Like a
lot of tourism operators, Haverstock and his wife had to refund
reservations and now find themselves deeply in debt and high on
uncertainty.
All across the province, members of one of Nova
Scotia’s most lucrative sectors are trying to figure out how to — or if
they even can — adjust to a tourism industry that’s seen droves of
potential clients sidelined by COVID-19 and the disease’s related
effects on travel.
The cruise ship season was cancelled,
business and convention travel dried up, airline traffic all but
disappeared and anyone from outside Atlantic Canada who wants to come
here must spend their first 14 days in quarantine. The effects have been
dire.
The Lower Saulnierville wharf. Photo Sakura Saunders, Facebook
KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Politicians and the leadership of non-Indigenous fishermen are allowing tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers in Digby County to rise to dangerous levels.
This is what happens when land acknowledgements are just things you say at the start of meetings, and when the term ‘unceded’ is devoid of real meaning.
What’s playing out in the waters off Digby is complex, but the bottom line is that both non-Indigenous fishermen and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are trying to stop Mi’kmaq from exercising their treaty rights.
That right was recognized by the Supreme Court when it confirmed in its September 1999 Donald Marshall Jr. decision that established that Indigenous fishers have the right to fish out of season to earn a moderate livelihood.
Like it or not, that’s the law now.
The media continues to report on Mi’kmaq fisheries as illegal, unwilling to recognize that the Mi’kmaq Nation is equal to Canada in its sovereignty, and just as justified to consider DFO’s efforts to interrupt their fisheries illegal.
Shubenacadie River is the most important striped bass spawning ground in Nova Scotia.
KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Alton Gas likes to brag about the soundness of its approach and its willingness to share information with the public.
However, if it weren’t for Rachael Greenland-Smith and Dale Poulette, two stubborn citizen-researchers, we would never have seen evidence that the federal department of Environment and Climate Change (ECC) point blank refused to approve the project as it is currently proposed.
Alton Gas intends to dump 1.3 million cubic metres of salt into the Shubenacadie River over a two- to three-year period. The salt would be flushed out as nearby natural gas storage caverns are being excavated.
Indigenous water protectors and their allies believe that this will harm creatures that live in and around the river and that the Mi’kmaq people who traditionally hunted and fished the area never surrendered the land and were not properly consulted.
The last striped bass spawning ground in Nova Scotia
Natural gas is a fossil energy source that formed deep beneath the earth’s surface. Natural gas contains many different compounds. The largest component of natural gas is methane, a compound with one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms (CH4). Natural gas also contains smaller amounts of natural gas liquids (NGL, which are also hydrocarbon gas liquids), and nonhydrocarbon gases, such as carbon dioxide and water vapor. We use natural gas as a fuel and to make materials and chemicals.
Shubenacadie River, Nova Scotia
The plan to store the gas in caverns is flawed. Despite assurances it will be absolutely safe, there aren’t any guarantees. There have been some very serious leaks causing explosions and fires and although these represent extreme failures, constant leaking occurs. In an EPA report, it said that in 2012, twenty-seven percent of the leaked emissions were from transmission and storage. Forty-five percent from production, sixteen percent from distribution and twelve percent from processing. Similar failures are reported across the globe, not just the U.S., so is it any wonder the safety of the Alton Gas project needs to be questioned?
Although the brine is a salt solution, the Nova Scotia Striped Bass Association feels these releases could have a negative impact on the fish during spawning season. It also begs the question about toxic blooms of algae that could grow with the increase salt discharge. It would absorb oxygen out of the water and leave the fish more susceptible to disease.
In an article by the Council of Canadians titled “The Unacceptable Risk of Alton Gas Storage” it says, “An independent quantitative risk analysis done in 2015 by Rob Mackenzie for a similar project in Seneca Lake looked at the risk of underground hydrocarbon storage, including salt cavern storage. His risk analysis concluded that salt cavern storage poses an unacceptable risk due to the medium likelihood and extremely serious to serious consequences.”
Any event — such as a COVID-19 outbreak in any of these oil-supplying countries — that disrupts the flow of crude oil to the refinery threatens the energy security of most people in Atlantic Canada.
Crude oil supply
Relying on non-Canadian suppliers has never been an issue for the refinery. Even during the low points of Canadian-Saudi relations in the summer of 2018 and periods of increased tension in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been one of its principal suppliers. (Part of this may be attributable to the fact that about 60 per cent of the refinery’s output is shipped to New England and U.S.-Saudi relations could be affected if Saudi Arabia’s supplies to the Saint John refinery were disrupted.)
However, COVID-19 is a concern for those running the refinery. In April, Irving Oil applied to the Canadian Transportation Agency to use tankers from unspecified, non-Canadian suppliers for these two shipments, as per the requirements of the Coasting Trade Act. In each application it was made clear that the company’s overriding concern was the impact COVID-19 could have on about 80 per cent of its crude oil supply shipped from non-Canadian sources.
This is a legitimate concern.
Cargo ships navigate through Panama Canal waters in Gamboa, Panama, in June 2020. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
A COVID-19 outbreak in an oil-producing country or on board a tanker could disrupt the flow of crude oil to the Saint John refinery and, consequentially, disrupt the flow of its refined products to most of Atlantic Canada and New England.
Irving Oil’s decision to find alternate ways to access Western Canadian crude oil from British Columbia via the Panama Canal or the U.S. Gulf Coast will undoubtedly increase the diversity of its supply. However, Irving’s concerns over COVID-19 and its international suppliers and shippers are equally applicable to Western Canada’s oilfields and any ships used to carry the crude oil.
To be fair, Irving has few other choices: crude-by-rail is a possibility, but there is limited capacity in its rail yard; TransCanada killed the Energy East project and even if it could be revived, it would take years to complete.
