'Bad year for the glaciers': Climate change threatens glacier behind Edmonton's water source
Author of the article: Hamdi Issawi
Publishing date: Oct 02, 2021 

An aerial view of elevation change of the Columbia Icefields revealed by laser altimetry. The deep red grooves on the right indicate the thinning termini of the Athabasca, top, and Saskatchewan, bottom, glaciers

The province is long past the oppressive “heat dome” that caused cities to swelter last summer, but warmer temperatures this year had a lasting effect on the glacier that feeds Edmonton’s water supply.

The Saskatchewan Glacier terminus saw 10 metres of thinning this year, said Brian Menounos, an earth sciences professor at the University of Northern British Columbia and Canada Research Chair in glacier change. It’s also the glacier that feeds the North Saskatchewan River, Edmonton’s sole source of drinking water.

“We’ve known for a number of years that — largely due to greenhouse gas emissions — we have accelerated the melt of the cryosphere,” he said, referring to the part of the planet covered in ice or snow. “It’s a symptom of a larger problem in that it was an exceptionally bad year for the glaciers by and large.”

In a social media post, Menounos shared an image of the Columbia Icefield that shows a change in elevation over the past year measured by laser altimetry. The technology uses an aircraft to bounce laser light off the surface of the ice field about once a year. The time it takes for light to reflect back to the aircraft and trip a sensor allows scientists to measure the change in surface elevation.

1/3 Gigaton of mass loss from

@ParksCanada

Columbia Icefield revealed by our 2021

@HakaiInstitute

@unbc

ACO survey. Saskatchewan Glacier (SW) terminus thinned by 10 m! Combined effect of #heatdome, #bcwildfire s and ongoing #ClimateCrisis

4:08 PM · Sep 24, 2021·Twitter Web App

Sparse blue spots on the image show areas of increased elevation — where the ice field gained mass — while the overwhelming red area indicates a decrease in elevation due to melting. The greatest decreases can be seen at the termini of the Athabasca and Saskatchewan glaciers, both of which bear the resemblance of deep red tongues lapping out north and east.

“We find pretty much wholesale thinning throughout all elevation bands on the ice field, and that is something that we’ve not seen to date,” he added, noting that while scientists have been monitoring the glaciers for years, they only started using laser altimetry in the ice field since 2017.

Glaciers are an important source of fresh water, particularly in Western Canada. A paper co-authored by Menounos found that the world’s glaciers are now losing 267 billion tonnes of ice every year (one billion tonnes of ice is equal in mass to 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers). It also cited research suggesting that more than one billion people worldwide could face water shortages by 2050.

“Anytime you’re talking about a freshwater resource that Canadians rely on — snow and ice collectively — it is a cause for concern,” Menounos said.

Matthew Chernos, a Calgary-based hydrologist and consultant, said the high alpine glaciers feeding Alberta’s river systems act as natural reservoirs. While the North Saskatchewan River is mostly made up of rainwater and snow melt by the time it reaches Edmonton, he said, glacier melt is a big part of the river flow in July and August, when the glacier’s winter snow pack has melted away.

And as Alberta gets warmer, Chernos added, more of that snow pack will melt earlier, increasing the length of the low flow season and the amount of melting glacier ice, a non-renewable resource.

“The only way to offset that would be more rainfall, and that’s also not something that’s predicted to happen in the future,” he said. “In fact, most of Alberta is expected to be even drier in the summers.”

The scientists were quick to note that fading glaciers also threaten sensitive aquatic ecosystems that rely on cooler water to stay healthy, and the irrigation demands of the agriculture industry.

Menounos isn’t optimistic about better weather conditions correcting the problem either.

“Over the last 30 to 50 years of monitoring these glaciers, the odd-ball positive year, where the snow was plenty, is not compensating for the continued melt that we’re getting each year,” he said.

“It’s kind of a losing battle.”

– With files from The Canadian Press

Could China’s power crisis help or harm its green energy push?

China’s energy crisis may just be getting started, and no less than its economic growth and its green energy future hang in the balance.

