Tag Archives: featured

MP wrong to attack West Van council over Woodfibre LNG vote

August 10, 2014Energy and Resources, LNG, Oil&GasfeaturedCommon Sense Canadian

Conservative MP John Weston took issue with Rafe Mair's recent column criticizing the Harper Governmen't environmental "process." — Conservative MP John Weston

By Laura Anderson

On August 6, 2014, John Weston took space in The Local to append his name to an op-ed criticizing West Vancouver council’s motion against an LNG plant and tanker traffic in Howe Sound.

He “disagree[s] with the motion, the way it has been passed and its timing.”

[quote]I admire the Mayor and Council of West Vancouver and work with them regularly…In fact, I have never previously written publicly to challenge one of their decisions or actions. Elected officials have a duty to wait until they know what the concerns are, how significant they may be, and what can be done to mitigate them. At this time, we have not heard of the Council investigating the matter thoroughly or interviewing the proponent, Woodfibre LNG in Squamish.[/quote]

I disagree with Mr. Weston’s statements and do not consider they were appropriate for a member of parliament. As a private citizen, possibly, but not as a representative of the federal government and certainly not in public communication.

Mr. Weston took it upon himself to chastise council for passing the motion in question without a thorough investigation of the project and the entity he’s calling ‘the proponent’.

The proponent is Woodfibre LNG, owned by Pacific Gas and Oil, owned by Royal Golden Eagle International, owned by an Indonesian gentleman named Sukanto Tanoto. You can look up Mr. Tanoto, and his business interests and his environmental track record.

According to The Globe and Mail on March 26, 2014, there are 14 LNG project proposals in contention in BC. Each of them will require pipelines, terminals and tankers. Each will produce significant negative impacts on communities and the environment.

The federal government – the Conservative government – is in this as deeply as the provincial government.

Mr. Weston accused West Vancouver Council of NISEB or Not in Someone Else’s Backyard, an acronym evidently a step beyond NIMBYism.

It appears Mr. Weston’s intention is to remind West Vancouver that the LNG dream will bring enormous social and economic rewards to the province. I presume this message is intended for all those coastal communities that will be impacted by the presence of LNG tankers.

The MP for West Vancouver, etc., used the balance of the editorial space he was given to educate readers about those economic and social benefits.

Mr. Weston tells us that LNG will bring “(jobs, economic growth)…the ability to pay for our teachers, our medical services or welfare and the other good things we love in British Columbia.” He suggests that LNG is preferable to coal.

I think every British Columbian would agree with Mr. Weston about the benefits a robust economy can provide. However, all economic factors and consequences, not only the financial, need to be calculated and evaluated when decisions are made about how our economy is managed.

[signoff3]

Woodfibre LNG wants to ship gas brought by pipeline, then converted to LNG, aboard 40 tankers a year from its terminal. Imagine all 14 LNG projects at work. How many tankers, how many terminals, how many pipelines will they require?

Look at Enbridge’s abysmal pipeline spills and leaks history. Look at Mount Polley just the other day. Do we want to bear the responsibility, and the legacy, of transforming BC into the wasteland that is the Alberta tar sands?

LNG would be produced by fracking. The negative consequences of the brutal extraction process of fracking are too numerous to mention here. Okay, maybe just one: the amount of water required – a lot of water. And one more: despite our premier’s promise, the enormous financial benefits from LNG fracking are numbers that don’t add up, according to a wide variety of experts. These are not assumptions, Mr. Weston, they are science.

I believe factors like ownership and profit, as well as job creation and economic benefits, must be part of the equation. I believe we must make every effort to support, subsidize and focus on alternate energy production and delivery. Our current provincial and federal governments, by their actions, do not agree. Instead, they support an economic and political model that no longer works.

Maybe West Vancouver’s mayor and council skipped what might be a necessary step in the municipal process. I believe that’s arguable.

It certainly provided Mr. Weston with a golden opportunity to present his position on LNG, the fracking process and tankers in “our jewel, the Howe Sound”. I presume, since Mr. Weston is member of the Conservative party as well as a member of parliament, that he is stating the federal position as well.

Two days after Weston’s op-ed, Mayor Smith responded on the front-page of the North Shore News. The mayor said the motion would be revisited, presumably once council has reviewed a report from staff. That report, which presumably will include environmental, economic and political factors, (factors that experts spend years analyzing) will be available to council in time for the motion to be revisited either on September 8 or 15.

To conclude, I believe Mr. Weston’s statement was an inappropriate display of political positioning, cloaked in a message schooling West Vancouver council on matters of procedure.

I support Mayor Smith’s decision to revisit the motion, although I do not believe this is necessary.

I do not understand Councillor Trish Panz’s comment that “the jurisdiction in Squamish is not ours to comment on.” Surely, if the motion was about LNG and tankers in Howe Sound, Ms. Panz would agree that what happens in our waterways affects everyone living in the vicinity – and beyond, I would venture to say. Everyone in BC is affected by decisions about pipelines, terminals, coastal tanker traffic, LNG extraction (aka fracking).

I concur with Councilor Michael Lewis that council’s decision was based on legitimate concerns and strong community sentiments. I can only add my hope to his, that West Vancouver council’s vote against this motion will again be unanimous.

