Tag Archives: Jonathan Wilkinson

Mr. Wilkinson: You Can’t Be Canada’s Climate Minister and Promote Fossil Fuels

Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

By Below2C | GASP| @Gasp4Change –
August 17, 2021

The message to Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, in a letter drafted by two members of GASP (Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet) is powerful. Lorraine Green and Carole Holmes express their disapproval of Wilkinson’s support of fossil fuels while acting as Climate Minister. You can’t do both.

There is not a person in Canada today who will escape the effects of the deceit of the Trudeau government climate plan which includes the expansion of fossil fuels. In May, the EPA called for a drastic scaling back of all new fossil fuel investments as it laid out a clear pathway to net-zero 2050. And the latest IPCC Report—which is sounding alarm bells around the world—also calls for a massive decline in CO² emissions to have just a 50-50 chance of keeping warming below 2°C. (Editor comment)

As Climate Minister, You Can’t Promote Fossil Fuels

Dear Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson,

GASP was terribly disappointed when we heard your comments that Canada will continue to extract oil from the Trans Mountain Pipeline because the revenue is needed to help Canada achieve its long-term climate objectives. This comes on the same day, August 9^th, 2021, that the IPCC published its report that forecasts catastrophic environmental consequences if humans continue burning coal and other fossil fuels.

In an interview with Katie Simpson, on CBC’s Power and Politics, you reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to phasing out fossil fuels and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but as we see in the IPCC report, the planet cannot wait until 2050.

Our children, grandchildren, and children everywhere cannot wait till 2050

Forests and Canadian towns that have burnt down this summer in Canada cannot wait till 2050.

Crops, across the prairie provinces, that have withered this summer cannot wait until 2050.

The melting permafrost is impacting the Inuit way of life today. They cannot wait until 2050.

Canada’s commitment to lower emissions 40% – 45% is actually weaker than the IPCC called for. Canada has hugely benefited from extracting and burning fossil fuels and we now have a “CARBON DEBT “to the world. Decarbonization is our only path to survival.

Is it only, we grandmothers, who think it’s absolute nonsense to believe burning fossil fuels can transition us away from fossil fuels? That Canada needs the revenue from the Trans Mountain Pipeline to fight the proliferation of fossil fuels? That focusing on 2050 ‘long-term climate objectives’ sends a message of urgency?

Canada cannot waste time and money on false solutions being pushed by oil and gas companies that sanction more oil and gas production. As a top global and a major fossil fuel exporter, we have both the responsibility and the power to make a difference. We must cut emissions in half this decade, rapidly decarbonize all sectors of the economy, and phase out fossil fuels.

In the past, we have taken our issues to our Halton Liberal MPs – Pam Damoff; Anita Anand; Karina Gould; and Adam vanKoeverden, for whom we have great respect. They have always given us time to meet with them and have been excellent listeners. They all think very highly of you, your knowledge, and expertise, however, we feel they are reluctant to address our concerns with you.

There is no time for delay. The Climate Emergency is NOT a problem of the future, or the next government – it’s here and now and affecting every region of the world.

If, as you say, Canada is serious about the climate crisis, your response to the IPCC report must be a moratorium on fossil fuel expansion in Canada; a freeze on projects like Trans Mountain; and immediate action to fast track just transition legislation.

Every degree of warming that we can prevent means more lives saved; it means more species protected; it means our grandchildren and future generations will inherit a world they can live in.

Lorraine Green is a grandmother, advocate for social justice and gender equality, a climate activist and Co-Chair of GASP (Grand(m)others Act to Save the Planet). You can connect with her on Twitter, @lorraineagreen

Carole Holmes is Co-Chair of GASP, Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet, based in Oakville Ontario. GASP4change.org.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Loopholes Still Allow Mountaintop Mining, Law Prof Warns, after Alberta Reinstates 1976 Coal Policy

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Doubts are being raised about the Alberta government’s decision to restore a policy that protects the Rocky Mountains from coal mining.

Energy Minister Sonya Savage on Monday brought back a 1976 policy that keeps open-pit coal mines out of most of the Rockies and foothills. University of Calgary resource law professor Nigel Bankes says the ban doesn’t apply everywhere, despite Savage’s assurances that mountaintop removal mines are prohibited, The Canadian Press reports.

