70% of Chileans in Canada support draft constitution, as majority in Chile vote to reject it

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The 'reject' camp won the referendum Sunday, meaning Chile will keep its Pinochet-era constitution for now

Aura Carreño Rosas · CBC News · Posted: Sep 04, 2022 

Sebastian Ried, a Chilean living in Hamilton, voted in the referendum at a polling station in Toronto, one of six cities where Chileans could vote in Canada. He felt 'hope and fear' earlier in the day but was saddened by the results, he said Sunday evening. (Submitted by Sebastian Ried)

While voters in Chile made it clear Sunday they do not support the constitution that was proposed to replace the dictatorship-era document the country currently has, Chileans in Canada overwhelmingly voted in support of the draft.

"I'm sad but the results were overwhelming," Sebastian Ried, a Chilean man who lives in Hamilton and voted in the referendum from Canada, said Sunday evening. 

With 99 per cent of the votes counted, the rejection camp had 61.9 per cent support compared to 38.1 per cent for approval. Unlike recent elections, voting was mandatory.

Meanwhile, results from Chileans abroad were exactly reversed — 60.9 per cent voted to support the new draft, 39.1 per cent rejected. In Canada, the gap was even wider, with 70.4 per cent supporting, 29.6 per cent rejecting. 

• Chilean voters overwhelmingly reject proposed progressive constitution in national referendum

There were around 15 million Chilean citizens and residents eligible to vote, including 97,000 Chileans abroad. Six cities in Canada held polling stations Sunday: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Montreal. A total of 4,838 Chileans cast ballots in those cities by the end of the day. 

"It scares me that advances for the rights of women, Indigenous peoples and the environmental are not being recognized," said Ried who voted in support of the draft and had felt a mix of hope and fear earlier in the day.

If the proposal had passed, it would have replaced the constitution imposed under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and dramatically changed the country. 

Daniela Caballero, who came to Canada with her husband Cristian Mansilla and their daughter in 2019, also voted in support of the draft, saying she was hoping it would help lessen inequality in Chile. 

"First of all, I'd like to say I appreciate the transparency, and how quickly we are getting the results," she said after polls closed. "I'm proud of the democracy that we have, far from Pinochet's dictatorship."

Still, she was sorry to see the results, she said. "Looks like this is not how we will change the constitution.... I hope tonight every Chilean (especially the politicians) takes a big breath and thinks about how we are going to do it." 

Significant changes had been proposed

The vote came less than a year after leftist Gabriel Boric, a former student activist, won the presidential election in Chile and nearly three years after protests broke out in the country calling for, among other reforms, a new constitution.

"I think [the draft] recognizes a series of rights and problems that our country has not accepted. And it seems to me that it is a very good first step to building a fairer and better country for all Chileans," Ried said earlier on Sunday. 

According to Pascal Lupien, a political science professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., whose research focuses on Latin America and social movements, the new constitution would have been a complete overhaul.

"I mean, it's just completely different … Chile would go from a very conservative, elitist, rigid constitution to one of the most progressive constitutions in the world," he said before the vote. 

• Chilean parties agree to replace dictatorship-era constitution amid turbulent protests

Some changes laid out in the draft included the abolition of the senate to replace it with a chamber of regions which, as the name states, would represent the different regions of the country.

The draft also listed education, housing and healthcare as rights, which would have been run by the state.

Nature would have also been accorded rights, Lupien said, something that could have caused tension with the country's powerful mining industry, which Canada also has stakes in.

According to the Canadian government, Chile is Canada's top investment destination in South and Central America —12th worldwide — with Canadian companies "present in mining, utilities, chemicals, transportation and storage services and financial services." 

According to Lupien, Chile is the only country in Latin America that doesn't recognize Indigenous people in its constitution. The draft proposed more rights, including some land rights, for Indigenous people, he said. 

That section in particular had been the target of misinformation in both Chilean media and social media, Lupien said.

"[This] has led a lot of people to believe that this will basically cause the state to disintegrate [and] that Indigenous people will be able to impose Indigenous law on non-Indigenous people."

That was not in fact the case, Lupien said.

Mixed reactions to the draft

Going into Sunday, Chileans both in Chile and in Canada were divided on the decision to change the constitution. 

One Chilean man, not in Canada, said in a tweet translated from Spanish that the reason why he was rejecting the new draft is that "Chile is getting farther from Toronto and closer to Caracas, Venezuela. Chile is being destroyed from within like cancer," he wrote on Friday.

One woman writing from Canada, said she was voting to reject it as, in her view, "the new Constitution only divides," she said on Twitter Sunday.

Daniela Caballero and Cristian Mansilla immigrated to Canada from Chile with their daughter in 2019. (Submitted by Daniela Caballero)

From Canada, where thousands of Chileans came as refugees during the Pinochet era, Caballero said the vote had "a special meaning."

