The Toronto Star is reporting that former BC premier Gordon Campbell will be appointed by Stephen Harper as Canada’s High Commissioner to Britain – June 22, 2011
Harper to name Gordon Campbell as High Commissioner to Britain: Sources
Category Archives: Canada
US House Vote Blocks FDA Approval of Genetically Engineered Salmon
From SustainableBusiness.com – June 20, 2011
The US House of Representatives last week passed an amendment that
blocks the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from approving genetically
engineered (GE) salmon – the first genetically engineered animal
intended for human consumption.
During full floor debate of the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture and FDA
appropriations bill, members of the House passed an amendment offered by
Reps. Don Young (R-AK) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) to prohibit use of FDA
funds to approve any application for approval of genetically engineered
salmon.
The full appropriations bill, The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food
and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R.
2112), passed on Thursday by a 217-203 vote.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) applauded passage of the amendment:
“We thank members of the House for stepping in to correct FDA’s
misguided decision to go ahead with this approval process which fails to
take into account a plethora of economic, human health, environmental
and animal welfare concerns,” says Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director
of the Center for Food Safety. “Any decision to approve GE salmon would
be a continuation of the Obama Administration’s illogical biotech
bailout at the expense of American jobs and our fishing economy.”
The FDA currently approves GE animals through its new animal drug law,
yet critics fault the process as failing to require adequate safety
assessments and lacking transparency and public engagement. The decision
to regulate GE animals as animal drugs was announced by FDA in 2009 in
the form of a Guidance to Industry, a non-binding form of regulation.
“We need a robust regulatory system that assesses the full suite of
economic, human health, environmental and animal welfare risks posed by
GE animals and allows for full and open public participation,” adds
Colin O’Neil, Regulatory Policy Analyst for the Center for Food Safety.
In September 2010, more than 40 members of Congress sent letters requesting FDA halt the approval of the long-shelved AquaBounty transgenic salmon.
“The FDA’s hastily completed approval process puts American consumers
and the environment at risk. GE salmon could be devastating to fishing
and coastal communities, our food source, and already depleted wild
salmon populations. The FDA should put the interests and safety of
American families and our ocean resources above special interests,” Rep.
DeFazio said in September.
In February, Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Representative Don Young
(R-Alaska) introduced complimentary legislation that would ban
genetically engineered (GE) fish and require mandatory labeling if
approved.
The two pieces of legislation were endorsed by 67 consumer, worker,
religious and environmental groups, along with commercial, recreational
and subsistence fisheries associations, and food businesses and
retailers.
Those groups include the Center for Food Safety, Ocean Conservancy,
Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development, the Alaska Trollers
Association, Food and Water Watch, the National Cooperative Grocers
Association, Trout Unlimited and the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations among others.
Last fall, over 300 environmental, consumer, health, and animal welfare
organizations, along with salmon and fishing groups and associations,
food companies, chefs and restaurants signed joint letters to the FDA opposing
the approval of AquaBounty’s GE salmon. Additionally nearly 400,000
public comments were sent to FDA from citizens demanding the agency
reject this application and require mandatory labeling of this
transgenic salmon should it decide to approve it.
Read original article
Ex-B.C. cabinet minister Chuck Strahl urges Tories to act on asbestos
From the Vancouver Sun – June 20, 2011
by Sarah Schmidt
OTTAWA — The Conservative government took a hit from friendly-fire
Monday when a former Tory cabinet minister who has battled lung cancer
pleaded with his former colleagues to support limits on the export of
chrysotile asbestos.
Chuck Strahl, a senior Tory cabinet
minister until his retirement from politics in May, wrote a column on
the opening day of an international conference to decide whether the
substance should be labelled as a hazardous material under the United
Nations’ Rotterdam Convention.
Strahl called on Ottawa to
stand with the world’s industrialized countries and list the carcinogen
on Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention.
This is a special
list that requires “Prior Informed Consent” before countries can export
the hazardous product to another country. Placing it on the list means
recipient countries must be informed of the hazards and can refuse to
accept it if they believe they can’t handle it safety.
Strahl, a former British Columbia logging contractor, developed lung cancer linked to his exposure to asbestos.
Although
the four-day UN meeting kicked off Monday in Geneva, the government has
yet to disclose whether Canada supports the listing of chrysotile
asbestos on Annex III.
The mineral is mined in Quebec and exported to developing countries such as India and Thailand.
Strahl
told Industry Minister Christian Paradis and Prime Minister Stephen
Harper that it’s time for Canada to support flagging the carcinogen as
potentially harmful because importers and exporters have the right to
know there are serious health risks if misused.