Laura Anderson
West Vancouver, BC

Mount Polley owner donated half a million dollars to Liberals, gets easy ride from Bennett

August 8, 2014Metals and Minerals, Mining, Politics, Western CanadafeaturedCommon Sense Canadian

BC Minister of Mines Bill Bennett (CP) — BC Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett (CP)

By Alex Hanson

The Bill Bennett dog and pony show has been wheeled out in the media once again, this time to cover for his long time pal and major campaign contributor Murray Edwards – the biggest shareholder at the now infamous Mount Polley Mine.

The recent debacle at Mount Polley has the potential for being the biggest environmental disaster in BC history. It has the president of the mining company, Imperial Metals, running in circles with claims that the sludge from their tailings pond is “very close” to drinking water quality.

It also has Minister of Mines and Energy, Bill Bennett doing damage control on behalf of the BC Liberals for their mismanagement of mining in BC – choosing to let companies police themselves as the BC Liberals rid themselves of government inspectors.

Here’s what Postmedia columnist Stephen Hume had to say about Bennett’s response: “…the usually ebullient and forceful minister sounded uncharacteristically querulous, a hand-wringer rather than a strong leader. The best he could initially summon was the observation that the disaster shouldn’t have happened. Gosh, you don’t say! But it did happen, on his watch, and he is responsible for making sure accidents like this don’t happen.”

The most Bennett could muster was a whopping $1 million fine for this colossal fiasco.

But why would Bennett take a political hit by being so weak on the issue, when Imperial Metals has been so openly reckless in their stewardship of the environment?

Mount Polley owner one of Liberals’ biggest donors

Back in January 2013, two men – Murray Edwards and Rod Love – put on a $125 per plate fundraiser in Calgary for the BC Liberals, prior to last provincial election. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that various companies in which Calgary billionaire and Flames owner Edwards is a major investor gave an additional $482,857 to the BC Liberals over the last several years:

Imperial Metals: $178,300
Canadian Natural Resources: $153,480
Penn West Petroleum: $65,835
Mount Polley Mining: $46,720
Resorts of the Canadian Rockies: $23,522
Ensign Drilling: $15,000 (source: Elections BC)

No wonder the BC Liberals began gutting the Ministry of Mines and paving the way for pipelines as soon they got into power. Less regulation and enforcement means more room for profit.

And with the 18th richest billionaire in Canada as Bennett and Clark’s major campaign contributor, we should expect to see more of the Minister of Energy and Mines sitting pretty in front of the cameras, as he whitewashes the Mount Polley disaster for his buddy Mr. Edwards.

Say cheese Minister Bennett!

Alex Hanson
Fernie BC

[signoff3]

Rafe: Mount Polley Mine proves Liberal “de-regulation” doesn’t work

August 7, 2014Metals and Minerals, Mining, Politics, Western CanadafeaturedRafe Mair

Rafe: Mount Polley Mine a "colossal screwup" by BC Liberal govt — Blame the BC Liberals’ lax regulations for Mount Polley Mine, says Rafe Mair (BC Liberal facebook page)

The Mount Polley Mine/Imperial Metals disaster is such that one scarcely knows where to start. Fortunately, the people of British Columbia have a writer like Stephen Hume, who in the Vancouver Sun tells chapter and verse about the failings of the Ministry of Environment’s statutory obligations to regulate.

You know, there must’ve been a date back when that all of the civic dignitaries and the executives of the company and a number of politicians had a glorious day opening the mine and telling everyone how safe it was and how the company’s record was perfect and that in the very unlikely event they missed something, why, there were always those faithful government inspectors to make sure that things were up to snuff.

Expect same (de)regulation of LNG, pipelines, tankers

This naturally got me thinking about the same things now being said about LNG plants and tankers; about Tar Sands pipelines and tankers. Same corporate public relations departments – same addle-headed politicians.

But, I can’t shake it! How come no one has to resign? This is a colossal screwup by the government of British Columbia. Is no one to blame? Whatever happened to the notion of ministerial responsibility?

[signoff3]

I suppose the answer is that when you have political lightweights like the Christy Clark government, totally unmindful of their responsibility to stand by their actions, you’re not going to have anyone even pause for a moment to think that they should pay a price. The whole question of ministerial responsibility has become less and less fashionable as the years go by, but surely there must be some point where the screwup is so bad that someone must run up on their sword.

They should have seen this coming

Lest one think that the Clark government hasn’t had the faintest idea the trouble was brewing in the inspections department, Stephen Hume tells us that the University of Victoria’s Environment Law Center reported in 2012 that environmental assessment certificates issued by government were often “vague and unenforceable”… and that by 2008, the number of mine inspections had fallen to one half what they were in 2001. The Ministry of Environment staff shrank during that time by 25% and the chief mining inspector had insufficient staff to complete the annual the monitoring reports required. And – this has to shake you – the report said:

[quote]This ramshackle enforcement regime is not good enough for an industry that can create environmental and financial catastrophes.[/quote]

Thus the Clark government knew that their enforcement system was inadequate to the task, yet when that breach of public duty spawned disaster, they pay no price!

The Campbell/Clark liberal government has been playing Russian roulette with the safety of British Colombians since it took office in 2001.

Same lax regulations applied to fish farms, IPPs

You may remember that one of the first things this government did was return all of fines levied against fish farmers for illegal practices.