"[My generation is] the sons and daughters of democracy. We didn't live in a dictatorship [like our parents did]," she said.

Chile returned to democracy in 1990 but Pinochet's constitution remained. 

"For some of those adults that were young when [Pinochet] was there, they say, 'OK, this is the last step to take this guy out.'" 

'Back to the drawing board'

Lupien says there will likely be another constitutional convention after another draft is written. "Likely, they will be forced to remove some of the more progressive elements," he said.

"There's going to be, I think, a lot of turmoil, because there are a lot of people that have really been pushing for this.

"They will have to just go back to the drawing board... The decision to write a new constitution has been made, but that will probably take another year or so."

Ried says it's still the right time for a change in the country, with it closing in on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. 

"As a minimum moral duty to our country, we deserve to start the 50 years of this anniversary with a new constitution."

UN monitors thrust into debate over what to do with 1.4 trillion litres of oilsands wastewater

International scrutiny comes as Canada works toward new rules that could see release of treated water for first time

Author of the article: Meghan Potkins
Publishing date: Aug 26, 2022\

Scarecrows, used to deter birds from landing, stand in the Syncrude Canada Ltd. 

tailings pond in the Athabasca Oil Sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta, in 2018. 

PHOTO BY BEN NELMS/BLOOMBERG
t
When the Mikisew Cree First Nation grew tired of warning elected officials that the Peace-Athabasca Delta in northern Alberta was slowly drying up, they went international in a bid to find help.

That’s how a group of United Nations monitors came to be seated in a community hall in the remote community of Fort Chipewyan last weekend, going over the nation’s list of concerns for Wood Buffalo National Park, the site of one of the largest freshwater deltas in the world and and home to endangered whooping cranes and the continent’s largest wild bison populatio

“We just felt ignored, like our concerns were not being heard,” said Melody Lepine, Mikisew First Nation’s director of government and industry relations. “So we went international and UNESCO listened.”

This is the second mission to northern Alberta by UNESCO investigators since 2016. Monitors, who concluded their trip Friday, will try to determine whether Wood Buffalo National Park should be on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger — an outcome the UN agency has suggested is likely, since Canada hasn’t made enough progress in addressing a number of threats to the Peace-Athabasca Delta, including the impact of oilsands tailings ponds on water quality.

Representatives of the Mikisew Cree and UNESCO delegation earlier this week. 

PHOTO BY SUPPLIED/COURTESY MELODY LEPINE

The international scrutiny comes as the federal and Alberta governments are working to develop new regulatory requirements that could enable the release of treated water from the oilsands mines for the first time since the sector’s inception.



For its part, the oilsands industry says wastewater used in the industry’s bitumen mining process that has been stored for decades in vast toxic ponds in northern Alberta can be treated and safely released back into the environment.

An oilsands tailings pond north of Fort McMurray, in 2011. 

PHOTO BY TODD KOROL/REUTERS FILES

The sector has been working on plans for the reclamation of tailings sites — a process the industry says will require the release of wastewater into the Athabasca River. Unlike other mining and industrial operations in the country, oilsands operators have not been permitted to release treated water and volumes have been building for decades — now in the range of 1.4 trillion litres.

“We’re very much in alignment in wanting to protect the downstream environment and protect the Peace-Athabasca Delta and obviously, the Wood Buffalo National Park,” Rodney Guest, Suncor Energy Inc.’s director of water and closure, told reporters last week during a briefing hosted by the Mining Association of Canada.

“When we talk about designing these (tailings) facilities and doing the integrated water management, across the board it takes into consideration the nature and the need to protect these valuable, beautiful areas for those uses.”

Water used in the oilsands is recycled again and again before it is eventually stored in tailings facilities. Tailings are the sand, silt, clay and water separated from the bitumen during processing — a highly toxic mix that includes residual hydrocarbons, salts, organic compounds and metals — stored in engineered dams or dykes constructed above ground or in mined-out pits.

The sight of tailings ponds in northern Alberta will be familiar to most Canadians, associated with headlines decrying the migratory birds that die each year from landing on the ponds. The tailings themselves — captured in stark, iconic images by the likes of famed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky — have arguably taken on outsized symbolic significance, as they have become emblematic of the industry.

A duck gets its bill cleaned after landing in a tailings pond in 2008. 

PHOTO BY JORDAN VERLAGE/SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Some reclamation of tailings sites has already occurred and several large field pilots are underway. But industry says it will be necessary for treated water to be released for reclamation to occur at a majority of tailings sites, and advocates insist there are proven methods for doing so safely, including chemical treatment techniques, sedimentation and flotation processes, and filtration.

Responses from environmental and Indigenous groups to these assurances range from skepticism to outright opposition.

Indigenous communities in northern Alberta were already concerned with the proximity of tailings ponds to the Athabasca River, alarmed over evidence of infiltration into groundwater, and concerned about the impact of other upstream developments such as British Columbia’s Site C hydro dam project. Communities such as the Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) have been meeting with UN monitors this week, and Indigenous leaders say they want to be consulted before any treated tailings are released into the Athabasca River.