“Loggers
like me operated some of industry’s largest and most dangerous
equipment. I loved every minute of it. Huge and powerful, they fit the
personalities of the men of the woods — aggressive, production-oriented,
no-nonsense types who didn’t wait around to listen to some do-gooder
tell them about the dangers of asbestos. That was a big, big mistake,”
Strahl wrote in the Globe and Mail.
“Not surprisingly,
exposure of this kind caused problems. But never immediately. Like
smoking a cigarette, the effects take time. And, like smoking a
cigarette in those days, people just didn’t know about the long term
impacts of asbestos. But we do today. The doctors tell me that the
cancer I was diagnosed with six years ago and collapsed my lung was
certainly caused by exposure to asbestos. Miraculously and thankfully,
my cancer hasn’t grown and I’m symptom-free. Most guys that get
diagnosed are dead in six to 12 months.”
Strahl added: “The
Prime Minister and Quebec’s regional minister have both said that they
support the safe use of chrysotile asbestos. It’s hard to argue with
that. By listing chrysotile in the Rotterdam Convention as a product
that deserves to be handled carefully and with proper warnings, safe use
is more likely to occur. Workers from all countries will be grateful
for that notification — if not today, then a generation from now.”
At
the most recent Rotterdam Convention meeting in 2008, consideration of
whether chrysotile asbestos should be listed was deferred after
consensus could not be reached. Canada split with industrialized
countries by objecting to the listing, along with a handful of other
countries, including Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbabwe.
Canada
also blocked the move to list chrysotile asbestos at the 2006
conference. At the time, Health Canada’s bureaucracy wanted to include
the carcinogen on the convention’s list of hazardous chemicals.
Under
the convention, hazardous chemicals and pesticides that have already
been banned, or whose uses are severely restricted in many countries,
are listed in Annex III if they also meet certain scientific criteria.
The convention’s expert scientific committee has repeatedly recommended
that chrysotile asbestos, already banned in many countries, be placed on
the list.
Paradis was not immediately available to comment on Strahl’s salvo.
On
Friday, his spokeswoman said it wasn’t the right time to discuss
Canada’s position on the Rotterdam Convention. Paradis, who has also
served as natural resources minister, represents the Quebec riding of
Megantic-L’Erable, home to Canada’s last-remaining asbestos mine.
“There
are times when it’s time to disclose it and there are times when it’s
not the time, and now it’s not the time,” spokesman Pascale Boulay said
Friday.
“Canada knows what its position is.”
After
the opening day of the conference Monday, countries are scheduled
Tuesday to discuss the recommendation from the convention’s committee of
scientists to list chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous substance.
Anti-asbestos
campaigners say they believe Canada will continue to push to keep the
mineral off the convention’s list of hazardous materials. They accuse
Paradis — whom they call the “czar of asbestos” — of overruling health
and environment experts within the federal government.
Read original article
Alexandra Morton on ISA in Canada
From Alexandra Morton’s blog – June 16, 2011
Read this eye-opening blog from Alexandra Morton on the possibility of deadly Infectious Salmon Anemia in Canada – and the utter lack of government oversight.
NDP MP Fin Donnelly Reintroduces Bills on Salmon & Oil Tankers
This week in Ottawa, NDP MP for New Westminster-Coquitlam-Port Moody Fin Donnelly reintroduced two private members bills he authored last year. The first calls for a legislated ban on oil supertanker traffic on BC’s North and Central Coast. The second, called the Wild Salmon Protection Act, calls for open net pen salmon farms to be transitioned to land-based closed-containment technology.
Donnelly reintroduced his oil supertanker bill yesterday, seconded by BC MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, Nathan Cullen, whose riding would encompass much of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline route and tanker port in the coastal community of Kitimat.
“British Columbians have been clear. They want to protect our north coast and permanently ban oil tanker traffic though the Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance and Queen Charlotte Sound,” said New Democrat Fisheries and Oceans Critic Fin Donnelly. “A major spill off BC’s north coast would be catastrophic to the ecosystem and would negatively affect the economy in this area.”
A recent poll reconfirmed 80% of British Columbians oppose oil tanker traffic off the province’s rugged north coast – which is consistent with polling figures over the past year.
Donnelly said in Ottawa, “I urge Parliament to consider the risks associated with oil super tankers travelling off BC’s north coast and legislate a permanent ban.”
As the NDP’s Fisheries Critic, Donnelly has also been pushing his wild salmon bill in Ottawa for over a year now, with support from the likes of renown biologist Alexandra Morton, Hollywood icon and sports fisherman William Shatner, Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Broughton First Nations, and famed Vancouver chef Robert Clark.