Then came the “raping” of our rivers by private power concerns who were given the opportunity to bankrupt BC Hydro at the same time. These private schemes, which put up dams on the rivers which they prefer to call weirs, are under strict guidelines as to how much water they can use and when, in order to protect the fish. The trouble is that the companies have paid no attention whatsoever to these guidelines unless it suited them and the government hasn’t enforced them, nor has it demonstrated any intention to.

Thus, when you look at the failures of the Ministry of Environment as outlined by Stephen Hume, you see a systemic avoidance of enforcement going right back to the days the Liberals were elected. Yet no minister nor the government need take any responsibility for this!

“Red Tape” and other euphemisms

Enforcement rules are usually referred to by industry and their captive politicians as “red tape” and “de-regulation” or “streamlining” become buzzwords. It’s assumed that if all of these silly bureaucrats would stop trying to enforce idiotic safety regulations, we would all make lots more money. The notion perpetuated by industry is that every rule and regulation is there to stop them making money and, of course, distributing that generously amongst the less well-off in the community, and that these stupid bloody rules should all be tossed aside or ignored; that government regulation, whether it be by way of safety in a factory or a mine, or protection of fish and wildlife, are all bureaucratic nuisances set in place by “socialists” to prevent the entrepreneur from doing great things.

This is the history of these matters. When you read about the struggles of labor unions to get essential safety features into the workplace and see just how minor those reforms were and the fuss the politicians and industrialists made, you can’t believe that caring human beings with souls were involved on the corporate and government side.

Corporations have but one objective

The problem with the general public is that by and large it doesn’t understand what corporations are all about. Companies have one sole purpose: making money for their shareholders. Every penny that is taken from that undertaking is a penny misspent. This is not some sort of socialistic cynicism – it’s simply describes the beast. It has always been that way and it always will be.

Does anyone seriously think that entrepreneurs would go out of their way to voluntarily provide safety regulations and environmental protection and things of that sort that were adverse to their ability to make money? History is crystal clear on the point.

Of course, there are areas where it makes sense for companies to do the right thing by the general public. But it has to make sense on the balance sheet.

What about salmon?

Dead fish found downstream from Mount Polley tailings pond breach (Chris Lyne)

I haven’t spoken about the sockeye salmon. Here we are in a year where huge returns are expected and the Quesnel run may be destroyed. It’s too soon to know what the total impact will be but it bodes to be huge.

The sad thing here is we’re not talking about natural disasters but man-made disasters that could’ve been and often were predicted but ignored. We’re like Charlie Brown and football – we know Lucy’s going to pull it away at the last minute, but we play the game anyway and we always lose. It’s as if we don’t want to know the answers.

Just what are the dangers associated with an LNG tanker crash? What will be the consequences of a Tar Sands tanker crashing in one of our beautiful and sensitive fjords? What will be the consequences of a punctured pipeline in the rugged territory they pass through from Alberta to the BC coast?

Lessons learned

This may seem unrelated to the Imperial Metals disaster, but it actually is very apropos. It is not just the likelihood of a disaster we must concern ourselves with but the extent of that disaster. We then must decide whether or not we’re going to take adequate steps to police these undertakings or just blissfully ignore them because the public relations departments of large companies tell us there’s nothing to worry about?

The Imperial Mine disaster story has legs. We now have in front of us a snapshot of what happens when large undertakings with potentially catastrophic consequences are not policed.

This is what happens when we leave it all to the Company.

This is what happens when a right-wing government takes over and decides to go easy on big business.

This is what happens when we allow ourselves to be deluded into buzz phrases such as “we’re being ruined by red tape”.

This is what happens when we turn a blind eye to common sense and assume that because nothing has happened yet, it’s not going to happen.

The Imperial Metals disaster proves, as if proof were necessary, that no large corporation will do anymore than it has to and then it will always place money in shareholders pockets ahead of money in public safety. It proves again, as if it were necessary, that governments in the pockets of industry will pay no attention to troublesome details like public safety and the security of our Wildlife.

What now?

The real question is what do we people think or care about this. If we believe that industry knows best and that our wellbeing depends upon our accepting their terms – so be it. We can’t be heard to complain about the consequences.

If, on the other hand, there is more to life than making money for foreign companies and we do care about the safety of our people, the preservation of our environment and the wellbeing of our wildlife, then we have to make some economic sacrifices. These economic sacrifices include not just passing regulations to ensure that those who invade our environment do so safely, but enforcing those regulations and being prepared to spend the money to do that.

Heads should roll on this one, but of course they won’t. Premier Clark hasn’t the faintest idea about responsibility of cabinet ministers to back up their mistakes with resignations. We the public should learn that laissez-faire government carries with it the inevitable consequence that the rich get richer and that the public and the environment in which they live get much the poorer.

If we don’t learn these lessons from this disaster, then we get what we bloody well deserve.

SFU Prof Mark Jaccard: BC LNG a race to the bottom

August 7, 2014Economics, Energy and Resources, LNGfeaturedCommon Sense Canadian

BC Premier Christy Clark addresses a conference on LNG (Damien Gillis)

This is a guest post by Mark Jaccard, professor of sustainable energy at Simon Fraser University and a convening lead author in the Global Energy Assessment – republished with permission from desmog.ca

During B.C.’s 2013 election campaign, at a conference of energy economists in Washington, D.C., I spoke about how one of our politicians was promising huge benefits during the next decades from B.C. liquefied natural gas exports to eastern Asia. These benefits included lower income taxes, zero provincial debt, and a wealth fund for future generations. My remarks, however, drew laughter. Later, several people complimented my humour.