A log lays in a tailings pond at the Suncor oilsands operations

 in Fort McMurray, in 2014. 

PHOTO BY TODD KOROL/REUTERS FILES

“We’re basically in jeopardy of losing our ecological system,” said ACFN Chief Allan Adam. “There’s a lot people downstream that are not too happy about what is happening today and they’re going to voice their opinion and they’re going to make sure that their concerns are heard loud and clear.”

Oilsands companies say the sector is ready to deploy water treatment technologies; they just need to see new regulatory requirements, which are expected in 2025. The industry believes it is both technically and economically possible to process tailings water for release back into the environment.

“We’ve done lots of testing to know that we can treat the water and get the chemistry into the acceptable range for aquatic organisms and the environment,” Suncor’s Guest said.

We're basically in jeopardy of losing our ecological system

ALLAN ADAM, ACFN CHIEF

Total water volumes currently stored in tailings ponds are equal to about two per cent of the annual flow of the Athabasca River. Industry officials say treated water volumes would be released slowly, over many years. The sector has not released a dollar figure for the cost of treating and releasing tailings water, but Guest suggested that it would be “substantial.”

Despite the efforts underway to draft regulations for the release of tailings water, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault recently made clear in public comments that releasing oilsands wastewater isn’t the only option and Ottawa will be looking at other solutions, including recycling it back into operations or injecting the water underground.

Guilbeault also said last week that treated water would have to be drinkable in order to be released into the Athabasca — a comment that was poorly received by several industry experts, who said no other mining or heavy industry is required to meet such a standard.

An aerial view of a tailings pond near Fort McMurray. 

PHOTO BY RYAN JACKSON/EDMONTON JOURNAL

“Nowhere in Canada, nowhere in North America, do we do a direct reuse of industrial wastewater for drinking water purposes,” Guest said. “We do not treat industrial wastewater and then turn around and put it in a pipeline and pipe it into somebody’s home.”

Oilpatch veteran Greg Stringham acknowledged the debate around the disposal of oilsands wastewater and the reclamation of tailings sites has been politicized.

“Lots of other industries have materials that they need to deal with on a waste basis and this one seems to attract a lot of attention — but rightfully so, there’s a lot of it, so it needs to be done correctly,” said Stringham, former vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

The ultimate goal needs to be long-term sustainability and water quality that is equal to or above what's in the environment around it

GREG STRINGHAM

“I’m not going to put blame on either side. I’m just saying that the ultimate goal needs to be long-term sustainability and water quality that is equal to or above what’s in the environment around it.”

But Indigenous communities say existing regulations haven’t done enough to protect the Peace-Athabasca Delta and they’re worried about the consequences of releasing the tailings.\

One regulatory problem, according to an independent report commissioned by the Mikisew Cree, is the province’s weak mechanism for ensuring adequate funds are in place for the reclamation and remediation of mines.

The total estimated environmental liabilities of Alberta’s mines officially climbed above $33 billion in June 2021, although some sources have pegged the liabilities for the oilsands alone at $130 billion. Regardless, the regulator’s rules have allowed companies to set aside only $1.5 billion for cleanup under the Mine Financial Security Program. Critics say recent changes have weakened the rules further by allowing companies to provide financial surety in the form of a “surety bond” rather than cash, something experts say amounts to a promise that the company will have the money when the time comes for cleanup.

Alberta’s own auditor general has warned that the rules won’t protect taxpayers from being liable in the event of a broad decline in the oilsands sector — an eventuality that can’t be discounted amid declining investment in fossil fuels due to climate concerns.

“We absolutely don’t support the treatment and release of oilsands process water, including tailings. We don’t have any confidence in it,” Lepine said. “We’re relying on really broken, weak regulatory systems already in place that are causing these impacts and allowing these impacts to continue. So we don’t have any trust, we don’t have any confidence that they can do this.”

Canada turns to 1977 treaty with U.S. for second time in Line 5 battle

A shutdown could have 'domino effects' on thousands of jobs in the oil industry

Author of the article: Naimul Karim
Publishing date:Aug 29, 2022 •

Equipment along the Enbridge Inc.'s Line 5 pipeline route in Sarnia, Ont.

 PHOTO BY COLE BURSTON/BLOOMBERG FILES

Canada has invoked a 45-year-old treaty for the second time to trigger direct negotiations with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to ensure that oil flows into southern Ontario through Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 pipeline.

The federal government formally invoked the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty to begin a dispute settlement process that will set up direct communication with Washington over the pipeline that carries light crude oil and natural gas liquids from Alberta to Ontario through the United States.

In October, the government turned to the treaty when Michigan tried to shut the line down over concerns about a potential spill. On Monday, the treaty was invoked in response to “serious concerns regarding the possible shutting down” of the pipeline on the Bad River Band tribe’s reservation in northern Wisconsin.