There is little immediate relief in sight for China's power woes, given the global surge in coal and natural gas prices and rising energy demand, not to mention potentially extreme weather [File: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg]

By Michael Standaert
1 Oct 2021

China’s energy crisis may just be getting started, and no less than its economic growth and its green energy future hang in the balance.

The problems started in late August when power curbs and outages began to affect at least 20 provinces in the country. Last week, residential blackouts started happening in China’s northeast.

And there is little immediate relief in sight for China’s power woes, given the global surge in coal and natural gas prices and rising energy demand, not to mention potentially extreme weather.

China is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of coal, and right now its inventories are at record lows. To ensure adequate energy supplies as winter sets in, China has loosened restrictions on coal mining operators in its coal belt region stretching from Shaanxi to Inner Mongolia and prioritised shipments to regions in need.

As factories are idled to comply with power restrictions, analysts are trimming their estimates for China’s economic growth.

Goldman Sachs this week slashed its forecast for China’s full-year economic growth to 7.8 percent from its earlier call of 8.2 percent.

Others, like Nomura and Fitch, have also lowered forecasts, while some are still crunching numbers but expecting lower targets.

But some analysts see a potential silver lining in China’s current dependence on the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.

Though coal currently accounts for nearly 57 percent of China’s energy mix – and its reliance on fossil fuel is likely to increase in the coming months, the problems being worked out in China’s power markets and energy supplies may end up accelerating the country’s pivot to greener more sustainable energy.

“I think in the short term China must ensure a sufficient supply of coal, to avoid power shortages, especially in the winter,” Dimitri De Boer, chief representative in China for environmental organisation ClientEarth, told Al Jazeera.

“However, this episode also highlights the limitations of relying on imported coal. It is clear to the central government that the energy mix urgently needs to be diversified, and that the rollout of renewable energy must be as fast as possible,” he added.

Headwinds to power market reform

China’s power market has been in a state of slow-motion reform since 2015. The headwinds range from a variety of provincial-level roadblocks from coal interests to pricing that does not adequately reflect supply and demand, problems with transferring power between provinces, a lack of power storage options, and limited uptake of renewables like wind and solar.

“There are quite a few areas of policy that have exacerbated the situation,” Michael Davidson, assistant professor at the University of California San Diego and a China energy policy expert, told Al Jazeera. “First and foremost is the incomplete liberalisation of the power market.”

That partial stifling of free-market forces are reflected in a reluctance to allow energy prices to fluctuate and for higher energy costs to be passed on to end users.

It is clear to the central government that the energy mix urgently needs to be diversified

DIMITRI DE BOER, CLIENTEARTH

“I think a big part of the story is prices,” Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Al Jazeera. “The missing link is price distortions with benchmark prices being capped and international prices being so high. Coal generators are reluctant to import coal and suffer the losses that ensue.”

The biggest effects of power rationing have been felt by higher polluting and energy-consuming facilities in provinces trying to reel in energy consumption – industries such as steel, aluminium, chemical fibre and cement, according to David Fishman, a Chinese power sector analyst at Lantau Group in Shenzhen.


But the pain felt by big polluting sectors could actually be beneficial in reducing emissions and coal demand, says De Boer.

“New energy-intensive projects will be rigorously controlled, which will contribute to both reducing the demand for coal, and also to meeting climate goals,” he said.

Coal generators are reluctant to import coal and suffer the losses that ensue

MICHAL MEIDAN, OXFORD INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY STUDIES

Those goals currently include an attempt to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Davidson said the current power crunch could cut both ways when it comes to Beijing’s climate coals, with the appetite for renewables potentially taking a hit in the short term, but provinces formulating more robust long-term decarbonisation plans.

“Generally speaking, when you have energy reliability problems, people don’t flock toward renewables,” Davidson said. “Hopefully it has a muted impact balanced by this longer-term vision and there will be more careful, thoughtful deliberation about resource adequacy.”

One potential positive for power market reforms stemming from the current crisis have been efforts to address energy price distortions.

Guangdong province adjusted the upper limits of monthly power trading prices by 10 percent, meaning that end users of the energy would bear the cost instead of power generators, according to Fishman. But it remains to be seen to what degree other provinces will follow that lead, due to factory-level effects and inflationary fears.