Why this reaction? The painful reality is that my economist colleagues smirk when people (especially politicians) assume extreme market imbalances will endure, whereas real-world evidence consistently proves they won’t. For B.C. Premier Christy Clark to make promises based on a continuation of today’s extreme difference between American and eastern Asian gas prices was, to be kind, laughable.

Shale gas its own worst enemy

For many years, natural gas prices differed little from one region to another. But the shale-gas revolution in the U.S. in the past decade created a glut, causing rock-bottom prices in North America. Meanwhile, prices in eastern Asia were pegged to the price of oil, which has risen. These two trends led to a price divergence starting in 2008. By 2012, Japanese gas prices were more than four times higher than North America’s.

The Asian equation

If that difference was to hold for several decades, producers could earn sufficient revenues from Asian sales to cover shale gas extraction, pipeline transport, cooling to liquid in LNG plants, shipment across the Pacific, healthy profits, and billions in royalties and corporate taxes. That’s an attractive image in an election. But it can quickly become a mirage as gas markets behave like markets.

In competitive markets, a price imbalance triggers multiple profit-seeking actions, which work to eliminate the difference — usually sooner than expected — by those hoping to benefit from it. In this case, there are many potential competitors for the gas demands of China, Japan and their neighbours. China can invite foreign companies to help develop its massive shale gas resources. It can buy from Russia, which has enormous gas resources. It can also buy from other central Asian countries, such as Kazakhstan. It can also encourage a bidding war between prospective LNG suppliers from many parts of the world, some of which will have lower production costs than B.C.

[signoff3]

The result will push down the price in eastern Asia. As was easily predicted by my smirking colleagues, it’s already happening. Unofficial reports put the price of a recent gas contract between China and Russia at $10.50 per million British Thermal Units, far below the peak Asian price, and close to (if not below) the cost of sending B.C. gas to China. At this price, there will be no government royalties, no lower income taxes, no debt retirement, no wealth fund. Maybe no LNG plants.

BC plants would cut corners

If any LNG plants are built in B.C., they will likely be constructed and operated as cheaply as possible, which will put the lie to another promise of Clark’s. In a province with legislated targets for reducing carbon pollution, she promised B.C. would have “the cleanest LNGproduced anywhere in the world from well-head to waterline.”

As it turns out, this promise is easy to verify. Experts know the cleanest LNG in the world is the Snohvit project in Norway, which emits 0.35 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of LNG. The under-construction Gorgon facility in Australia will match it.

But, public documents indicate British Columbia’s proposed LNG industry will be three times worse, producing one tonne of CO2 per tonne of LNG. Were three such facilities built as proposed, they would bring oilsands-scale carbon pollution to B.C., doubling our current emissions and making it impossible to meet our legislated targets.

We could build the cleanest LNG systems in the world. This would require reducing methane leaks from processes and pipelines, capturing and storing carbon pollution, and using renewable energy to produce electricity for processing and cooling natural gas, as Clean Energy Canada has recently showed.

But this is unlikely, especially as those Asian gas prices fall. So brace yourself for another barrage of Orwellian doublespeak from government and industry, in which cleanest means dirty, great public wealth means modest private profits, and revised climate targets mean missed climate targets. No doubt my economist colleagues will be amused. But should they?

Follow Professor Mark Jaccard on Twitter @MarkJaccard

Government allowed massive production, toxin increase at Mount Polley Mine before tailings pond disaster

August 6, 2014Metals and Minerals, MiningfeaturedKevin Logan

Mount Polley Mine saw massive increase in toxins leading up to tailings pond breach — Aerial image of tailings pond breach (Cariboo Regional District)

Mount Polley’s tailing pond breach is the worst environmental disaster in BC History. It will be a BC Day that goes down in infamy and, from the environmental perspective, may be one of the world’s worst mining disasters when all is said and done.

At 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million of slurry, it appears this tailings pond release is one of the largest of its kind in history, anywhere in the world.

Disaster follows massive increase in toxic tailings

Mount Polley owner Imperial Metals, in its most recent report, claimed as much as a seven fold increase, year-over-year, in toxic compounds like arsenic stored in the pond. The full list reads like a who’s who in the world of toxic health concerns, yet the CEO claims he would drink the tailing water, as long as the solids were removed.

This most recent, massive increase in toxic tailings being stored in the now-breached and near-emptied “pond” corresponds with a massive increase in production that has occurred over the last year. The Vancouver Sun reports:

[quote]Imperial has increased production at Mount Polley. The company reported in its second-quarter financial report that throughput at the mine’s processing mill was up 23 per cent to 23,404 tonnes of rock per day and meal production totalled 12 million pounds of copper, up 46 per cent, 11,867 ounces of gold, up 24 per cent and 33,813 ounces of silver, up 35 per cent from the same quarter a year ago.[/quote]

Province allowed production increase, against expert’s warning

All of this was allowed by the province to occur after Brian Olding, an independent consultant, had clearly outlined serious concerns and even offered a remedy by urging the company to apply for permits for up to 3 million cubic feet a year of effluent to be discharged into the wild.