“The economic and energy disruption and damage to Canada and the U.S. from a Line 5 shutdown would be widespread and significant,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement. “At a time when global inflation is making it hard on families to make ends meet, these are unacceptable outcomes.”

Joly added that a shutdown could have “domino effects” on the jobs of thousands of Canadians in the oil industry and other connected sectors and communities on both sides of the border.
Canada and the U.S. has held two meetings since it invoked the treaty for the first time in October, a foreign affairs spokesperson said. Prior to turning to the treaty for the second time, the two countries met thrice “informally” to address concerns around Line 5 in Wisconsin.

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., which owns Line 5 and is North America’s largest pipeline company, has been fighting Michigan in a legal battle over the pipeline. In July, the state’s regulators ordered the company to file additional information on the safety of its proposed Line 5 oil pipeline tunnel which it plans to build to rehouse its existing 540,000 barrel per day pipeline.

The company also has a proposal to relocate the segment of the Line 5 outside and around the Big River Band Reservation, which Joly said Canada “strongly supports.”

“Canada respects the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples, such as the Bad River Band’s governance of their territory as a U.S. Tribe,” Joly said. “In the forthcoming negotiations with the United States under the treaty, Canada is committed to working constructively to find a solution that responds to the interests of communities.”

In a statement, Enbridge said it appreciated the Canadian government’s efforts to keep the line operating.

“Enbridge remains open to resolving this matter amicably with the Bad River Band… the company is actively pursuing permits for a 41-mile re-route of Line 5 around the Reservation,” Enbridge said, adding that pipelines continue to be a safer and more reliable way to transport fuel than a truck, train or barge since the other modes burn more fuel, releasing more greenhouse gases.

The 1977 treaty was initially pushed by the U.S. government at a time when oil producers were interested in building a pipeline from Alaska through Canada to the lower 48 states.

It states that “no public authority in either party shall institute any measures … which are intended to, or which would have the effect of, impeding, diverting, redirecting or interfering with in any way the transmission of hydrocarbon in transit.”

IN OILBERTA
Largest rooftop solar array in Canada installed at Edmonton Expo Centre

By Emily Mertz Global News
Posted August 18, 2022

When the $5-million solar panel project is done at the Edmonton Expo Centre, it will be the largest rooftop solar array in the country. Sarah Reid reports. – Aug 18, 2022



There are certainly other buildings in Edmonton with rooftop solar panels, but the Expo Centre is certainly the biggest.

In fact, when the $5-million project is done, it will be the largest rooftop solar array in the country.

READ MORE: City of Edmonton offering rebates for green home improvements

The Expo Centre will have 5,754 solar panels installed in Phase 1 of the project (across 193,735 square feet above Halls D through H) and if approved, Phase 2 will see more panels installed over Halls A, B and C.

“The Edmonton EXPO Centre is a unicorn of sorts when it comes to rooftop solar panels,” program manager Brad Watson said.

“Its size and dimensions, unobstructed sightlines and lack of interfering rooftop infrastructure allowed us to build an array of this size.”

2:55 Alberta energy industry undergoing green transition – Apr 23, 2021

The Expo’s solar array will generate at least 2.8 gigawatts of energy annually, “equal to that of about 375 homes,” Watson explained.

It’s estimated to save about $290,000 to $460,000 per year.

Solar panels on the roof of the Edmonton Expo Centre on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. Global News

“Our new rooftop solar installation means that we will be producing our own renewable, clean solar energy right here on top of our building,” Melissa Radu, with Explore Edmonton, said.

“It also acts as a reminder to Edmontonians and visitors to our city that Edmonton is a leader for innovative energy technologies in our country and that we are working hard to support a transition to a lower-carbon economy.”

READ MORE: Edmonton signs 20-year wind and solar contracts as part of net-zero goal

The solar system is expected to have a lifespan of at least 25 years. The city forecasts it will pay for itself within 10 to 17 years, taking into account fluctuations in energy prices and energy consumption. Phase 1 is expected to be complete in November.

Phase 2 will add a production of approximately 1.9 gigawatts to the system and the estimated cost is roughly $3.4 million. Phase 2 would add an additional saving of about $185,000 to $300,000 per year, the city said.

There are 10 other solar projects in Edmonton and there are currently six city solar arrays operating.

Solar panels on the roof of the Edmonton Expo Centre on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022.

 Global News

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Burning forests for energy isn’t ‘renewable’ – now the EU must admit it

Greta Thunberg and others

The EU’s classification of wood fuels is accelerating the climate crisis. Next week, a key vote can change that

‘Forests degraded by clearcutting are also more flammable, and in the midst of an accelerating climate crisis, this is a huge risk.’ A clearcut forest in North Carolina, America, where trees are made into wood pellets.