“I think passing on power costs to end users is the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Fishman said. “End users do not think it is great to pay more for power, so there is going to be resistance there.”

While a 10 percent increase does not reflect the full power costs that would really need to be passed through to end users to encourage more energy efficiency, it does send important signals that consumers do need to bear some of the burden, said Meidan.

I think passing on power costs to end users is the greatest thing since sliced bread

DAVID FISHMAN, LANTAU GROUP

“It’s an important step, but it’s not going to solve the problem,” she said.

Reactions to previous, smaller power shortage crises, like ones that occurred in the provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang late last year do give some hope that interest in renewables, particularly on-site sources, said could increase, Qin Yan, a lead analyst at Refinitiv, based in Norway.

“Last December, when there were shortages in Hunan, we already heard of immediate interest in rooftop solar power,” she said. “What’s happened in China is more of a coal logistics issue and overall domestic production [from renewables] is going up.”

Qin is less optimistic about whether government targets laid out in the current 14th Five-Year Plan would be boosted to increase renewable energy targets. And prospective caps on coal capacity and coal consumption, which have not been formally outlined yet, could be in limbo.

But that does not mean China will abandon its carbon peak and neutrality goals, she said.

“That’s long term, for in ten years, so that’s already been defined,” Qin said. “China has committed to this.”

As for the short-term, analysts expect China’s power challenges could stretch into the spring. While months of high temperatures in places in the south like Guangdong should ease soon, challenges could arise depending on how severe winter weather is in North China.

“I’d say pray for a mild winter,” Qin said. “If the weather gets extreme and there’s low wind and it’s very cold, I think there’s some blackout risk again.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

 

Chinese Energy Shortages May Be Felt by Economies Around the World

Yesterday

© AP Photo / Andy Wong

The East Asian country is facing an unprecedented electricity crunch following the adoption of a policy for the gradual decarbonisation of power generation as well as amid soaring gas prices and LNG shortages.

As China is struggling to deal with electricity shortages in its power grids, the rest of the world might feel the economic consequences of this struggle, The Wall Street Journal warns, citing the accounts of businessmen and economists on the initial effects.

Following the emergence of the initial signs of shortages and the first blackouts, the Chinese government started to ration electricity use by manufacturers and demand that they meet higher power efficiency goals. Some factories have reportedly had to shorten their working weeks by a day or two, others have had to halt production for entire weeks.

EU Eyes $2 Billion in Investments to Become Independent From Chinese Raw Materials

Yesterday

These limitations have resulted in many manufacturers reducing their output and being late on their orders. Simple Modern, a company making insulated water bottles and backpacks, told the WSJ that one of its main suppliers of materials based in eastern China had to cut its capacity to nearly one-third of full due to the restrictions on power usage  

The CEO of the company predicted that the prices of many products might rise by as much as 15% in just half a year, as Western retailers continue to see sales go up following the coronavirus slowdown, causing a spike in demand amid the dwindling supply of China-manufactured materials. Many businesses rely up to 80% on goods manufactured in Chinese factories. The WSJ predicted another effect of Beijing's efforts to deal with power shortages - it is bound to raise prices on raw materials extracted in China.

What Caused the Power Shortages in China?

Several factors have contributed to the emergence of the unprecedented power outages and shortages in China. The country's economy started to demand more energy following its revival after the pandemic hit. At the same time, the country's coal industry has slowed down amid incidents at mines, while the government has slashed imports from other countries. In addition, coal power plants have cut generation due to Beijing imposing limits on the selling prices of electricity amid soaring prices of coal itself.

China's 'Artificial Sun' Could Generate Electricity in a Decade in Race to Harness Fusion Technology

30 September, 14:57 GMT

The Chinese government's declared goal of reaching a peak in carbon emissions before 2030 and then shifting its economy onto a green track has only added to the problem. Beijing has imposed new rules on power efficiency for Chinese companies and manufacturers.

The inability to cover up shortages in energy generation with coal prompted the East Asian nation to boost its purchases of liquefied natural gas. In September, China managed to buy up a significant portion of global LNG shipments, sparking gas shortages in Europe, which among other things contributed to local prices soaring to record highs – both for electricity and natural gas itself.

