-new-direction-ducks-mps-questions-on-fossil-liability/ www.theenergymix.com/2023/10/1…

#tarsands #oilsands #suncor #abpoli #liability #ClimateChange

High demand for COVID shots as province cuts fees for pharmacies

The busy vaccine season comes as the province announced a cut to funding pharmacies used to receive for doing COVID-19 assessments. Until last week, pharmacies could bill the province $20 per COVID-19 assessment for up to five assessments a day.

The province announced it would reduce the fees that pharmacies can charge the province for administering vaccines to $17 from $25 ahead of the Oct. 16 vaccine rollouts. Premier Danielle Smith’s government changed its tune last Wednesday and postponed the fee cut until Jan.1. In April, the province plans to reduce fees to $13, the amount pharmacies receive for giving flu shots.

Schettler was relieved to hear the province is delaying the fee cut until January, as she feared having to reduce the hours of a part-time staff member who manages injections.

“I’m disappointed the reduction has been made to match flu injections, given that [COVID injections] are way more work,” she said. “You’ve got to use it within so many hours of opening, some of them require reconstitution … and you’re trying to book your appointments so you’re not wasting doses.

“I don’t know what we’ll do come the new year,” Schettler said. “[We’ll] look at what the demand looks like and decide whether we’re continuing to offer them. We likely will, because pharmacists are like that. We want to take care of the public.” Read more https://www.albertaprimetimes.com/edmonton-news/high-demand-for-covid-shots-as-province-cuts-fees-for-pharmacies-7690288 www.albertaprimetimes.com/edmo…

#covid #vaccines #PharmaciesCheated #abpoli #ucp #cheap

Canadian Ditchley Foundation tells TBA’s David Parker he’s out as a director; Premier Smith does damage control

According to Take Back Alberta Executive Director David Parker, he has been informed by the Canadian Ditchley Foundation he’s being ditched as a director of the organization.

In a bitter sounding tweet on the social media site known as X yesterday afternoon, Mr. Parker complained that “the woke mob has succeeded in intimidating the Ditchley board to have me removed. So, I guess you guys are good at something!”

The tweet includes a screenshot of what appears to be part of an email or series of emails from Pierre Lortie, president of the Canadian arm of the U.K.-based Ditchley Foundation and a senior business advisor at the Dentons LLP law firm.

“I am writing to inform you that the Governance and Nominating Committee of the Canadian Ditchley Foundation (CDF) has taken the decision not to recommend your reappointment as a Director of the Foundation for the coming year,” the screen shot indicates Mr. Lortie told Mr. Parker.

It is not clear from the material posted by Mr. Parker when the decision was made or communicated by the organization, or whether reasons for the decision were given.

Certainly the brouhaha caused by some of Mr. Parker’s recent social media posts, which can fairly be described as unhinged, cannot have sat well with what appears to have be a staid and respectable, if very conservative, organization that likely doesn’t encourage a lot of public scrutiny. Read more https://albertapolitics.ca/2023/10/canadian-ditchley-foundation-tells-tbas-david-parker-hes-out-as-a-director-premier-smith-does-damage-control/ albertapolitics.ca/2023/10/can…

#TBA #abpoli #fringe #wacko #parker #ucp #fired

NDP delegates unanimously support pharmacare redline in their deal with Liberals

HAMILTON – Delegates at the New Democratic convention have made pharmacare the redline in their deal with the Liberals, saying they will withdraw their support if the minority government doesn’t adhere to their demands.

The confidence-and-supply agreement requires the government to table legislation on a pharmacare framework by the end of the year in exchange for the NDP’s support on key votes in the House of Commons.

On Saturday, the party unanimously passed a non-binding emergency resolution that says they will cut the deal if pharamacare isn’t universal and entirely a public program.

But New Democrat health critic Don Davies said the resolution has the full backing of the NDP caucus and that they will accept nothing less than the public single-payer system.

“They have to know that we take this deadly seriously,” said Davies on Saturday.

Straying from his rehearsed speech, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh promised the same at the three-day policy convention in Hamilton.

“The reality is Liberals only act when New Democrats force them. That’s how we got Medicare. And that’s how we are going to win pharmacare as well,” said Singh in his keynote address prior to his leadership review. Read more https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/national/ndp-delegates-unanimously-support-pharmacare-redline-in-their-deal-with-liberals/article_da411cb6-aec3-52cf-bc12-bfabdd128a45.html www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/na…

#Redline #pharmacare #ndp #liberal #deal #support #vote #cdnpoli