Category Archives: General
Green Party unveils plan to transition oil, gas workers to renewable energy jobs | CBC News
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has unveiled a multi-pronged
plan to help workers in the gas and oil sector transition to a renewable
energy economy, working to allay fears that her climate action plan
would bleed jobs as she ramps up pre-election campaign efforts.
plan to help workers in the gas and oil sector transition to a renewable
energy economy, working to allay fears that her climate action plan
would bleed jobs as she ramps up pre-election campaign efforts.
The
Green worker transition plan, which includes skills retraining programs
and massive retrofit and cleanup projects designed to create
employment, fleshes out details from the Green Party’s climate action plan called Mission: Possible, that was released in May.
Making
the announcement in Vancouver on Wednesday, May said she understands
the anxiety among workers in the fossil fuel industry and wants to take
an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to transform Canada’s economy.
Acid spills in Trail, B.C., began years earlier than first believed, FOI documents reveal | CBC News
The
spill on May 25, 2016 was the first in a series of environmental
disasters emanating from the city’s zinc and lead smelting
operations owned by mining company Teck.
spill on May 25, 2016 was the first in a series of environmental
disasters emanating from the city’s zinc and lead smelting
operations owned by mining company Teck.
The public was not
told about the 2016 spill and there was never an independent
investigation done or fines issued by the province.
“The spill
was discovered via highway surveillance cameras. The new [transport]
trailers are only weeks old and the spill was caused by a faulty design
on the dome lid gasket,” according to an Emergency Management
B.C. dangerous goods incident report written a few days after the
2016 spill.
Unifor hired Gardner Pinfold Consulting to run the numbers, and to nobody’s surprise, the loss of Northern Pulp will be a big hit for rural Nova Scotia. Workers at the mill and in spinoff jobs earn some $128 million per year, and tax revenues generated amount to almost $40 million. Some 1500 companies in rural Nova Scotia depend on Northern Pulp.
Unifor’s solution is to demand that Northern Pulp be allowed to start work on the treatment plant now, even though the environmental assessment of its proposal, which includes a highly controversial discharge into the Northumberland Strait, is still pending and many questions remain.
There you have it. Problem solved.
Energy development vs. endangered species: winner takes all | The Narwhal
The strongest legislation to protect species at risk in Canada is generally considered to be the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA). But describing SARA as “strong” is misleading.
Studies show that species are less likely
to be listed as threatened or endangered under SARA if they are the
target of a commercial harvest. The most obvious example may be the
demise of the Atlantic cod,
a marine fish once abundant off the coast of Newfoundland. It has still
not been listed under SARA despite having lost 99 per cent of its
population since the 1960s due to overfishing.
And only rarely does the habitat necessary to the survival or recovery of a species at risk, called critical habitat protection, get legally protected under SARA.