 Photograph: Matt Adam Williams/PA

Mon 5 Sep 2022 

Next week the future of many of the world’s forests will be decided when members of the European parliament vote on a revised EU renewable energy directive. If the parliament fails to change the EU’s discredited and harmful renewables policy, European citizens’ tax money will continue to pay for forests around the globe to literally go up in smoke every day.

Europe’s directly elected representatives now have to choose: they can either save the EU’s “climate targets” with their legislative loopholes or they can begin saving our climate, because right now, that is not what EU targets are working towards.


Increasing volumes of wood pellets and other wood fuels are being imported from outside the EU to satisfy Europe’s growing appetite for burning forests for energy. This is an appetite that the existing EU renewable energy directive incentivises. It does this by classifying forest biomass on paper as zero-carbon emissions when in reality, burning forest biomass will produce higher emissions than fossil fuels during the coming decisive decades.


'Carbon-neutrality is a fairy tale': how the race for renewables is burning Europe's forests

The interlinked crises of wars and rising food and energy prices underline the urgent need for policies that enable energy saving and energy efficiency, and the importance of decarbonising the EU’s energy sector. It should be obvious that decarbonising can only be done by using non-carbon energy sources. It is critical to phase out fossil fuels, but the energy sources we replace them with are just as important.

The EU’s renewable energy directive should apply solely to actual renewable energy forms – and forests are not renewable. Forests are ecosystems created by nature that cannot be replanted. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that we need to restore and preserve more forest ecosystems – but as internationally renowned scientists have warned, the EU’s renewable energy directive incentivises a daily loss of irreplaceable forest ecosystems in favour of the harmful replanting of new trees.

There is just not enough time for these tree plantations to regrow to be in line with the Paris agreement. Forest biomass takes minutes to burn, whereas it takes anywhere from decades to centuries for the climate and environmentally harmful tree plantations to resequester the carbon emitted. This equals decades of carbon debts that we do not have time for.

The same goes for the burning of what the industry calls forest residues, such as treetops and branches. Burning any part of the tree means burning carbon. When forestry residues come from an 80-year-old tree, it will take 80 years for an equivalent tree to regrow – and this is time we do not have.

For forest residues to become sustainable end-products, forestry needs to be sustainable in the first place; but this is not the case today. Most people would assume a few things about our forests based on what they’ve been told: first, that Europe has a fair amount of protected forests – and even if not yet as much as the EU has promised, that protection rates are at least moving in the right direction. Other common misconceptions are that forestry is carried out sustainably, that predominantly climate-friendlywood products are produced, and that only forest residues are burned for energy.

In reality, none of this is true for the EU today. Strictly protected forests are being logged daily, half of what is logged in EU forests, not just residues, is burned as fuel. Certified and supposedly “sustainable” forestry causes increased emissions, a daily loss of biodiversity and a systematic violation of indigenous peoples’ rights in Europe’s Arctic regions.

Wood store of the biomass power plant in Viehhausen, Germany. 

Photograph: Lukas Barth/Reuters

The policy-driven conversion of forests to environmentally harmful tree plantations is threatening the way of life of indigenous Sámi communities. Their reindeer have survived the harsh arctic climate for time immemorial, but after only 60 years of so-called sustainable forestry, 71% of lichen-rich forests crucial for the survival of the reindeer have already disappeared in Sweden. Sámi communities are sounding the alarm: they are telling us “the reindeer are starving”.

Forests degraded by clearcutting are also more flammable, and in the midst of an accelerating climate crisis, this is a huge risk. This was clearly demonstrated by the out-of-control fires that broke out across Europe in the recent extreme heat, leading to a large-scale release of carbon, further intensifying climate breakdown.

We need to drastically reduce all types of greenhouse gas emissions, not only those from fossil fuels. In addition, and not instead of, we must remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Instead of trusting non-existent, unreliable and expensive carbon capture technologies, the best way to do that is to protect and restore more forests. If we continuously log forests, there will always be more carbon in the atmosphere than if the forest had remained unlogged. Due to incentivised logging, the EU is already beginning to see the collapse of its carbon sinks in countries like Finland and Estonia.

We clearly need to move towards ecosystems-based forestry and away from today’s forestry model, which means thinning, clearcuts and the planting of industrial tree stands.

Such a shift would equal more sustainable rural jobs and lead to more climate-resilient forests, both of which are vital for a just transition. On that note, all subsidies given to burn forest biomass must be reallocated to true renewables such as offshore-wind, solar and geothermal.

Yet as things stand, the renewable energy directive creates a downward-facing negative spiral. We can, however, turn this around. Members of the European parliament have a precious window of opportunity and a duty. They have until 1pm on Wednesday to table an amendment to remove forest biomass from the renewable energy directive. They can vote this change through on 13 September. They have 48 hours to do the right thing. If they fail, they will lock in decades of increased carbon emissions, biodiversity loss and human rights violations.