According to Donnelly, “The bill would direct the Fisheries Minister to develop, table and implement a transition plan to move to closed containment.”
“My bill has received tremendous support since I first introduced it in Parliament last year,” said Donnelly. “Thousands of British Columbians have signed postcards and petitions to encourage the federal government to adopt this legislation. I hope that the federal government will listen and pass this critical legislation.”
Manitoba Premier Selinger launching campaign to save the Wheat Board – article & video
From the Winnipeg Free Press – June 13, 2011
by Staff Writer
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger is trying to enlist the
public’s support in protesting Ottawa’s plan to eliminate the Canadian
Wheat Board’s monopoly on grain.
The federal Conservative government will introduce legislation this
fall that will effectively end the Winnipeg-based grain-marketing
monopoly by Aug. 1, 2012, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced two
weeks ago, fulfilling a long-time pledge by his party.
The plan has proponents among wheat and barley producers, especially
those closer to the Canada-U.S. border, as well as among industry giants
such as Viterra. Other producers and industry groups oppose the plan.
Selinger launched a campaign to “save the Canadian Wheat Board” in
the lobby of the board’s Main Street headquarters this morning. The
premier was joined by Wheat Board chairman Allen Oberg and Doug Chorney,
president, Keystone Agricultural Producers.
Mayor Sam Katz, who is attending a conference in Israel, has not commented on the pending loss of the Winnipeg-based entity.
Read original article and watch video
MarketWatch: Regulatory fight in a Canadian oil-sands box
From MarketWatch.com – May 26, 2011
By Bill Mann
PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. (MarketWatch) — A big battle is shaping up over
environmental regulation of Canada’s oil sands, the second-largest oil
deposits in the world. And, surprisingly, it’s Conservatives against
Conservatives.
In this corner, it’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s federal
Conservatives, who just gained a majority government. In that corner,
it’s Alberta’s conservative provincial government, led by hard-nosed,
oil-industry friendly premier Ed Stelmach.
A diplomatic cable recently released by Wikileaks highlights the
problems: It revealed an exchange between then-Canadian Environment
Minister Jim Prentice and U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobsen, in
which the American said he believed Ottawa was being “too slow” about
regulating the expansive oil sands.
The U.S. wants a big part of that “non-terrorist” Alberta oil but it
doesn’t want its chief supplier to look environmentally dirty, for
obvious political reasons. Canada is now the U.S.’ largest oil supplier.
Canada, being a helpful vendor, apparently agrees, so last week, new
Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that Ottawa will
introduce environmental regulations later this year for the oil-sands
sector designed to reduce greenhouse gases spewed from one of the
country’s most polluting industries.
The water quality at the oil sands — or, as environmentalists call the
bitumen mines, the tar sands — is also very much an issue. A leak that
fouled the water and killed hundreds of waterfowl in the far-north oil
fields two years ago may have spurred the U.S. ambassador’s plea for
Ottawa to toughen up environmental controls.
Part of this new Ottawa vow to assume environmental control over what
the Alberta government insists is a provincially-owned resource may well
be tied in to Harper’s visit this week to the G8 summit in France.
There’s a good chance environmental groups will show up with pictures —
or billboards — of oil-soaked Alberta waterfowl. Harper doesn’t want
Canada to be known on the world stage as the world’s “dirty-oil”
producer. (Although extracting crude from bitumen is indeed, at best, a
dirty, water-and-energy consuming business).
A group of U.S. Senators visited the oil sands last December and said,
not surprisingly, they were satisfied with the environmental protections
in place in Alberta. Ottawa apparently isn’t, despite Alberta’s belated
environmental-protection moves.
Alberta will fight back
Alberta isn’t going to give up in this battle with fellow Conservatives without a fight.
Provincial finance minister Lloyd Snelgrove criticized Ottawa for
regulating a provincial resource, which would add “multiple layers of
government trying to the same thing, [where] nobody wins.”
Snelgrove
told the Calgary Herald
that Stelmach’s Alberta government has been worried for some time
Ottawa would step in and regulate the provincial resource, adding
unnecessary duplication and costs to the multibillion-dollar sector.
“The federal government has sat on the sidelines for years and years and
years. Now they see their little golden goose is under attack and they
want to be the voice for Canada on the world stage and we respect that,”
Snelgrove told the Calgary Herald.
The Wikileaks cable, little-reported in U.S. media, which is a bit
surprising, considering its importance to the U.S. energy future, also
revealed that the Obama administration inquired about a possible
moratorium on new oil sands development as global criticism mounted over
the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world.