Why China has to ration electricity and how that could affect everyone

Updated October 1, 2021
EMILY FENG

A woman buys groceries from a mini market using a lightbulb powered by a generator during a blackout in Shenyang, China, on Wednesday.

Olivia Zhang/AP

BEIJING — Here is a riddle: China has more than enough power plants to meet electricity demand. So why are local governments having to ration power across the country?

The search for an answer begins with the pandemic.

"Coal consumption shot up like crazy in the first half of the year because of a very energy-intensive, industry-driven recovery from the COVID-19 lockdowns," says Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Helsinki.

In other words, as China's export machine roared back to life, electricity-guzzling factories churned out fast fashion and home appliances for customers in the United States and elsewhere. Regulators also loosened controls on coal-intensive sectors like steelmaking as a way to recover from China's pandemic-induced economic slowdown.

Now thermal coal has tripled in price on some commodities exchanges. About 90% of coal used in China is domestically mined, but mining volumes from some of China's northern provinces have dropped by as much as 17.7%, according to respected Chinese financial magazine Caijing.

Normally, those higher coal prices would have been passed on to energy consumers. But electricity utility rates are capped. This mismatch has pushed power plants to the brink of financial collapse because higher coal prices have forced them to operate at a loss. In September, 11 Beijing-based power generation companies penned an open letter petitioning a central policy decision-making body, the National Development and Reform Commission, to raise electricity rates.
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"When coal prices are very high, what happens is that it's not profitable for a lot of coal plants to generate electricity," Myllyvirta says.

The result: Coal-fired power plants have simply shut down.

A man uses his smartphone flashlight to light up his bowl of noodles as he eats breakfast at a restaurant during a blackout in Shenyang, in northeastern China's Liaoning province, Wednesday. People ate breakfast by flashlight and shopkeepers used portable generators as power cuts imposed to meet official conservation goals disrupted manufacturing and daily life.

Olivia Zhang/AP

"Now we have a situation where in some provinces up to 50% of coal-fired power plants are pretending to be out of order or have run so low on coal that they can't generate," he says. About 57% of China's power comes from burning coal.

Traffic jams and closed factories

In China's north, sudden power outages have led to flickering traffic lights and immense car jams. Some cities have said they are shutting off elevators to conserve energy. To fight off the autumn chill, some residents are burning coal or gas indoors; 23 people were rushed to the hospital in northern Jilin city with carbon monoxide poisoning after doing so without proper ventilation.

To the south, factories have been cut off from electricity for more than a week. The lucky ones are rationed three to seven days of power at a time.

Energy intensive sectors like textiles and plastics face the strictest power rationing, a measure meant to ameliorate both the current shortages but also work toward long-term emissions reduction goals. China's latest five-year economic plan targets a 13.5% reduction in the amount of energy used to produce each unit of gross domestic product by 2025.

Ge Caofei, a manager at a textile dyeing factory in southern Zhejiang province, say the local government is rationing power by cutting off his electricity three out of every 10 days. He says he even looked into buying a diesel generator, but his factory is just too big to be powered by one.

"Customers need to plan in advance when placing orders, because our lights are on for seven days, then off for three," he says. "This policy is unavoidable because every [textile] factory around us is under the same cap."

Rationing delays supply chains

The power rationing has created long delays in global supply chains that rely on Chinese factories.

Viola Zhou, a sales director at Zhejiang cotton textile printing firm Baili Heng, says her company used to fill orders in 15 days. Now the wait time is about 30 to 40 days.

"There is no way around these rules. Let's say you buy a generator; regulators can easily check your gas or water meter to see how many resources you are consuming," Zhou says by phone from Shaoxing, a city known for its textile industry. "We can only follow in the steps of the government here."

China is reforming its energy grid so power plants have more flexibility in how much they can charge. Some of those higher power costs will be passed from factories to global consumers. Long term, the power rationing highlights how urgently needed renewable energy and natural gas projects are.

The national energy policy commission said this week it was working to stabilize medium- and long-term coal contracts between mines and power plants and will reduce the amount of coal that power plants must keep on hand, in a bid to ease the financial pressure on the sector.

