CALGARY (660 NEWS) – A conservation group is raising concerns about a digital Q and A session with Environment Minister Jason Nixon on Tuesday.
Many people were hoping to ask questions about parks, with concerns that the Alberta government will be selling off some land. However, questions were limited and the chat feature was eventually shut off during the session.
Becky Best-Bertwhistle with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) said when Nixon did take questions, he didn’t give sufficient answers.
“It was kind of clear that this event was orchestrated to be more of an echo chamber than a town hall. I know that a lot of Albertans who tuned in, including myself, were incredibly frustrated and disappointed to have their questions and concerns ignored.” [source]Edmonton City News
It didn’t turn out as expected
One observer said, “Calls a town hall with minimal notice then when asked why a public consultation wasn’t implemented before making their selling plan, the public chat was disabled and then only questions from fellow UCP MLA’s were taken…”
It’s plain to see in the Zoom window. A message: The host has disabled attendee chat.
The United Conservative Party government in Alberta has made it much harder for ordinary people. Taxes have gone up; wages have gone down. Healthcare is deteriorating; doctors are fleeing the province. The cost of education is being increased and there is less money for infrastructure. I would like to see UCP government replaced. If not, I hope to do my part to make sure they don’t get re-elected.
The list grows daily, but if you’re interested in reading about some other missteps this government has taken, click here.
Erin O’Toole has been the Conservative Party leader of Canada since August 24, 2020. Like his predecessor before him, he lacks any significant climate change plan. He feels the strength of the party lies in Ontario and Alberta, so he’s hesitant to suggest plans that would be unfavourable to his base. Economic recovery from the pandemic isn’t nuclear power or Liquefied natural Gas (LNG) as he would suggest.
Since former Prime Minister Stephen Harper stepped down, a blue funk hangs over the Conservatives’ heads. They lack direction and ambition. For that matter, the former party leader, Andrew Scheer’s only plan was to nip at Trudeau’s heels whenever he made a move. He never came up with a concrete rebuttal on any topic other than to say it wouldn’t work, and the reason why, was lacking credibility, if any reason was given.
Even his support for LNG seems to be getting him off on the wrong foot. It was proposed as an alternative to coal but his biggest supporter, Premier Jason Kenney of the Alberta United Conservatives, is ramping up dormant mines for Australian miners who hope to have a market in China and other Asian countries. To be fair, he can push LNG, but he’ll have to button his lip about coal. The Grassy Mountain Coal Project Public Hearings are set to begin on October 27, 2020. It will be interesting for both Kenney and O’Toole, to see which way it goes.
He’s been prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to create a parliamentary committee to probe the Liberal government’s pandemic response spending and possible ethical lapses including WE. Trudeau, obviously annoyed as there are more important matters to contend with, has suggested that this motion is a confidence matter. If the Conservatives persist, he will call an election.
Canadians can’t trust Justin Trudeau.
He has one set of rules for Liberals insiders and another for everyday Canadians.
The Commons’ ethics committee has also been asking for more information about the money he and his family received as speaker fees from the charity organisation.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet supports the Conservative’s motion. He’s ready for an election as well. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh feels this is a waste of time, and rightly so. There are several issues much more pressing.
Let it be known, how foolish O’Toole is for pushing this motion. If he were elected prime minister, he might make Andrew Scheer, the former Conservative party leader, look much more competent in his performance.
Update 10/21/20 — Snap election averted as Liberal government survives confidence vote in Commons
Canadians will not be heading to the polls for a snap fall election now that the Liberal government has survived a confidence vote on a Conservative motion to create a special committee to probe the government’s ethics and pandemic spending.
MPs voted 180-146 to defeat the opposition motion, with the NDP, Greens and Independent MPs voting with the Liberals. [Read more]
Update 10/22/20 — New Conservative motion could trigger 2nd confidence vote for Liberals
One day after surviving a confidence vote on a Conservative motion, Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government faces another Conservative motion that could trigger yet more high-stakes drama over the possibility of a snap election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The official Opposition is using its second opposition day this week to debate a motion calling for a sweeping probe by the House of Commons health committee into a host of issues relating to the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The motion is so broad and the demand for documents so massive that the Liberals are expected to argue that its passage would paralyze the government — the same argument used to declare the first Conservative motion a confidence matter.
Using an argument that’s likely to be repeated by government members Thursday, Liberal MP Darren Fisher told the committee that “the motion asks public health officials basically to stop what they’re doing to protect Canadians and sift through emails and documents instead.” [Read more]
In mid-September, the Sipekne’katik First Nation launched a moderate livelihood lobster fishery along the coast of southwestern Nova Scotia. Its fishers set out an estimated 250 traps at the time, the equivalent of one commercial boat.