A permit for effluent release of 1.4 million cubic ft already existed (permit#11678) but treatment of the effluent before discharge became a stumbling point resulting in delays of safely discharging the excess effluent with the blessing of the local First Nations.

The company then moved for an amendment to increase the volume to 3 million cubic ft., no doubt as a result of ramping up production. Chronological details can be found here.

This measure of discharging effluent is not ideal but the company was pushing all boundaries and even dealing with overflow, spilling untreated effluent into the environment.

Government deregulation enabled disaster

Something clearly needed to be done as the tailings pond was reaching critical mass, however government allowed for the increased production and only issued warnings to the company – albeit five of them – the most recent just this May.

Kynoch, Bennett — Imperial Metals CEO Brian Kynoch (foreground), with BC Mines Minister Bill Bennett (green shirt) looking on at Aug 5 public meeting in Likely, BC (Chris Lyne)

People on the ground and former employees know they are now living in a disaster zone that many saw coming.

They know they cannot drink the water as the CEO suggests and they know that it is all a result of our current Government’s affinity for simply getting out of the way of industry and their desire to massively exploit our resources.

Everyone also knows, that in the end, the watershed that sustains all living things in the region is in serious jeopardy and the same people immersed in this disaster will see their taxes pay for the clean up for years to come.

All of which makes for the saddest BC day ever.

[signoff3]

Morton seeks answers from Grieg over farmed salmon die-off

August 6, 2014Oceans, Salmon Farming and AquaculturefeaturedAlexandra Morton

Morton looks for answers from Grieg over farmed salmon die-off — A “mort-sucker” removes dead farmed salmon from a Grieg pen in Nootka Sound (Alexandra Morton)

The following is an open letter from independent salmon biologist Alexandra Morton to the Norwegian owner of Greig Seafood.

Dear Mr. Per Grieg Jr. owner Grieg Seafood (per.grieg@grieg.no):

Several weeks ago I received reports that salmon in your Skuna Bay farms were dying in large numbers. I visited these farms in Nootka Sound and confirmed the reports were accurate. I wrote a letter to your CEO, Morten Vike asking what the fish are dying of, who made the diagnosis and the actual test results so that I could repeat the tests and verify.

Mr Vike did not answer my questions, instead he went to INTRAFISH and called my “allegations” “utter nonsense.” Mr Vike went on to say there had been an algae bloom and that “the fish in Nootka Sound are healthy.”

One week later, I returned to your farms called Concepcion Point and Williamson and filmed large hoses sucking hundreds of dead salmon out of your pens into rusting dumpsters. They were not “healthy,” they were dead and they were apparently garbage. I wrote to your CEO, Morten Vike a second time, but he has still refused to answer. This makes it appear that Grieg Seafoods is hiding the true reason the salmon in your pens are dying.

Large amounts of dying farmed Atlantic salmon not only present a risk to the wild salmon of Nootka Sound, they also pose a risk to the most important Canadian salmon stock, known as the Fraser Sockeye. Your company is taking the fish that are still alive amongst the dead, rotting fish, trucking them across Vancouver Island and getting them processed on Quadra Island where the outfall pipe pours into the migration route of the Fraser sockeye.

I have co-authored a scientific paper on this outfall pipe and the risk it poses to the wild salmon of western Canada.

You can see the film of the mort suckers and the details at: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com

I recognize that the governments of Canada and British Columbia are weak and ineffective in protecting wild salmon from the impacts of the Norwegian salmon farms that are sitting in every wild salmon migration route of southern BC, but that does not mean the Canadian people feel the same way.

Can you address the citizens of Canada in a manner fitting of a Norwegian company raising Norwegian salmon in the Pacific Ocean and give us the truth about why the salmon in your pens are dying? As you must know it is very unclear in Canada as to who owns the fish in your pens.

I await your reply,

Alexandra Morton
Independent Biologist – See more here

To the ends of the Arctic: The new frontier of extreme energy

August 6, 2014Energy and Resources, First Nations, Oil&GasfeaturedCommon Sense Canadian

By David Lavallee

Documentary filmmaker David Lavallee recently journeyed to Canada’s Arctic for his forthcoming film, To the Ends of the Earth, which drills deep into the modern age of extreme energy. Plans to open the arctic to seismic testing are a source of growing controversy.

“Nanook”, our guide Bryan Simonee says while scanning the ice floe edge. Nanook, nanook. I’ve heard that word before – my brain struggles with recall of its meaning. I know about five words in Inuktituk and this is the 6th. Nanook…nanook of the north? Doesn’t it mean polar bear?

Indeed it does, and this particular one is at about 50 metres and closing, drawn to our camp by the smell of boiled seal soup. A large male. “Uh, is your rifle nearby?” I ask nervously. Simonee’s rifle is already in his capable hands, and he seems mildly annoyed at this curious 1200 pound animal, a highly skilled and highly adapted predator. He walks towards it and growls something in Inuktituk. It pauses, then begins marching sideways instead.

Not satisfied with its slow retreat, Simonee aims his vintage Lee Enfield above its head and fires a warning shot. It stops, looks at us with mild concern and then saunters off with a look that says, “ok FINE then, have it your way.” I breathe a sigh of relief and Bryan says to me:

[quote]Yes, you see, the danger is real.