More immediate problems are on hand with winter approaching. About 80% of heating in China is coal-fired. Coaxing power plants to operate in the red could be a challenge.

In Siberia, a copper mine hopes to become a global energy pivot
AFP 

In 1949, a Soviet expedition in Siberia was looking for uranium to supply the national nuclear arsenal when it stumbled on a vast deposit of copper.

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA

 The mine is located both in a seismic zone and on permafrost

More than 70 years later, a mining complex in Russia's Far East between Lake Baikal and the Pacific Ocean is finally due to launch operations next year.

With copper key to the world's energy transition away from carbon, the hope is it will be a boon for Russia and beyond.

"The long-awaited project is a long-awaited event in the life of the Far East and the entire mining industry of Russia and the world," said Valery Kazikayev, chairman of Udokan Copper, the company developing the site.

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA 

Copper is key to the world's energy transition from carbon

Kazikayev, who makes the nine-hour journey by plane from Moscow to the mine twice a month, brought AFP journalists on a tour late September.

At an altitude of 2,000 metres (6,500 feet), the heavy snow covering the mine offers a glimpse at the difficulty of rendering it operable.

"The Soviet Union wasn't able to develop these deposits," Kazikayev, 66, said at the site, where construction began in 2019.

The mine is located both in a seismic zone and on permafrost -- ground that remains completely frozen all-year round. Temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter.

These conditions mean developing the site is "difficult", Kazikayev said, noting as a result that "construction is very expensive."

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA

 Valery Kazikayev, Chairman of Udokan Copper, travels to the site twice a month

- The new 'black gold' -

The work of harvesting copper ore has begun and workers are busy setting explosives to blow up permafrost so digging can go ahead.

Holding more than 26 million tonnes of copper, the mine, some 6,500 kilometres (4,000 miles) east of Moscow, claims to be the largest untapped deposit in Russia and the third largest in the world.

To develop the project, Udokan Copper -- which purchased the license in 2008 and is part of billionaire Alisher Usmanov's USM holding company -- raised nearly $3 billion (2.5 billion euros) from Russian banks.

The company also took advantage of preferential conditions granted for developing Russia's Far East, a neglected and isolated region.

The substantial investment is expected to bear fruit.

The price of copper, dubbed the "new black gold", soared to historic heights this year -- and shows no signs of slowing.

"Over the next 15 years, the demand for copper will grow by 30 percent" as the "green economy" grows, said Yulia Buchneva, an analyst at Fitch Ratings in Moscow.

© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA The company had to bring in 4,000 construction workers

Copper plays a key role in renewable energies and green technologies, she explained, because of its thermal and electrical conductivity properties.

She cited in particular the growing production of electric vehicles, which rely on copper.

Udokan Copper is eyeing Asian markets, particularly China, South Korea and Japan, where demand is high.

To reach those markets, the company is relying on the Baikal-Amur Mainline track (BAM) railway, where work is ongoing.

The line was constructed in the early 1980s next to the deposits in part to realise the goal of extracting the region's mineral wealth.

- Logistical challenges -

The BAM, which spans more than 4,000 kilometres across Siberia to the Pacific, is a grandiose Soviet project and financial abyss.

Udokan Copper hopes eventually to send its cathodes and copper condensates by train to the Chinese border or Russian ports on the Sea of Japan.

Kazikayev notes the mine is 2,000 kilometres closer to Tokyo than to Moscow.

Still, in an isolated and icy expanse, the logistical challenges are massive.

The company has had to build a power station to supply the energy for the work.

It had to construct a road to the closest airport, which features a wooden terminal.

And it had to bring 4,000 construction workers from Siberia and ex-Soviet republics to the area, home to a few hundred members of the indigenous Evenk reindeer herding people.

The site's deputy general manager Alexei Yaschuk said the team is now used to extreme conditions.

"The main challenge is keeping the roads in working condition. Bulldozers are constantly working," the 44-year-old told AFP.

The only time they stop, he said, is when temperatures fall below minus 35 degrees and visibility is less than 50 metres (165 feet).