Greta Thunberg of Fridays for Future Sweden co-wrote this article with Lina Burnelius of Protect the Forest Sweden; Sommer Ackerman of Europe Beyond Burning; Sofia Jannok, Sámi artist and environmental activist; Ida Korhonen of Luonto-Liitto, Finland; Janne Hirvasvuopio, Sámi and environmental activist; Jan Saijets, Sámi activist; Fenna Swart of Comite Schone Lucht, Netherlands; and Anne-Sofie Sadolin Henningsen of Forests of the World, Denmark

Proposed TC Energy pipeline expansion faces pushback from three U.S. states

The pipeline transports natural gas from Alberta and British Columbia to Malin, Oregon

Author of the article:

Meghan Potkins

Publishing date:

Sep 02, 2022  •  

TC Energy has said the Gas Transmission Northwest expansion is necessary to meet increased demand from customers in the region. PHOTO BY ALEX PANETTA/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES

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TC Energy Corp. is again facing pushback against a proposed pipeline project, this time from three U.S. states seeking to block plans to expand a pipeline carrying Canadian natural gas to customers in the Pacific Northwest and California.

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In a joint filing to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the attorneys general of California, Oregon and Washington urged the regulator to deny TC Energy’s application to increase capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline by an estimated 150 million cubic feet per day. The 2,216-kilometre pipeline transports natural gas from Alberta and British Columbia to Malin, Oregon.

“Expanding the capacity of this pipeline would have significant environmental and public health impacts and is out of step with state and federal climate goals — and (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) can’t honestly say otherwise,” Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said in a statement.

The Aug. 22 filing was made just days before California’s grid operator declared a state of emergency Wednesday, with the state narrowly avoiding blackouts amid extreme heat and drought conditions that have crippled hydropower supplies. Demand for electricity in California has reached some of the highest levels in years and is expected to remain elevated over the long weekend as residents crank up air conditioners to cope with forecasted temperatures above 37 degrees Celsius on Sunday in parts of interior California.

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Just over 33 per cent of California’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources and around 38 per cent is supplied by natural gas, according to 2021 data from the state.

TC Energy has said the GTN expansion is necessary to meet increased demand from customers in the region.

“The strong demand for natural gas pipeline capacity in the region, which (the expansion) will provide, was reaffirmed when GTN secured long-term agreements with customers for 100 per cent of the project capacity,” TC Energy said in a statement. “This further demonstrates the need for secure energy to supplement renewables as we work toward a cleaner energy future.”

However, the states have challenged TC Energy’s assertion that the expansion is needed to meet heightened demand. In the filing to the regulator, the states counter the project will primarily serve the interests of Canadian gas producers in gaining market share.

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The states further dismissed the long term contracts inked for the proposed capacity increase, arguing in the filing that regional gas consumption is likely to decline in the coming decades as renewables and electrification increase.

“The project conflicts with state laws to reduce emissions and transition to renewable energy, and it will worsen environmental harms from climate change by locking in over 3.47 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2E) emissions per year for at least the next 30 years,” the report said.

TC Energy’s proposal would involve upgrading compressor stations in Athol, Idaho, Starbuck, Washington and Kent, Oregon. Idaho has not signed onto the joint filing opposing the project.

If approved by the regulator in October, construction on the project would begin in the spring and the expanded pipeline could be in service by November 2023.

Fossil found on P.E.I. older than first dinosaur to have walked the Earth

By Hina Alam The Canadian Press
Posted September 5, 2022

Lisa Cormier was walking her dog down a familiar path on the beach at Cape Egmont, P.E.I., last month looking for sea glass when she spotted what looked like intertwined branches. A closer look revealed something much more shocking — a more than half-metre-long rib cage with a spine and a skull buried in Prince Edward Island’s characteristic red earth.

“The entire skeleton was there,” said the school teacher in a recent interview.

View image in full screen
A fossil is seen in an undated handout photo. Lisa Cormier, a school teacher from Prince Edward Island, was walking down a familiar path on the beach at Cape Egmont with her dog looking for sea glass, as she had for years, when she spotted the fossil, which looked like intertwined branches. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Lisa Cormier. GAC

Her mother-in-law, Cormier said, had told her that the Island’s sand lends itself to being a good home for fossils, and that her daughter-in-law had a good chance of finding petrified remains during one of her beach walks.

She laughingly dismissed the idea at first, but said her mother-in-law was the first to see a photo of her discovery.

Eventually, however, that image made its way to John Calder’s phone.

The Halifax-based geologist and paleontologist said the fossil likely dates back about 300 million years to the end of the Coal Age, or Carboniferous era, and into the Permian period, about 80 million years before the first dinosaurs.

“My reaction when I saw that photo was ‘wow,”’ he said.

“This is obviously really important because these kinds of fossils are very rare from this time period. And, because of its location _ it was being covered by the sea with every tide and at risk _ it needed to be removed immediately.”

The Carboniferous era was a period of intense global warming, Calder said.