[/quote]

Extreme energy coming to Canadian Arctic?

The danger to the Arctic is indeed real, and that is why I’m here. I’m on location shooting my upcoming feature documentary, “To the Ends of the Earth”. This film focuses on our geographical and geological ends of the earth exploration for the last remaining reserves of oil and gas and the economic/environmental consequences of this new energy age. My goal with this film is to begin a conversation I believe we sorely need: what it means to live in an age in which we witness the rise of extreme energy.

Extreme energy is in its infancy in the Arctic, but there is no question that without sustained opposition and visionary thinking to create alternatives, world oil demand will force a final offensive into the most pristine and brutal environment known to humankind – those nether regions of the cryosphere (i.e. ice covered) areas north of the Arctic Circle.

No country for vegetarians

The impending gold rush starts with seismic testing, and that is what has the residents of Clyde River and Pond Inlet concerned. The subsistence hunting culture on Baffin Island dates back 4,000 years, and the advent of modern technologies, such as snowmobiles and high powered rifles, has facilitated that culture, not changed it.

Hunting is more than sport here, it is a way of life and food source for many in an area where a bag of grapes or red peppers could cost up to $20. Vegetarianism is not a realistic option up here, a place where the nearest tree is about 2,000 km away and vegetable gardens have perhaps a one-month out of twelve chance of producing anything, with constant risk of freezing. Tomatoes here? Good luck. “Vegetarian is an-other word for ‘bad hunter’,” said one of there folks we encountered. Free range organic meat is on the menu for sure though – we all enjoy a natvik Bryan shoots and butchers right there on the ice. Now I know what seal tastes like – the texture of beef but the taste of sushi.

[signoff3]

It is this subsistence hunting culture that is clashing today with big oil interests who would drill in the Arctic. In the National Energy Board hearings it became clear there would be opposition from locals due to the impacts of seismic on the food chain, or what they would call “country food”.

It all starts with seismic

The so-called regulator held hearings into seismic applications by various companies, who would do the seismic work then sell the data to oil companies. But locals are concerned about the process of consultation and the lack of information from the proponent about seismic and the potential for massive oil spills in such a fragile ecosystem. Indeed they should be – British Columbians and Canadians who watched for several years the NEB process regarding the Northern Gateway saw intense opposition. They poured their hearts out in presentation after presentation with some 96% opposed, only to watch the Harper government approve the pipeline anyways. Perhaps the people of Pond Inlet and Clyde River already know what we southerners have come to learn: that NEB processes to ‘regulate’ oil companies are like kindergarten – everyone passes.

In an interview in Clyde Rive, Jerry Natanine told us:

[quote]Seismic testing is the chief concern at the moment. The impacts will go all the way up and down the food chain.[/quote]

Indeed, there is evidence to support this. An article published in Elsevier, a science journal, questions the impact of seismic testing on narwhals in particular. Narwhal are a food source for the Inuit and are an animal highly dependent on its echolocation capabilities to find its way to the breathing holes in the ice it needs to avoid drowning. The underwater world, especially in winter, is a chaotic, dark and jumbled mess of ice blocks – if ever there was an animal that depended on its sense of hearing it is the narwhal.

As an example, Jerry tells us about a narwhal entrapment north of Pond Inlet in 2008. Locals had rushed to the aid of the beleaguered creatures, all 500 of which were using the same breathing hole to avoid drowning. As they pulled the dead creatures out and attempted to punch new holes in the ice for them they noticed a curious thing:

[quote]They had just migrated from Greenland, where they had actively been doing seismic testing- we think that’s why there was that blood in their ears.[/quote]

Shell’s early foray into Arctic proves a comedy of errors

After seismic testing is complete, gold rush fever sets in. Oil Speculators and their petroleum geologists pour over the data and buy parcels to establish their claims to black gold, under the ice, at the ends of the earth. With the short season, 3 months at best, it can take up to two years to drill an exploratory well only.

The Shell drilling rig that ran aground, The Kulluk (Greenpeace photo)

A number of years and a few billion dollars ago, Shell International launched a program to drill in the Arctic, in the Chuckchi Sea off Alaska. Numerous incidents plagued its operations- a fire on one of their ships, an emergency evacuation as several millions tonnes of ice came rushing at an exploratory well which had to pull up stakes, another ship that slipped anchor in Dutch Harbour, AK, and the piece de resistance, the crashing of the Shell Kulluk on the rocks of Kodiak Island, AK, on New Year’s eve 2012.

Since the 2010 Gulf Of Mexico incident, the US Regulator has demanded of those who would drill in the Arctic certain safety precautions such as an Arctic Containment System (ACS) that could theoretically mop up spills in between icebergs. We interviewed Tod Guiton, a local resident of Bellingham (with an apartment overlooking the port) who had been watching Shell fail at this as well – one of the early tests of their containment dome ended up with it being “crushed like a beer can”.

What about growth?

A key focus of society is the environmentally pristine nature of the Arctic and the need to preserve it as such. Indeed this is of critical importance, but is this the only cause for concern? Our interview with Richard Heinberg, author of the book The End of Growth, gave me something else to think about:

[quote]Capital is fleeing big oil right now – it is getting increasingly difficult to fund large scale projects because as we venture into unknown territory (i.e. the Arctic) the chances of success are diminishing. And since there is only so much capital to go around, to spend our last dollars on these foolhardy projects seems like the road to collapse.[/quote]

Whatever dollars go to oil to fund their operations, are societal resources not available to us for transition-ing to clean energy.