Some, including the commercial fishing sector, worried this new fishery was a threat to maintaining healthy lobster stocks. Commercial fishers have articulated two conservation concerns about the Sipekne’katik fishery: its scale and whether fishing during the summer season — when lobsters molt and their shells are soft — is a problem for the survival of lobsters that are thrown back.
Yet two decades later, there has been no clarity on what “moderate livelihood” means, nor how implementation of the treaty right should unfold. Great people have been working on it, but it is not a trivial question.
Others have as well, including Listuguj and Potolek First Nations.
Fire destroyed a lobster pound being used by Mi’kmaw fishers in Middle West Pubnico, N.S., on Oct. 17, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS /Andrew Vaughan
The protests over the Mi’kmaw fishery have escalated to acts of vandalism and violence. The message from commercial fishers is that fishing in St. Marys Bay outside the commercial season is illegal and a conservation concern. In fact, it is neither.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) did not immediately help the situation. Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett waited five days to make an explicit statement that it was, in fact, a legal fishery. By that time, the commercial sector’s view became further entrenched.
Conservation concerns unfounded
The commercial lobster season in Lobster Fishing Area 34, where the bay is located, runs from late November to late May. The livelihood fishery was launched outside that, leading the commercial harvesters to label it as illegal. Yet, as Shelley Denny, a Mi’kmaw doctoral student at Dalhousie University, points out, there are two sets of rules for Indigenous and non-Indigenous fish harvesters. The Indigenous fishery is not illegal, but is it a conservation concern?
The sun sets over the wharf in Saunierville, N.S. (Brandon Maloney), Author provided
Initially, five Sipekne’katik vessels were fishing 50 traps per vessel; there are now reportedly 10 vessels fishing a total of 500 traps. Compare that to the commercial sector, where each vessel — there are about 100 fishing in the bay — is allowed to fish 350 traps, for a total of about 35,000 traps.
There is no reason, no science, to suggest that the equivalent of one or two commercial vessels fishing in St. Marys Bay will be problematic. Lobster biologist Robert Steneck would bet you a beer there will be no negative impact on the lobster population.
Fisheries scientists and managers need only look to our neighbour to the south, Maine, which operates a year-round lobster fishery. In the summer, lobster molt and their shells are soft, resulting in a lower quality lobster. The Canadian market doesn’t prioritize these lobsters, even though Maine does.
These lobsters are more susceptible to what’s called “post-release mortality,” meaning that those lobsters that cannot be kept — lobsters that are too small or females bearing eggs, for example — are thrown back and may not survive. This mortality needs to be accounted for, but it doesn’t mean it’s not sustainable to fish during the summer.
Normal catches
One index fisheries scientists use to measure the status of a resource is called catch per unit effort (CPUE). In this case, lobster is the unit and the effort invested is one vessel.
While not perfect, the CPUE represents a relative abundance of lobster in a given area. When CPUE falls, it may be a sign that fewer lobsters are available in that particular area, but may or may not signal that the population as a whole may be in trouble.
Members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation load lobster traps on the wharf in Saulnierville, N.S., in September 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
Data for St. Marys Bay and Lobster Fishing Area 34 show that commercial catches have declined the past two years compared to the 2015-16 season. Commercial fishers have argued this is due to the summer “food, social and ceremonial” fishery that operates outside the commercial season.
The recent protests have targeted the “livelihood” fishery, but it seems that what the commercial sector is actually angry about is the food, social and ceremonial fishery. According to Brandon Maloney, fisheries director for Sipekne’katik, the band developed their plan for this fishery twenty years ago — this is not a new development.
So, what does the CPUE for St. Marys Bay look like over the past 16 years? I took the data released by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and calculated it. Although the CPUE in the past two years are on the lower end of the range, they are clearly within it. And they really only seem low when compared to the highs recorded in 2015-16.
CPUE for St. Marys Bay and Lobster Fishing Area 34, 2002-19. (Author provided. Data from DFO, September 2020.)
The assertion that the drop in bay catches is a conservation concern is wrong, as DFO itself has stated. So if there is no conservation concern, then the assertion that Indigenous summer food fisheries are decimating the stocks, as the commercial sector has argued, is incorrect.
It’s not surprising that commercial fishers are upset by a decrease in lobster landings in St. Marys Bay. But my assessment of the fishery is not why the public has a poor view of the group.
Their behaviour has been abhorrent. The sector needs to address its racism, cease its vigilantism, support dialogue and ensure that its positions are grounded in evidence. And, as Denny argues, it must make room for the livelihood fishery. The rest of Canada — and the world — is watching in shame. We must do better.
