Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. The success rate of private member’s bills in the federal parliament is abysmal. In the 100-plus years since 1910, Ottawa has passed just 271 of them. For comparison, more than 1,600 PMB’s were tabled between 1997 and 2015, and the rate at which they’re being drawn
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reeves report: Ontario Anti-Fracking Bill Passes Second Reading
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park. (CBC News Image.) A PRIVATE MEMBER’S BILL from Toronto-area NDP MPP Peter Tabuns to ban fracking in the province passed second reading Thursday by a 29-18 vote with support from the governing Liberals. “Water or gas — that’s our choice,” Tabuns explained
Continue readingreeves report: What’s Worth More: Your Time or the Planet?
WAITING FOR THE BUS one morning on your way to work, you realize your reusable travel mug is at home. You’d rather not use another single-use plastic cup, but if you run back to grab it you’ll miss the next bus and be five minutes late for work. Do you go
Continue readingreeves report: Cost of Great Lakes Plastic Clean-Up Could Top $486 Million
SHOULD THE FINANCIAL BURDEN of removing all plastic debris from the Great Lakes fall on the shoulders of the 36 million people within the basin, researchers now have an estimate of the cleanup costs: $486-million (US). Findings from the Ecohydrology Research Group at the University of Waterloo published this month in the Journal of Great Lakes
Continue readingreeves report: Toronto Fish Health Improving – But You Can’t Eat Them Yet
Local man fishing in Toronto Harbour. THE LATEST STUDY from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and the University of Toronto analyzed government data on mercury, dioxin/furans and polychlorinated biphenyl(PCB) in local and migratory fish populations from 1975 to 2011. What they found was not surprising, per se, but it did
Continue readingreeves report: Waste Mismanagement Leads to Plastic-Filled Oceans
Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans every year, partly due to litter and inadequate waste management. Plastic particles sit in sieves ready for sorting. Photo by Malin Jacob. ROUGHLY 9.1 MILLION tonnes of plastic waste will head from land to sea this year alone in
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario’s endangered species get their day in court
Endangered American Eel. LAWYERS ACTING ON BEHALF of the Ontario government told the courts last month that Ontario’s endangered species legislation is now only concerned with the most dire of species listed under the law. The Woodland Caribou; the American Eel; the Blanding’s Turtle — these and more than 150 other
Continue readingreeves report: Melting Glaciers to Release Billions of Kilograms of CO₂ by 2050
A new study finds sea-level rise isn’t the only thing to fear about melting glaciers. Antarctic Ice Shelf Loss Comes From Underneath by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center \ CC BY 2.0 via Flickr WE KNOW SEA levels are rising as climate change causes glaciers to melt. But it turns out
Continue readingreeves report: 2014 — Canada’s Year of the Pipeline
Keystone XL wasn’t the only pipeline project to rankle Canadians in 2014. WIDESPREAD PUBLIC DEBATE on building vast networks of snaking energy pipelines throughout Canada dominated the country’s environmental newsreel in 2014, and will continue making headlines in the year ahead. A collection of Canada’s top environmental NGOs told Reeves Report the climate change
Continue readingreeves report: Historic dam latest line of defence against invasive Asian carp
Carp over Barge. (Photo: Dan O’Keefe, Michigan Sea Grant) THE NEXT LINE OF DEFENCE against keeping invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes will come at an 81-year-old lock and dam in Joliet, Illinois, 65 kilometres south of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. The Brandon Road dam, listed on the
Continue readingreeves report: Loopholes threaten Ontario Greenbelt
The Greenbelt Alliance wants better protection for the ecologically sensitive area, which remains at risk from sprawl, mega-highways and contaminated soil. Map of Greenbelt and other protected lands in Southern Ontario. SOUTHERN ONTARIO’S 7,200 square kilometre Greenbelt and the prime farmland and headwaters it contains remain at significant risk from expanding
Continue readingreeves report: New ‘Tipping Point’ Model Could Help Predict Species Extinction
Species may be more adaptive to environmental changes than we thought, but small shifts can still be enough to cause extinctions. Snowshoe hares are facing increasing challenges as snow patterns shift dramatically as a result of climate change. ENVIRONMENTAL “TIPPING POINTS” can provide researchers with valuable clues to detect when species
Continue readingreeves report: NDP to refuse support for Rouge National Urban Park bill
Everyone wants the 10,500 acres in the Rouge Valley to be made into a national urban park, yet few but the Harper Tories think their plan for the green space is the best path forward. Rouge Park at Sunrise. (Flickr Photo Courtesy of Snuffy.) ON A MEDIA TOUR this week of
Continue readingreeves report: Ocean Warming and Acidification will Crash Crabs’ Metabolism
Porcelain crab. (Image courtesy of Stillman’s Lab) BASED ON FUTURE CLIMATE SCENARIOS, researchers believe coastal ecosystems will see increased extremes in low tide temperature fluctuations and drops in pH levels associated with ocean acidification. This particular study looked at what impacts, if any, warmer water and higher acidity levels will
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario Invasive Species Act gets second chance
A control test site for invasive plant phragmites at Wasaga Beach on Lake Huron. LIBERAL NATURAL RESOURCE MINISTER Bill Mauro reintroduced the Invasive Species Act Wednesday, the first standalone legislation in Canada geared towards stopping the spread of invasives into the province There is currently a patchwork of more than 20 different federal
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario and Ottawa face off over fate of Rouge Park lands
A STANDOFF IS BREWING east of Toronto in the Rouge Valley between Queen’s Park and the federal government over the proposed Rouge National Urban Park. Ontario Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid made it clear to federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq that the province would not hand 5,400 acres of land it
Continue readingreeves report: ECO urges province to create new climate action plan
SO MUCH OF THE THINKING around climate change has evolved since 2007 that Ontario’s seven-year-old climate action plan is now “irrelevant” according to Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller. In releasing Looking for Leadership: The Costs of Climate Inaction this morning, Miller said the province has been a leader in the climate file but has
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario adds Climate Change to MOE Portfolio
IN ANNOUNCING her new cabinet last week, Premier Kathleen Wynne has charged former Transportation Minister Glen Murray with taking over Ontario’s newly revamped environment ministry. Murray, the sitting MPP for Toronto Centre and former mayor of Winnipeg, assumed command of the environment ministry from veteran MPP Jim Bradley who is
Continue readingreeves report: Ottawa approves $5.5 billion Northern Gateway pipeline
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has approved the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline project from Enbridge, to carry 525,000 barrels of crude oil each day from Bruderheim in northern Alberta to the port town of Kitimat along British Columbia’s rugged Pacific Coast. Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled his approval for the project late Thursday after the controversial pipeline received
Continue readingreeves report: MNR lacks real-time data on controversial spring bear hunt
Black bear. (Flickr photo by Casey Brown) JUST OVER HALFWAY through the reintroduced six-week spring bear hunt, which runs from May 1 to June 15, the province of Ontario has issued close to 2,300 licenses for black bears. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Natural Resources has no idea how many of those
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