The Common Sense Canadian: Opinion: Environment & Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna gets failing report card

Environment & Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna (Mike Gifford/Flickr cc licence) The following is an op-ed by Dr. Eoin Finn – B.Sc., Ph.D., MBA In October 2015, SFU Energy and Materials Research Group  Professor Mark Jaccard published a report titled “Canadian Climate Policy Report Card: 2015”. In part, it is a

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The Common Sense Canadian: Longtime Lions Bay Mayor: LNG is plain dirty, violates Canada’s climate commitments

LNG is dirty, plain and simple, charges former longtime Lions Bay Mayor Brenda Broughton. She slams both the Trudeau and Clark governments for jeopardizing Canada’s climate commitments by ignoring or cherry-picking the science, and maintains the industry won’t benefit taxpayers at all.

The post Longtime Lions Bay Mayor: LNG is plain dirty, violates Canada’s climate commitments appeared first on The Common Sense Canadian.

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The Common Sense Canadian: 90% of world’s new electricity coming from renewables: Welcome to the end of the fossil fuel era

90% the world’s new electricity now comes from renewables. China is shuttering 1,000 coal plants and global emissions are on the decline. The end is nigh for the fossil fuel era…so why hasn’t Canada gotten the memo?

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In-Sights: Know and ‘No’ to LNG

An articulate letter published by by the Terrace Standard, a Black Press property. Excerpts follow but I urge you to read the entire letter HERE:

I was saddened to witness the “yes to LNG” rally held March 16, not only because I know that the Petronas Pacific NorthWest LNG proposal for Lelu Island is wrong-headed and dangerous but because it shows just how susceptible to propaganda we are and how willing some are to mistake sound bites and promises for reality.

…To gamble away our world class treasure of a river and the cultural and economic values that are sustained by it for a relatively few short term jobs that will leave us with less than nothing when they end, to give away our birthright to a corporate entity some call the Malaysian Mafia, to imagine that there is anything natural about fracked methane, that thousands of kilometers of pipeline across wilderness will leave streams and rivers and wildlife habitat intact, that massive dredging and construction in the Skeena estuary will have “no significant effect” on salmon and other species, that the earth can somehow afford yet another huge dump of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, or that this will somehow benefit our children and grandchildren, is to live in a dream world.

…Yes to alternative energy investments, yes to wilderness tourism, yes to wild salmon and the jobs and cultures they sustain, yes to local food production, yes to parks, yes to small businesses, yes to resolving land and treaty issues with First Nations in a respectful rather than coercive way, yes to healthy communities yes to local decision making.

Know and ‘No’ to LNG.

David Bowering MD. MHSc.

Terrace, B.C.

Photo credit to Warrior Publications.

Hat tip to Merv Adey for this letter. If you don’t regularly read Merv’s BC Veritas and follow him on Twitter, you should do so.

Another opinion on LNG in the Skeena https://t.co/aNeQgsOHoE Impact of boom and bust cycles and propaganda. #bcpoli

— Merv Adey (@MervAdey) April 6, 2016

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In-Sights: Can BC Ferry Services be trusted? UPDATED

Coastal communities have reasons to distrust the provincial ferry service and its political masters. One issue is discrimination, because people on saltwater pay onerous fares while inland ferry users enjoy free sailing, services that have cost the province over $200 million during Christy Clark’s time as Premier.

The province reports $491 million in tax expenditures in fiscal year 2015-16 for film and television tax credits, which is three times what it contributes to BC Ferries. Despite the importance of BC Ferries to the culture and economy of BC, the BC Liberals refuse to allocate federal infrastructure grants to this purpose. They prefer to spend billions for the benefit of the natural gas companies that are laying off workers in northeast BC.

Another issue is BC Ferries’ purchasing policy, which has contributed to the destruction of competitive ship and boat building on Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. About $1 billion has been contracted by BC Ferries outside of British Columbia.

The intermediate-class ferry new-construction, S-Class refits and the planned LNG fuel facilities are proceeding without full disclosure and public discussion of details. To avoid risk to passengers, BC Ferries has long had a policy of restricting dangerous cargoes to special sailings. Now, they plan to sail with LNG tanker trucks fueling vessels while parked beside customers’ vehicles.

For example:

Submission by BC Ferries to Ferry Commissioners

“At this time, it appears most likely that the ICFs will be fuelled from LNG tanker trucks parked on the vessel car deck.”

From BC Ferries website:

To replace these vessels, BC Ferries will be introducing its Salish Class of vessels, otherwise known as Intermediate Class Ferries (or ICFs). The Salish Orca and the Salish Eagle will be introduced into service on the Southern Gulf Islands routes starting in 2017. These two new vessels, as well as a third ICF (the Salish Raven) that will serve to augment peak and shoulder season service in the Southern Gulf Islands, are being built at Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. in Gdansk, Poland.

Would you be comfortable travelling with your family on a ferry where your car is parked alongside an LNG fuel truck? Should we trust a ferry operation that has a record of overpriced under-competent management, supervised by almost two dozen patronage appointees of Christy Clark’s government?

TRUST US, THEY SAID

The audio file below is a recording of my time on CFAX1070 with Ian Jessop March 28, 2016. We talk of BC Ferries, Site C and Laila Yuile.

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