"The storms and snowfalls are pretty heavy here."

apo-emg/jbr/ach

Southwest leg of Calgary ring road officially opens as province cuts mic on Tsuut'ina protestor

Author of the article: Dylan Short
Publishing date: Oct 02, 2021 • 

The final leg of the southwest portion of the Calgary Ring Road. Saturday, October 2, 2021. Brendan Miller/Postmedia Brendan Miller/Postmedia

The southwest portion of Calgary’s ring road opened to traffic Saturday amid a continued call of opposition from a man whose family was displaced by the project.

The section of the highway from Fish Creek Blvd. to Highway 22x opened on Saturday evening, five years after construction first began on the major roadway. The southwest section of the ring road is made up of 31 kilometres of six-lane and eight-lane divided highways, a road flyover, a railway crossing, 49 bridges, a tunnel and three river crossings.

The road is expected to carry 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles a day for the next 30 years and reduce commuter congestion within the city.

Twelve kilometres of the section known as Tsuut’ina Trail, between Sarcee Trail and Fish Creek Boulevard, opened in October 2020.

During the provincial announcement, Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse, a man who lost his house and had to move because of the road, briefly took over the mic.

Dodginghorse called on members of the Tsuut’ina Nation to stand with him and called on chief and council not to sell any land. His remarks have been edited out of the official provincial video of the announcement posted online.

Tsuut’ina resident Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse shares his concerns about the opening the final leg of the southwest portion of the Calgary Ring Road during a ceremony on Saturday. Saturday, October 2, 2021. 

PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER /Postmedia

Parts of the road have been constructed on land the province acquired from the Tsuut’ina Nation in a $341-million deal that included a $275-million lump sum payment plus $65 million to move homes.

“Just because you give a colonial economic development an Indigenous name, just because you call a road the Tsuut’ina Trail, that does not mean that harm hasn’t been done,” said Dodginghorse. “To the privileged Calgarians and Albertans that will be travelling on this road, I strongly say, do not drive on this road.”

Following the announcement Dodginghorse said that he has not been compensated for having to move his home. He said he is not a nation member due to the federal Indian Act.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he was glad Dodginghorse stated his point of view but that ultimately they have to listen to the community, where he said the majority of people supported the road.

Nenshi said elders in the community blessed the road, chief and council voted in favour of it and a referendum saw a significant majority of registered members of the nation vote to agree to the land transfer deal that led to the road being completed.

“It’s important that you’re here and it’s important that we hear that,” said Nenshi. “But ultimately, we also have to listen to the entire community who made a statement about wanting to get out of poverty, about wanting to develop economically and about wanting to build new relationships with their neighbours.”

Dodginghorse had previously shared his concerns at the October 2020 opening of the Tsuut’ina Trail segment of the ring road, some of which was built on former Tsuut’ina First Nation land.

Nenshi said he was thrilled to be part of the ceremony Saturday and that it would be his second-last major infrastructure announcement before he steps away from the mayor’s seat later this year.

Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney said the road, one of the largest infrastructure projects built in Alberta, cost $1.42-billion to complete and created 2,000 jobs. The federal government committed $334 million to the road.

“Opening this section of the ring road is a major accomplishment and builds on Alberta’s recovery plan to create jobs, build infrastructure and diversify our economy,” said Sawhney.

Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Transportation speaks during a ceremony to open the final leg of the southwest portion of the Calgary Ring Road. Saturday, October 2, 2021. Brendan Miller/Postmedia

She said the road is part of a larger east-to-west corridor that will improve access to various markets inside and outside the province.

She also thanked former transportation minister Ric McIver for his work on the file as well as Tsuut’ina Chief Roy Whitney. McIver was in attendance for the opening.

Construction of the road has been met with criticism and noise complaints from people who live alongside the project. Sawhney said Saturday that the province has been monitoring noise along the road and will continue to do so. She said anyone who has issues with noise from traffic can reach out to the project.

“Any concerns that come from the community are taken seriously. So, we’ll continue monitoring and I would encourage everyone to send in their feedback back to Alberta Transportation,” said Sawhney.

The full ring road is not yet complete. The west portion of the ring road is scheduled to be completed in 2024, the South Bow River Bridge project is scheduled to be complete in 2023 and the northeast Stoney Trail widening project is scheduled to be finished later this year.