A San Francisco-based environmental group has run anti-oil sands
billboards and newspaper ads in Canada, the U.S. and in Europe, urging
tourists not to come to Alberta. Stelmach, who recently announced he’ll
be leaving office soon, replied angrily, buying billboards and print ads
of his own saying Alberta is addressing environmental concerns.
Read full article
Coleman, Palmer on Hydro: Ignoring the $50 Billion Elephant in Room
This will be harsh, I warn you. In preparation I urge you to read Dr. Marvin Shaffer’s (SFU) article in the Vancouver Sun last Monday.
My position today is that the Vancouver Sun’s lead columnist, whom I once greatly admired, Vaughn Palmer, has abandoned his journalistic duty; while Energy Minister Rich Coleman, whom I had come to regard as a man of integrity based upon his work for homeless, is a political hack unworthy of his “Honourable”.
I do not say these things lightly and ask you to be the judge.
The subject is BC Hydro and its proposed rate hikes, which Coleman has vowed to examine closely and Mr. Palmer has spent his last two columns on.
Here is one of the salient facts that stands out in Dr Shaffer’s presentation:
“The fact that the electricity BC Hydro is being forced to buy is costing more than double what the electricity is worth, now and in the foreseeable future, does not seem to matter. The legislation is absolute. BC Hydro must acquire this extra electricity supply whatever its impact on costs and rates” (it’s also power created, for the most part, when BC Hydro doesn’t need it. – RM)
Dr. Shaffer is a man whose credentials and honesty are above reproach – to say that he is highly respected goes without saying. Great credit to the Sun’s editors for printing his op-ed.
This madness had escaped the notice, evidently, of the Minister and Palmer. Is that because the amount is small?
The amount, today and climbing, is approximately $50 Billion dollars – which sum is carefully concealed – but because of an earlier statement by Coleman has been verified and is also verified by Erik Andersen, a highly respected (non-political, I hastily add) economist who specializes in assessing public finances.
Vaughn Palmer and Rich Coleman are “investigating the rate increases BC Hydro claims it needs” by overlooking $50 Billion.
How much is $50 Billion?
It is 50,000 million dollars. If you live in Kamloops or Kelowna every one of your neighbours has $500,000 in the bank!
This amount is owed by BC Hydro to private power corporations, paid as it presently stands, at over $1 billion (1000 million) a year and rising, for energy they don’t need – at twice or more its value. And Mr. Coleman and Palmer slough it off! Don’t even mention it!
And who do you think is going to pay this?
Three guesses and the first two don’t count!
This is, in effect, what we’re all doing as ratepayers – subsidizing huge corporations like General Electric to destroy our rivers for power we can’t, for the most part use, for which we must pay twice or more what its worth.
The net effect of this is that BC Hydro is no longer able to pay its annual handsome dividend to our government. BC Hydro, were it in the private sector and unable to pass its losses onto the public, would now be headed for bankruptcy protection. Did you get that? The only way BC Hydro can avoid bankruptcy is this: soak British Columbians with higher and higher rates!
The dots are easy to connect – because of government policy we pay General Electric, Ledcor and other similarly small “mom-and-pop operators” to make power that BC Hydro must (under the take-or-pay contracts) pay for when they don’t need it, or export it at a huge loss – all the while destroying our rivers and the ecosystems they support.
I don’t impugn the motives of Mr. Palmer or the strange silence from the pen of Mike Smyth – I simply don’t know how and why they would not do the same kind of work on the Liberal government as Palmer did with NDP premier Glen Clark and his fast ferries.
The motives of Mr. Coleman can be easily stated: he’s a politician prepared to say anything – or remain silent on anything – to avoid confessing government error.
I issue this warning to Christy Clark: the chickens are coming home to roost and soon. It’s now too late to avoid this in time for a snap election.
Premier W.A.C. Bennett created BC Hydro so that British Columbians could use their massive hydro power to compete for industry and until Gordon Campbell came along it worked brilliantly. Now it’s in tatters with BC Hydro pleading with the public to fill its begging bowl.
Our government, lying through its teeth*, has not only destroyed our rivers and their ecologies, it has subsidized large corporations to fleece us, destroy one of the world’s finest power companies while paying them billions of our dollars as a bonus!
Surely the very least we must conclude is that Palmer is not worth reading and this government is unfit to govern.
*Please watch this 2 min video of Colin Hansen spewing falsehood upon falsehood, in his presentation as then Finance Minister of the Liberal government’s Energy Policy.
