All posts by Common Sense Canadian

Vancouver Island Railway Study Released

September 4, 2010Urban & TransportTransportation and Urban PlanningCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Matthew Buchanan on the Transport Action BC site. “The provincial study on the future of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway… basically concludes that it is not worth investing any money in the railway corridor… The province, with help from the federal government will spend $1.184 billion on the South Fraser Perimeter Road (expressway). These road projects seem to get announced every week with no year-long half million dollar studies, but for non-highway projects the province isn’t interested in supporting them.” Read article

Fuel tanker aground in Northwest Passage

September 3, 2010UncategorizedCommon Sense Canadian

Story from CBC News. “Coast guard officials say the merchant tanker Nanny, owned by Woodward’s Oil Ltd., ran aground on a sandbar Wednesday in Simpson Strait, about 50 kilometres southwest of Gjoa Haven, a hamlet on King William Island in western Nunavut.”
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Anti-HST forces livid about B.C. documents

September 3, 2010UncategorizedHSTCommon Sense Canadian

Article by CBC News. “The documents show that senior bureaucrats in the B.C. finance ministry had briefed politicians on the HST as early as January 2009.” Read article

Land-farmed salmon making a splash

September 2, 2010UncategorizedSalmonCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Jeff Nagel in the South Delta Leader.

“The coho eat feed made mainly from locally sourced herring meal.

“No antibiotics or vaccines are used.

“And unlike ocean-based net pen farms, there’s no risk of pollution, disease spread, the proliferation of sea lice or escapees interbreeding with wild stocks.”

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DFO boss defends draft aquaculture regs

September 2, 2010UncategorizedSalmonCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Dan MacLennan in the Campbell River Courier-Islander. “The finfish aquaculture regulations are woefully inadequate to protect wild salmon”, said Brian Gunn, President of the BC Wilderness Tourism Association (WTA). “They do not address the impacts that open net cage salmon farms have on the wild salmon stocks. For example, there are no requirements in the current proposed regulations for the salmon farming industry to monitor the health of juvenile wild salmon for impacts due to disease and sea lice around farms during their out migration. In fact there is little in the proposed regulations to protect wild salmon. DFO seem to have forgotten what should be their primary mandate, which is to protect our wild fisheries.”
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The Republican Who Dared Tell the Truth About Oil

September 2, 2010UncategorizedPeak Oil, The TyeeCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Andrew Nikiforuk in The Tyee. “Not too many people in the oil patch speak honestly about the world’s most powerful industry, but (Matt) Simmons did. He didn’t let the money, bullshit or arrogance cloud his judgment. Or his basic reading of geology for that matter.” Read article

Oil Sands Pollute with Fish-Killing Toxins, New Study Shows

September 2, 2010Energy and Resources, Tar SandsAlberta Tar Sands, The TyeeCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Andrew Nikiforuk in The Tyee. “Despite repeated government claims that the world’s largest energy project doesn’t contaminate the Athabasca River, a new scientific study released today shows that air pollution from the oil sands industry combined with extensive watershed destruction has released a highly toxic brew of heavy metals into northern waterways.” Read article

And the plain brown envelope, please

September 1, 2010Canada, PoliticsPoliticsCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Elizabeth James in the North Shore News. David Hutton: “The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, which is supposed to protect whistleblowers and ensure that wrongdoing is exposed, is being used instead to obscure the nature and extent of wrongdoing and to protect the wrongdoers from being publicly identified.”
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Straight-talkin’ Aussie a thorn in Liberal hide

September 1, 2010UncategorizedThe ProvinceCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Michael Smyth in The Province about Auditor-General John Doyle. “Unfortunately for the Liberals, this sharp-fanged watchdog is unlikely to stop biting into the government’s backside anytime soon. But I’d love to see him take a dingo-sized chomp out of the NDP’s hide, too. Doyle is currently reviewing MLA expense accounts — an area where both parties need a good old Aussie butt-kicking.”
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Banks Grow Wary of Environmental Risks

September 1, 2010Energy and Resources, Tar SandsAlberta Tar SandsCommon Sense Canadian

Article by Tom Zeller Jr. in the New York Times. “The Royal Bank of Canada, responding to intense pressure from environmental advocates denouncing the bank’s financing of oil sands projects, hosted 18 international banks in Toronto in February for ‘a day of learning’ on the “regulatory, social and environmental issues” surrounding the oil sands.” Read article

The Common Sense Canadian

Critical discussion of key issues shaping our economy and environment.