That means Benga Mining’s proposal for such a mine, now before a review panel, could still go ahead.

Bankes also points out exploration already permitted can still go ahead, so hundreds of drill sites and kilometres of roads could still be built despite return of the policy.

Environmentalist Kevin van Tighem calls bringing back the coal policy a “bait and switch.”

He says the energy minister’s letter to the Alberta Energy Regulator still allows for the possibility of open-pit mines.

Last November, APTN News reported concern about the C$800-million project on the part of the Kainai First Nation south of Calgary, also known as the Blood Tribe, despite previous support it received from the mainly Blackfoot bands in southern Alberta that make up Treaty. “This Grassy Mountain Coal Project will cause irreversible damage to our traditional territories, including the mountains, rivers and natural landscapes,” said Kainai member Latasha Calf Robe. “These mountains that our people have occupied since time immemorial will be gone and will never be able to be replaced.”

Calf Robe added that “no community-level consultation has been done on the Blood Tribe, and as far as I know, has not been done with any of the communities in Treaty 7.” So letters of support from Treaty 7 “were issued without community-level consultation in any of these communities.”

Ian Urquhart, conservation director with the Alberta Wilderness Association, said the project “raises important questions about climate change—both for the globe, and also for the federal government to try to meet its commitments under the Paris Accord.”

Coal “is a huge carbon polluter,” he told APTN, and “the steel sector that’s going to use the coal that Benga wants to produce is the largest single industrial source of (carbon and greenhouse) emissions on the planet.”

Benga is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian coal developer Riversdale Resources, APTN says.

Published with permission from The Energy Mix.

Stop Grassy Mountain Coal and Protect the Rockies

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Water for Coal Developments: Where Will It Come From?

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Photo by Phil Whitehouse (CC BY 2.0)

The Government of Alberta (GoA) is hell-bent on facilitating the development of new coal mines in the Province. To that end, it purported to rescind the long-standing Coal Development Policy (CDP) of 1976 effective June 1, 2020. The CDP prevented development of coal resources in Category I lands on the eastern slopes of the Rockies and only permitted the development of new underground mines (rather than open-pit mines) in Category II lands (see Figure 1, below, also available here).

An application for judicial review of the decision to rescind the CDP is pending: Blades et al v Alberta.

Meanwhile, several new coal mining projects are at various stages of review. These projects include Riversdale/Benga’s Grassy Mountain Project currently under review by a joint review panel of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), Montem’s Tent Mountain Mine, Atrum’s Elan and Isolation Mines, and the Cabin Ridge Coal Project Ltd. (for further details see Oldman Watershed Council, Coal Mining in the Oldman Watershed, July 30, 2020).

These mines will all require approvals under the Coal Conservation Act, RSA 2000, c C-17 and other regulatory statutes, but they will also require something else – water. And water in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) – and especially within the Oldman River Basin – is in short supply. Indeed, the SSRB (with the exception of the Red Deer Basin) has long been considered to be over-allocated in terms of licensed appropriations and accordingly it (outside the Red Deer Basin) has been closed to new licence applications since 2007 (with some exceptions discussed below). In closing the basin, the GoA was giving effect to the terms of the approved Water Management Plan for the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB WMP).

Source: Water for Coal Developments: Where Will It Come From? |

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Historic Alberta coal community wrestles with plans for new mining

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Steve MacLellan

Ramble On

Tag Archives: Jonathan Wilkinson

Mr. Wilkinson: You Can’t Be Canada’s Climate Minister and Promote Fossil Fuels

Loopholes Still Allow Mountaintop Mining, Law Prof Warns, after Alberta Reinstates 1976 Coal Policy

Stop Grassy Mountain Coal and Protect the Rockies

Water for Coal Developments: Where Will It Come From?

Historic Alberta coal community wrestles with plans for new mining

As Climate Minister, You Can’t Promote Fossil Fuels

Our children, grandchildren, and children everywhere cannot wait till 2050

There is no time for delay. The Climate Emergency is NOT a problem of the future, or the next government – it’s here and now and affecting every region of the world.

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