Mic cut as Tsuut'ina man takes podium in protest at Calgary's southwest ring road opening

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Road opens following years of construction

Jade Markus · CBC News · Posted: Oct 02, 2021 10:06 AM MT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse says his family has been greatly affected by the ring road after they were forced from their land. (CBC)

An Indigenous man whose family lost their land took over the podium during celebratory remarks from government officials as the last portion of the $1.4-billion southwest Calgary ring road opened on Saturday.

Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse says his family has been greatly affected by the ring road after they were forced from their land. When the first stretch of the road opened last year he cut his braids in protest.

His mic was cut on the provincial video feed of the road's opening ceremony on Saturday, but it was recorded by a media pool camera feed.

Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney​​​​​​, Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi marked the opening of the southwest ring road at 2 p.m., closing the road to public travel. 

As McIver introduced Nenshi, Dodginghorse instead took to the podium, followed by police officers.

"I honestly do not want to be here right now," he said. 

WATCH | Young man displaced by Calgary's ring road cuts braids during 2020 opening

Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse says his family has been greatly affected by the ring road after they were forced from their land. He cut his braids to "leave a piece of me on this road." 10:11

Part of the freeway is built on land the province acquired from the Tsuut'ina First Nation in 2013. 

"I know that there are people on Tsuut'ina who are still hurting by what this road has caused, they are still feeling it. I know I am still feeling it," he said. 

He challenged Tsuut'ina Chief Roy Whitney to not sell or lease land, and his relatives and other Tsuut'ina people to stand with him.

He said just because the projects have been given Indigenous names doesn't mean harm hasn't been done. 

"To the privileged Albertans and Calgarians that are travelling on this road, I strongly say do not drive on this road and do not drive on Tsuut'ina Trail," he said. 

"I am against this road, I am against what it stands for, and what these economic developments stand for."

Nenshi spoke following Dodginghorse's remarks.

Dodginghorse spoke to the mayor from off-camera, after Nenshi said he worked to bring clean drinking water to Tsuut'ina Nation. Dodginghorse said he does not have clean drinking water at his home.

Nenshi said 75 per cent of Tsuut'ina members voted in favour of the ring road.

"I understand you disagree ... but ultimately we have to listen to the entire community." 

"One of the things I said at the beginning is that this road only works if the Tsuut'ina approve of it. And indeed, in a referendum, the Tsuut'ina did approve of it. Overwhelmingly," Nenshi said.

When the province later posted video of the event, Dodginghorse was cut out of the video.

Long-awaited connection

The southwest ring road is 31 kilometres of six- and eight-lane divided highway, stretching from Highway 8 to Macleod Trail S.E.

Construction on the southwest portion of the ring road started in 2017. The first 15-kilometre segment, between Glenmore Trail and 146th Avenue S.W., opened last year. 

The Alberta government was in charge of construction. 

"Calgarians have been waiting for five long years for this day," Sawhney​​​​​​ said. 

She said the project created 2,000 jobs, and work is continuing on the west Calgary ring road. 

• Lack of fencing along new Tsuut'ina Trail puts animals, drivers at risk, critics say

The entire ring road was supposed to open in 2022, but has been delayed by two years, and is expected to open in 2024. 

FROM THE RIGHT
Corbella: Mandatory vaccines for public service and accepting help from others a tough pill to swallow for Kenney

When it comes to accepting help to deal with COVID-19 the Alberta government has proven to be loath to do so as in many respects it indicates a failure to get ahead of a COVID spike

Author of the article: Licia Corbella
Publishing date: Oct 01, 2021 •

Premier Jason Kenney provides an update on COVID-19 and the ongoing work to protect public health at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on Thursday, September 30, 2021. PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA


It really is easier to give than to receive.

When it comes to accepting help to deal with COVID-19, the Alberta government has proven to be loath to do so as, in many respects, it indicates a failure to get ahead of a COVID spike.

Premier Jason Kenney, however, is finally accepting help from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Red Cross, who together will provide as many as 36 intensive-care medical staff to bolster Alberta’s health-care system that is on the verge of reaching its capacity of surge ICU beds.