Promise of jobs lures some Inuit

Not all the locals of Pond Inlet are convinced that seismic exploration is bad, however. The day after the polar bear incident Simonee and I are discussing the future of Canada’s Arctic and he surprises me by saying: “Seismic could be ok if it’s done right”. Having seen the large pay-cheques of his friends working in the local Mary River iron mine, it is tempting to succumb to the large of black gold as well. But as of 2014, with Shell pulling out of the Arctic, at least temporarily in order to staunch the hemorraghing of investor money, it’s an open question whether it’ll ever happen at all.

As I watch the sun not really set at 2:00 am one morning, casting the world in golden purple rays of unimaginable beauty, I hope it never will.

David Lavallee is a Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker who directed the award-winning White Water, Black Gold and is now filming To the Ends of the Earth.

Canadian rockers join Blue Dot tour – David Suzuki’s swan song

August 4, 2014Climate ChangefeaturedDr. David Suzuki

Rock stars join David Suzuki in cross-Canada 'Blue Dot' tour — David Suzuki and rocker Neil Young will be teaming up again for the “Blue Dot” tour (Photo: davidsuzuki.org)

A now-famous 1972 photo of Earth taken by Apollo 17 astronauts from 45,000 kilometres away became known as “the blue marble”. The late scientist Carl Sagan described a 1990 picture taken from six billion kilometres away by the unmanned Voyager 1 as a “pale blue dot”.

The vision of Earth from a distance has profoundly moved pretty much anyone who has ever seen it. “When we look down at the earth from space, we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet,” International Space Station astronaut Ron Garan said. “It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile.”

Referring to the atmosphere, Garan added “it’s really sobering … to realize that that little paper-thin layer is all that protects every living thing on Earth.”

Many astronauts report a deep feeling of connection that transcends borders and worldly conflict —referred to by some as the “overview effect”. Apollo 14’s Edgar Mitchell said:

[quote]You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty.[/quote]

How can anyone who has even seen a photo of the Earth treat our small blue home with disdain and carelessness? How can anyone fail to recognize how precious and finite the resources, especially water, are — and that we must share and care for what we have?

Neil Young, Barenaked Ladies join Blue Dot tour

The “blue marble” photo from Apollo 17, the last manned lunar mission, catalyzed the global environmental movement. Now, as people around the world compete for air, water and land — not just with each other, but with corporations bent on profit at any cost — we need a resurgence in action to care for our small blue planet.

That’s why I’m about to embark on what will likely be my last national tour. From September 24 to November 9, I’m crossing the country, from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Victoria, B.C., with 20 stops along the way. The plan is to work with Canadians from all walks of life to protect the people and places we love. It’s the most important thing I’ve ever done.

And it’s going to be fun! Because they care deeply about our country and the planet, many friends are joining me along the way, including Feist, Neil Young, the Barenaked Ladies, Margaret Atwood, Kinnie Starr, Raine Maida, Grimes, Danny Michel, Stephen Lewis, Bruce Cockburn, Robert Bateman, Shane Koyczan and many more.

Tour pushing for constitutional protections for environment

The goal of the Blue Dot Tour is to work with community leaders and groups, local governments, First Nations, musicians, writers, legal experts and — we hope — you on local, regional and national initiatives to ensure all Canadians have access to clean water, fresh air and healthy food. Ultimately, we’d like to see the right to a healthy environment enshrined in the Canadian Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

[signoff3]

That may seem like a challenge, but it’s not unusual. More than half the world’s nations — at least 110 — have environmental rights in their constitutions. Not having them is a strange oversight in a country like Canada, where our clean air and water, spectacular nature and abundant wildlife and resources instill a sense of pride and make us the envy of people around the world.

Pollution costs Canada $100 Billion a year

Maybe we take our good fortune for granted. But we shouldn’t. Already, environmental hazards contribute to about 36,000 premature deaths in Canada a year, and half of us live in areas where we’re exposed to unsafe air pollution levels. Pollution costs Canada about $100 billion a year, and many people suffer from illnesses like asthma and heart disease because of environmental contamination.

As the rush to extract, transport and sell fossil fuels while there’s still a market heats up, it will only get worse — unless we all pitch in. It’s not about getting in the way of industry or progress; it’s about building a conversation about the kind of country we want. And it’s about ensuring that our economic activity creates more benefits than harm to people and the natural systems that keep us healthy and alive.

We hope you’ll join us. Visit BlueDot.ca for more information and tour dates in your area.

Written with Contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.

Examining the BC Liberal Government’s real fiscal record

August 2, 2014Economics, Politics, Western CanadafeaturedCommon Sense Canadian

The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis discusses the BC Liberal government’s real fiscal track record with CFAX radio’s Ian Jessop in Victoria.

The two contrast a history of serious cost-overruns on major infrastructure projects with the oft-repeated myth of the government’s sound fiscal management. From the Port Mann Bridge and Hwy 1 widening (550% of initial estimate) to the a new roof for BC Place Stadium (514% of original projection), emerges a shocking pattern of inept project management.