The rainforests and the wetlands of the Coal Age collapsed in the face of withering heat and drying, he said. Only some creatures such as reptiles, which lay their eggs outside of water, were favoured to survive, he added.

“And this is the time period that most of the rocks on P.E.I. fall under, early Permian,” he said. “It’s really a transition from wet, humid Coal age or Carboniferous to the dry, hot Permian period, and it’s right in that switch over that this fossil’s been found.”

Within 24 hours of Calder receiving the photo, a team had been assembled to retrieve the precious fossil. But they had just about five hours before high tide and sunset to get the specimen to safety.

1:56 Fossil collection of international significance heading to New Brunswick 

– Nov 24, 2020

Cormier said her husband, Gabriel, and father-in-law, Aubrey, along with Laura MacNeil, a geologist who runs Prehistoric Island Tours, a company giving tours of fossil sites, helped Calder with the delicate dig.

The rock was soft and crumbly, Calder said. The team simply dug around it and excavated the rock with the fossil embedded in it.

“So that we could remove a pedestal, if you like, of rock with the fossil in it.”

The team then wrapped the rock in layers of newspaper, burlap and plastic before carrying it to the back of a Parks Canada truck, which took it to a paleontological repository about 60 kilometres away in Greenwich, P.E.I., for safekeeping. The Prince Edward Island government will then decide where it has to be sent, adding it will likely wind up in either Ottawa or Washington, D.C., for further study.

The fossil will reveal its secrets bit-by-bit, Calder said.

While the skull and teeth will instantly reveal the lineage, he said a “full, proper description” could take at least a year.

“We will learn as research unfolds,” he said. “We will get bits of news as to its identity.”

The research will also help scientists understand how global warming will affect animals in the future, he noted.

“Global warming that I speak of occurred over millions of years,” Calder said. “It wasn’t as sudden as what we’re experiencing today, but it still had dramatic consequences.”

Cormier said she cannot wait to hear what the scientists find out about the fossil.

“Maybe I’m making history. Maybe it will be named after me,” she said with a laugh.

“And if it is something that we have never seen before, it will redefine the history of science. So it’s pretty cool. It’s amazing.

And if we find other species like this, then my species will be kind of the model that other discoveries will be based on. So many possibilities.”

Even if it is not a one-of-a-kind species, she said the fossil is a rare find.

“I will still be proud of finding it.”

A central Alberta boy with a love for dinosaurs discovered a fossil believed to be more than 60 million years old just outside his home. Chris Chacon caught up with Max Maurizio, 7, who made the rare find and you may be surprised to know what prehistoric animal it came from – Aug 12, 2022

 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2022.

 THAT'S ALITTERATION

What Pierre Poilievre's polarizing past on Parliament Hill says about his present

Pierre Poilievre, contender for the leadership of the federal Conservative party calls on members to cast their ballot during a rally in Charlottetown on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, September 5, 2022 10:20AM EDT

Pierre Poilievre's first words in the House of Commons were a sure sign of things to come. 

It was October 2004, and though at 25 years old he was one of the youngest faces in the room, he had been preparing for this moment. 

As a teen, he had read economist Milton Friedman's 1962 book "Capitalism and Freedom." At 15, he had joined the board for his member of Parliament in Calgary, Preston Manning. By 20, he had penned an essay about being prime minister. 

In university, Poilievre led his campus conservative club. He learned the ropes of campaigning from political heavyweights such as Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day. 

So when Poilievre rose to speak for the first time as an MP, he knew exactly what he was doing. He went straight for Paul Martin's jugular: "The prime minister has engaged in a smorgasbord of patronage that is so impressive it would make even his predecessor blush."

Eighteen years later, what strikes those who knew him then is how little the 43-year-old has changed. 

"He was fully prepared on day one to stand up in question period and go right after the prime minister," said Jeremy Harrison, a Saskatchewan cabinet minister and former Conservative MP who was elected in his early 20s alongside Poilievre. 

"Fearless," he said, with "a lot of talent."

Poilievre, one of the first people elected under the banner of the federal Conservative Party of Canada, is now the presumptive front-runner in the contest to become its next leader.

If he was already a firebrand then, his image has been made even more polarizing by his embrace of the anti-lockdown vein of right-wing populism that fuelled this year's "Freedom Convoy."

Looking back on his early career offers a glimpse into his making as one of the most divisive figures in Canadian politics. 

It was easy to underestimate Poilievre, back then — at least, before he opened his mouth.

When Poilievre ran for his federal seat in what was then the Ottawa-area riding of Nepean-Carleton, the first-time candidate was a gangly 24-year-old upstart looking to take it from popular Liberal David Pratt, who was then the minister of national defence.

"I swear to God, I looked like I was 14," he said during a panel discussion about youth in conservative politics, back in 2009, recalling reactions to a photo distributed on campaign materials during the dying days of the campaign. 