The United Conservative Party (UCP) passed all of its policy resolutions this weekend. The two-tiered health-care system in Alberta is a doozy. It won’t be any surprise to hear it gets challenged in court. It would seem to violate Section 3 of the Canada Health Act, RSC 1985 c C-6:
It is hereby declared that the primary objective of Canadian health care policy is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.
NDP Health Critic Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) is calling on the federal government to enforce the Canada Health Act and stand up to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s plan to privatize orthopedic surgeries.
“Jason Kenney’s privatization agenda will create a two-tiered health care system that violates our most basic principles of equal access and will hurt the quality of care,” said Davies. “We are calling on federal Health Minister Hadju to make it clear that this will not be tolerated.”
Unfortunately, the government may not be able to afford a challenge to this policy. In Policy 1, they want to add a new bullet: The United Conservative Party is committed to: c) operating within its means and reducing the size of the provincial debt.
They’ve already given our healthcare money to foreign owned oil & gas companies. No doubt, this is why we need a two-tiered health-care system.
Might be worth a look to see what other goodies are in this.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s performance in Ottawa still negatively affects Canada. Some rights and freedoms citizens enjoyed before they were stripped of them have never been recovered. With a federal election in the cards for 2015, people were crying, “Anyone But Harper.” This was echoed among the broadest range of people, even those who consider themselves die-hard Conservatives. The concept of “strategic voting” became popular, as a loosely organized plan to see that this man would not be re-elected.
Canadians felt hated. The Harper government hated taxpayers and voters. Policies were developed that proved this to be true. It ended an era where elected parties were more civilized and developed policy controls, and specific projects that would be beneficial to the public. They understood their positions meant they served the public interest.
Maude Barlow is a Canadian author and activist. She is a founding member of the Council of Canadians, a citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. In a report she wrote, titled the “Broken Covenant,” in 2015, she reminisces about former prime ministers’ most noted contributions to our society. Prior to Mr. Harper, she said, “Over the better part of the last 75 years, successive federal governments have helped to build a strong civil society presence in our country.”
“Governments have funded rights movements, such as those for women, refugees and gays; environmental groups and independent environmental research; indigenous health, healing and education programs as well as the more formal indigenous institutions such as provincial and federal chiefs’ associations; legal advocacy groups that speak for the disadvantaged and challenge the status quo; civil society organizations that promote good health and maintain independent statistics; anti-poverty groups and non-governmental welfare research programs; union advocacy on behalf of working people; farmer co-ops and programs to support food producers and rural communities; and cultural programs and artists to promote Canadian culture at home and to the world.”
The report is a scathing indictment of nine years of Harper’s agenda. Broken Covenant examines the Harper government’s impact on our democratic institutions, families and workers, women, First Nations, the environment, health care, arts and culture, farmers, human rights and social equality.
Broken Covenant tells the story of “a government bent on forever changing the relationship between our elected officials and the citizens it represents.”
And change, it certainly did.
It’s led to a breed of men getting elected under the Conservative banner whose sole purpose is to line their pockets and find corporations they can cater to who will in turn keep them in power with their lobbying dollars and influence. The focus of these men is to use their corporate backers to sway votes, policies and influence. They are no longer interested in building a strong civil society. They’ve reduced the number of the middle class, encouraged mobility upwards for those with influence and cash and stripped the poor of a lot of social services and support systems. Researchers, non-profits, and agencies in place to advocate for the poor have been defunded of government support or received decreased payments to a point where very little can be accomplished. If you don’t know there’s a problem — then there isn’t one.
Stephen Harper’s government had a negative impact on all Canadians, most notably in areas such as:
Democracy
Social equality
Workers
Women
First Nations
Environment
Health care
Culture
Farmers
Human rights
Is Stephen Harper pulling Jason Kenney’s strings?
Kenney was a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. He recently hired Mr. Harper’s son, Ben, as a policy advisor for his office. Harper and Kenney have always been close, but reading through the report almost gives one an itemized itinerary in the direction of the Alberta government. It seems the premier is carrying on with the work Harper was trying to accomplish before Canadians were so desperate to get rid of him.
Accordingly, Kenney’s accomplishments are on a provincial rather than a federal platform. Reading this report will make you shudder to think he may have an eye on being prime minister. There are a lot of startling similarities. It gives one a good idea on just how far Kenney is willing to go.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – A conservation group is raising concerns about a digital Q and A session with Environment Minister Jason Nixon on Tuesday.
The United Conservative Party government in Alberta has made it much harder for ordinary people. Taxes have gone up; wages have gone down. Healthcare is deteriorating; doctors are fleeing the province. The cost of education is being increased and there is less money for infrastructure. I would like to see UCP government replaced. If not, I hope to do my part to make sure they don’t get re-elected.
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