From July 29 (19 min)

[signoff3]

$Toxic fracking waste illegally dumped in BC water treatment system$

Toxic fracking waste illegally dumped in BC water treatment system

August 1, 2014Energy and Resources, FrackingfeaturedCarol Linnitt

Toxic fracking fluids illegally dumped in BC water treatment system — A storage pond in northeast BC containing fracking fluids (Image: Two Island Films)

Republished with permission from desmog.ca

Although city officials from Dawson Creek won’t disclose the names of the companies involved, they are confirming that fracking waste has been illegally dumped into the city’s water treatment system on at least two occasions.

Jim Chute, administrative officer for the city, told DeSmog Canada, that illegal dumping has occurred at least three times, but twice the waste was “clearly” related to fracking.

“It has actually been on three occasions in the last 18 months where we’ve caught inappropriate materials being dumped,” he said. “One of those was a load of contaminated diesel. It’s not clear to us exactly how that diesel got contaminated so we don’t know if that was frack-related or not.”

“The other two were a mix of compounds that were clearly flowback waste from a frack operation.”

Chute said the chemicals used in the fracking process can damage the city’s water and sewage treatment facilities which are unable to handle industrial waste. Chute told the Alaska Highway News the waste could cause irreversible damage to living organisms that play a crucial role in the city’s water reclamation system.

Fracking in northeastern B.C.

Fracking, otherwise known as high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing, is a controversial extraction process used to free oil and gas from tight rock formations using extremely high pressures and large amounts of toxic chemicals.

The incidents in Dawson Creek involved subcontractors of the gas companies, Chute told DeSmog Canada, saying “virtually all jobs are outsourced to subtrades.”

[quote]If you’re Encana Corporation, you probably don’t drill that well yourself, it’s probably contracted out to a subcontractor like Precision Drilling. And then Precision Drilling themselves don’t build the lease roads, they contract that out to a subcontractor…and they don’t do their own waste disposal, they contract that out.[/quote]

“It’s so busy up here,” Chute said.

“The situations we’ve encountered in every case has been an independent contractor to a company who signs on to a company [saying] they will dispose of the waste in an appropriate manner…and then behave badly, try to save themselves some money by coming to our dump instead of going to the proper spot.”

Chute told the Alaska Highway News the contractors were fined and responsible for cleaning the contaminated holding tanks.

Toxic wastewater a problem for industry

The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, the provincial oil and gas regulator, is responsible for monitoring the activity of fracking companies, including the disposal of wastewater. B.C. has several private wastewater facilities where recyclable water is separated from toxic waste, which is then disposed of in underground injection wells.

In an emailed statement, B.C. Oil and Gas Commission communications coordinator Hardy Friedrich said, “B.C. has strict regulations related to the disposal of oil and gas waste in the Oil and Gas Waste Regulation and the Hazardous Waste Regulation.”

He added: “Fluids used in hydraulic fracturing must be disposed in a deep underground formation via a service well. Most other waste must be disposed at an approved disposal facility. There are currently 106 operating deep well disposal sites in northeast B.C.”

The difficulty of disposing of wastewater from fracking operations is a problem that has plagued the industry across North America. Flowback fluid from a fracking well includes toxic chemicals and oftentimes radioactive elements from extremely deep wells.

Most municipal wastewater systems are not equipped with the technology to handle such toxic waste in such high volumes.

Dawson Creek, located in the shale gas-rich Montney Basin, has seen a major increase in gas companies in recent years. The Montney Basin, along with the Horn River Basin also in northeastern B.C., could potentially account for 22 per cent of all North American shale gas production by 2020 according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

[signoff3]

In the early years of B.C.’s shale gas boom, Grant Shomody, president of Grantech Engineering International, warned of the potential problems producers would face when it comes to wastewater disposal in the Montney:

“If this play develops as producers hope, the number of wells being drilled would severely tax local water resources. In that case, we can expect a lot of ecologically related criticism. There’s also the problem of disposing of the frac water or treating it for reuse. It’s expensive, and Montney producers have not installed water treatment capabilities at their plants.”

A challenge and liability for Dawson Creek

Chute expressed concern with illegal dumping of fracking wastewater, especially in light of new Environment Canada rules, which could hold city officials accountable for negligence.

“Previously there had been less onerous regulations, around how anyone who is a sewage treatment operator or handler of sewage…in order to prevent unauthorized discharge into watercourses,” Chute explained.

These new federal regulations are more strenuous and more robust than any that had been in place in the past, Chute said.

“The onus was put on us to ensure we had the safeguards in place that nothing escaped into the environment. Part and parcel because of that, and [how] thinking changed around Enron and evidence of bad corporate behaviour, part of the regulations imposed personal liability on the people responsible.”

“In Dawson Creek, that would be me,” he said.

Dawson Creek is moving to a new system, said Chute, where a failsafe dump station will monitor regularly for harmful compounds. If those compounds are found, the waste will be prevented from entering the regular treatment system.

Chute says the new facility, which will cost nearly $4 million to build, will be continuously monitored during open hours, 12 hours a day, six days a week.

“All of this is to make sure unauthorized industrial waste doesn’t go into our system.”

“We are going to make sure that we catch anybody that tries to circumvent the system by coming to us because we’re a shorter haul than they’d have to go to the proper spot.”