Before he got to what help Alberta would receive, Kenney pointed out just how much Alberta helped other provinces in the past during this pandemic.

“Alberta has always been there to support our fellow Canadians when they needed help,” said Kenney.

He recalled how Alberta sent cargo planes full of personal protective equipment and more than 100 ventilators to Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia during the first wave — made possible mostly because Deputy Health Minister Paul Wynnyk, a retired lieutenant-general, started buying up supplies of masks and ventilators in anticipation of the need during the early days of the pandemic before other jurisdictions.

“It’s why we accepted overflow ICU patients from Manitoba in the spring and offered the same assistance to Ontario at that time. In fact, we currently have nine ICU patients from other provinces, including B.C., in our intensive-care units now,” said Kenney, who added that Alberta continues to provide medical aid to the residents of the Northwest Territories, who are experiencing a fourth wave similar to our own.

Anywhere from eight to 10 ICU-trained staff from the Canadian Armed Forces will help the province staff up to two more ICU beds. It’s expected that they’ll be located at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton, supporting Edmonton-area hospitals.

The Red Cross will provide up to 20 trained staff, some of whom have general training and others with ICU training. They’re expected to be deployed at the Red Deer Regional Hospital, “which is under severe stress given low vaccination rates in rural central Alberta,” said Kenney.

Newfoundland and Labrador is expected to send five or six ICU experienced staff to be deployed to the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre in Fort McMurray — a reverse order Come From Away.

“I really want to thank Premier Andrew Furey for reaching out to us early in September to offer the same kind of assistance that Newfoundland and Labrador provided to Ontario in the spring.

“As he joked with me, Fort McMurray is Newfoundland’s second largest city, so this is a wonderful gesture from a province whose people have done so much to build Alberta’s prosperity.”

It appears the government has been holding off on accepting this help as its modelling seems to indicate the worst is yet to come, with peak COVID infections hitting toward the end of October.

Already, despite more than doubling the number of surge ICU beds in the province and cancelling all so-called elective surgeries, which include surgeries for cancer and heart operations, Alberta is operating at 83 per cent of capacity of the 372 ICU beds, with 307 patients in ICU.

Kenney also asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday to procure some Johnson & Johnson one-dose, protein-based vaccines in an effort to have more Albertans who are hesitant — because of misinformation about the safety of mRNA vaccines — to get vaccinated and stop clogging up our hospitals and causing the cancellation of life-saving surgeries for those who are.

A minimum order is 24,000 doses, so Alberta is teaming up with B.C. and Saskatchewan to order 50,000 J&J vaccines in the hopes of upping the vaccination rate of Albertans, which has risen from just 78 per cent of first-dose coverage on Sept. 3 to nearly 84 per cent today — 200,000 more people vaccinated since the government announced its unpopular and controversial $100 vaccine incentive for laggards and the Restriction Exemption Program — better known as a vaccine passport — which must be shown to get into restaurants, hockey games and other areas where people congregate.

Now, perhaps the biggest backtrack made by Kenney so far regarding COVID is the requirement for all 25,000 members of the Alberta Public Service to show proof of vaccination by Nov. 30, or regular negative test results that the employee will have to pay for themselves.

Public service commissioner Tim Grant believes about 15 to 20 per cent of the public service remains unvaccinated. He said those employees should get their first dose of vaccine no later than Oct. 31 to comply with a Nov. 30 compliance date. Otherwise, they will have to pay for their own COVID tests on a regular basis to continue to work.

“We’re not going to fire anyone. Our aim is to encourage and educate all the members of the public service to get vaccinated. We believe that’s the best, the safest, the most appropriate route to go.

“However, if at the end of the day an individual decides that they won’t get vaccinated, they don’t have an exemption, we can’t accommodate them and they do not want to get tested, then we would put them on unpaid leave.”

Some Albertans will view this as tough medicine, but for the vast majority of those who have gotten their vaccinations, this is all overdue and, for some, too little too late.

As for Kenney, seeking and accepting help from Trudeau is likely the toughest pill to swallow.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist in Calgary.

lcorbella@postmedia.com

Twitter: @LiciaCorbella