Les Leyne: Clark, Dix choose industry-enviro sides
From the Times-Colonist – June 7, 2011
by Les Leyne
When it comes to the big wedge issue – the resource sector versus the
environment – the gulf between the Liberals and the New Democrats seems
to be growing.
The Liberals are usually pro-development and the
NDP usually tilts environment-first. With new leaders on both sides, it
looks as if that split is going to get more obvious.
There’s usually a middle ground on economy versus environment arguments. Both leaders are headed away from it.
Premier
Christy Clark spoke to the Canada West Foundation three weeks ago and
made it clear where the resource sector fits in with her “family first”
agenda.
It’s first and foremost.
Addressing 200 people at a
foundation dinner in Vancouver, she said: “It is easy for people to be
against things. Easy for people to say: ‘You know, we should just cut
down fewer trees in B.C. We should just have fewer mines. Maybe we
shouldn’t have all this oil and gas development …. Maybe we shouldn’t
be disturbing the Earth.’
“It’s pretty easy to say that when you don’t understand the connections between that economic opportunity and your family.
“I
see the premier’s job very much as helping people make that connection.
Because public support for economic development is crucial if we want
to make sure it keeps happening, and our economy keeps growing.”
Clark
has already walked the proindustry walk. The first thing she brought up
at her initial meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the
Prosperity mine in the Chilcotin, which passed a provincial
environmental review but flunked the federal one.
She wants the new version of the mine approved and told Harper that.
NDP
leader Adrian Dix, whose party raised some resource-industry caution
flags during the legislative session, objected to that stand during a
debate with Clark last week. He said she favoured destroying a lake and
bypassing the First Nation that’s involved.
The difference extends
to other issues. Clark hasn’t committed to the proposed Enbridge
pipeline, pending the environmental review. But it’s not hard to imagine
the Liberals supporting it. She’s left herself lots of room to support
tanker movement on the coast, a related issue.
Dix was pleased to
read one of her old quotes to her: “We’ve got tankers going up and down
the St. Lawrence, for heaven’s sake. I don’t know why we’d ban them
necessarily off the west coast.”
Clark took pains to point out the
much-discussed moratorium is “solely directed at tankers that are
transiting the B.C. coast and not oil tankers that are sailing to or
from B.C. ports.”
There’s also a split of sorts on natural gas
drilling. Dix questions the hydraulic fracturing technique now used in
unconventional wells.
Clark told the Vancouver dinner: “Every
heart operation in this province is paid for by oil and gas out of the
northeast …. Boy, you want a health care system, you better be damn
happy we’re getting oil and gas out of the northeast, because that’s
what’s paying for it.”
It’s clear Clark will back resource industries over the environment in all but the most extreme circumstances.
And Dix told his party shortly after winning the leadership that a strong environmental policy is critical in the next campaign.
They botched the carbon tax introduction two years ago by opposing it, and have a lot of making up to do with green voters.
This time around, they’re going to be as green as green can be.
“Clark
is essentially opposed to environmental assessment; we’re in favour,”
Dix told his party. “She favours the Enbridge pipeline; we’re opposed.
She favours offshore oil and gas: We’re opposed to it.”
Whether that’s a winning game plan or not, it’s the one he’s going to execute.
Just
So You Know: Three weeks ago at the Liberal convention, Clark hinted at
a “bold new plan” that will attract investment and send a signal that
B.C. is open for business.
The Vancouver speech provided a few
more details. It looks as if it was over-hyped. It’s just about focusing
the government’s economic development programs – which have been housed
in 10 different ministries – on areas with the most obvious payoff.
Public Eye: Clark used chartered plane from CN Chair McLean’s company
From Public Eye Online – June 8, 2011
by Sean Holman
When Christy Clark was running for the provincial Liberal leadership, she did so using a chartered plane from one of businessman David McLean‘s
companies, Public Eye has exclusively learned. A spokesperson for the
premier has confirmed the use of that plane was recorded as a $23,035
in-kind donation from Blackcomb Aviation LP, which is part of the McLean Group of Companies. Mr. McLean is chair of the group, as well as Canadian National Railway Co. – which was the successful bidder to operate British Columbia Railway Co.
That contribution shows up in Ms. Clark’s Elections British Columbia
leadership campaign filings, which were released last month. But it
wasn’t included as part of the voluntary financial disclosure statement
she released on February 22, even though $18,799 worth of Blackcomb’s
billings are listed as having been made before that date.
The premier’s spokesperson said that’s because only cash
contributions were included in the voluntary statement. In-kind
donations were tallied at the end of the campaign, which wrapped up on
February 26.
Read original article