"Our office started getting so many calls asking, 'How old is this kid? Can he actually vote for himself in this election?'"

But Poilievre proved himself a quick study and an enthusiastic door-knocker with a knack for connecting with people, including teens he recruited to volunteer on his campaign. 

In Parliament, the high-energy, baby-faced MP earned the nickname "Skippy" and showed his prowess for debate and a penchant for coining catchy phrases, slamming the Liberals' proposed national daycare program in 2005 as "the great government babysitting bureaucracy."

Poilievre's profile continued to rise once the Conservatives took power in 2006 under former prime minister Stephen Harper, another of his teachers.

Harper appointed him as his parliamentary secretary in 2008 and he was trotted out as the government's defender-in-chief. Poilievre's scrappy style and impressive command of various political files — served with a twist of self-satisfaction, critics say — made him the Conservatives' go-to attack dog. 

Former Tory MP Scott Armstrong remembers that when Poilievre spoke, he and his caucus colleagues would take notes on his delivery. 

"I watched how he sort of handled himself, physically," said Armstrong, who would later become parliamentary secretary to Poilievre during his brief stint as employment minister in 2015. 

"He was probably our most effective communicator," recalled Armstrong. "He can actually get the Conservative message out." 

Poilievre seems to know that his talents are rare. During his 2009 speech to young conservatives, he dubbed communication Parliament Hill's "most demanded and least possessed skill."

"I have found it a real struggle to hire people who know how to write in language that real people understand," he said. 

Poilievre's mouth has also got him into trouble. 

In 2006, he was caught scoffing "f--- you guys" under his breath to members of a parliamentary committee, the young MP wearing glasses, a roomy blue pinstriped jacket and centre-parted hairstyle popular in the late '90s.

And in 2008, Poilievre apologized after questioning in a radio interview whether Canada was "getting value for all of this money" by compensating Indigenous residential school survivors. He also suggested they should instead work harder — making those comments hours before Harper delivered a historic apology in the House of Commons for the country's wrongdoing. 

"It showed to me just a real lack of judgment," said Charlie Angus, a longtime NDP MP, in an interview. 

Poilievre's judgment was questioned again in 2010 when, one day, he grew so impatient waiting in his car to go through Parliament Hill's security check that breached protocol by pressing a button to let himself through. 

If the brash way that Poilievre presented himself in those early years had significantly evolved over the course of his time in the Commons, Angus would have been there to see it. But he says today that Poilievre "hasn't really transformed from that." 

Despite those few exceptions, or perhaps because of them, by Poilievre's early 30s his message discipline was becoming a well-oiled machine. His caucus colleagues began to notice that he was adding physical discipline to his arsenal, too, with a vigorous workout routine. 

He was still young, but a little less gangly, when he was appointed to Harper's cabinet in 2013 as democratic reform minister. 

Chris Alexander was appointed to oversee immigration during the same cabinet shuffle. He described Poilievre as being open about his lack of life experience outside of politics and eager to make up for it. 

"He always had a book, or was talking about what he was reading, and asking what the rest of us are reading," Alexander said.

Poilievre was tasked with shepherding through controversial legislation altering Canada's election regime. It included a provision outlawing "voter vouching," or allowing a person without documentation of their name or address to bring someone to the polls to vouch for their identity. Critics argued this could lead to the disenfranchisement of voters. The current Liberal government has since reversed that policy. 

When then-chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand criticized the proposed law in 2014, Poilievre attacked his motives: "He wants more power, a bigger budget and less accountability," he said during a Senate committee meeting. 

Former NDP MP Craig Scott, the party's critic on the issue, said that a well-known antagonist being the face of the bill made it easier to drum up public opposition. 

Scott mused that people already suspicious of the Harper government tended to read ulterior motives into everything Poilievre touched. They'd think, "Because this is Pierre Poilievre, surely something even more is going on," he said. 

Despite his prickly exterior, those who worked more closely with Poilievre say the well-prepared MP was always funnier, kinder and more down-to-earth than his performances implied.

Those who were there to see his beginnings have stuck around.

Former Conservative cabinet minister John Baird, then a political mentor, now serves as his campaign chair. Jenni Byrne, a longtime party operative who Poilievre dated in his early career, is a senior aide on his team. His wife, Anaida, who he married in 2017, also works as a political staffer on Parliament Hill. 

They're believers in the recipe for political victory that Poilievre had shared with Conservative youth earlier in his career. 

"If you want to be successful in Conservative politics," the young Poilievre instructed, "you have to stand for something."

"You have to stand for ideas that excite large numbers of people. Electricians, mechanics, carpenters, everyday working people that might not be totally fascinated by politics."

Poilievre has grown up in public. He spent his the past 18 years crafting a reputation for being a bold and to-the-point communicator, cutting to the chase in a way that made critics curse him, opponents loathe him and colleagues admire him.  

Now, the career politician might be about to put the days of defending other leaders' policies behind him.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2022