Federal disaster aid program being overhauled to include climate adaptation


Fri, February 24, 2023 



OTTAWA — Canada's overworked disaster assistance program is being overhauled so that future projects would only be eligible for aid if they take into account the need to adapt to climate change.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair, who was in British Columbia this week with the second instalment of disaster aid for the B.C. 2021 floods, said the government can't keep sending out billions of dollars to help rebuild after a disaster without trying to prevent the same damage from happening the next time.

"I want those recovery funds tied to new building codes and new planning around how we can build back more resilient communities," Blair said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"Just building it back where it was and how it was prior to these events, when we know that they are occurring with greater frequency and severity, it wouldn't do much (good) to continue to pay this money out."

Blair launched a review of the disaster assistance program last year, and the review panel he appointed submitted its report and recommendations to him in the fall.

He said he was meeting with the panel chair in B.C. on Friday to talk about it, and will present the plan to provincial and territorial emergency preparedness ministers when he meets with them in the spring.

Tying disaster aid to climate adaptation is also part of the national adaptation strategy that was finalized last fall.

The Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program, known as DFAA, launched in 1970 to help pay for recovery efforts following natural disasters when the cost exceeds what a province or territory can reasonably afford.

Eligible expenses can be costs associated with the event itself, such as emergency evacuations, as well as repairing damage to public infrastructure or systems, including roads, bridges and water treatment plants. Rebuilding and replacing belongings for primary homes and private businesses can qualify as long as they aren't eligible for private insurance.

Provinces have to apply for help within six months but the costs can be submitted for up to five years. Each province has a population-based deductible before the program kicks in. In Prince Edward Island, DFAA kicks in when the costs hit $561,000, while in Ontario it doesn't take effect until they top more than $50 million.

Ottawa then pays for up to 90 per cent of the remaining costs based on a specific formula.

But Blair said climate change means the disasters are piling up and the program's costs are soaring. He said during the first 50 years of the program, Ottawa paid out $7 billion in aid to the provinces and territories.

Almost two-thirds of that was paid between 2013 and 2020.

He said he expects the program to hit that same total again to cover just the last two years of damages. That includes the deadly wildfires in B.C. in the summer of 2021 and widespread flooding that ravaged large swaths of the Lower Mainland and Okanagan Valley several months later.

Together those two events alone are expected to exceed $5 billion in recovery costs.

Blair said at least another $1 billion is expected to help the Atlantic provinces recover from post-tropical storm Fiona last fall.

The program is also approved or expected for other events in 2021 and 2022, including flooding in Manitoba and Northwest Territories, forest fires in Saskatchewan, a November rain and wind storm in Nova Scotia and hurricane Larry that walloped Newfoundland and Labrador.

A background document prepared by Public Safety Canada in 2020 said the standard budget for DFAA is $100 million a year, but it noted that's no longer enough.

"In recent years, $100M has been typically insufficient to cover requests for federal funding," the document said.

In fact, the last time it was sufficient was 2012, when the final budget was $99.97 million. It has gone over budget every year since, averaging $405 million a year for the last decade.

Still, the program's budget allocation remains $100 million to start, including in the current year.

Blair said rebuilding better, more resilient communities will save money in the future, but he said it's not just about the cost. It's also about protecting people and their communities.

In Lytton, B.C., where a wildfire destroyed almost the entire town in June 2021, rebuilding is still on hold and awaiting a final remediation plan. Blair said the federal government is committed to help with the recovery costs, but the rebuilt community isn't going to be the same as the old one.

"We want to rebuild that community in a way that's fire smart and it's going to be more resilient to this type of natural event," he said.

That means, he said, smarter, fire-aware building codes, using fire-retardant materials, and designing structures to reduce their vulnerability to fires.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2023.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

Clock is running out for Canada to help secure a global treaty to protect the ocean



Fri, February 24, 2023 

It’s do-or-die time for Canada and the rest of the international community to finally get a deal done to protect the world’s oceans, say global leaders, environmental groups, and celebrity activists.

International delegates are hunkering down in the back rooms at the United Nations in New York until March 3 in a last-ditch attempt to broker a legally binding deal to protect biodiversity on the high seas.

The European Union promised 40 million euros to support ratification of the treaty Wednesday, as did Palestine — which committed US$50,000 and urged developed nations to assume their responsibility to resource the treaty.

On Tuesday, Hervé Berville, France’s secretary of state for the sea, stressed all nations must demonstrate ambition to craft an effective, efficient and universal treaty.

“We need to put the ocean at the core of our diplomatic discussion and political priorities,” Berville said, adding the treaty was one of the most important of the coming decade.

A meaningful financial package to support technology transfer and capacity building in the Global South was key to securing agreement and making the treaty actionable in the short term, he said.

No Canadian political leaders or ministers have participated at the conference or committed funding to date, but it’s still early in the conference, said Susanna Fuller, operations vice-president of Oceans North.

“A contribution signals Canada is serious about making sure this is a global treaty and developing states have the capacity to put it into force,” she said.

Past negotiations to finalize the UN High Seas Biodiversity Treaty to protect life in the ocean and establish a blueprint for the equitable and sustainable use of marine resources floundered in August.

Sticking points included some nations resisting change to fishing rights and the failure of rich nations to provide funding and support to the countries of the Global South.

While most Canadians might not know or care about an international ocean treaty that’s been in the works for decades, they should, Fuller said.

The treaty could lay the ground rules for protecting the largest and most vital ecosystem on the planet to benefit humanity and tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity collapse, she said.

The high seas — marine areas beyond the 200 nautical mile boundaries of coastal nations — make up nearly 64 per cent of the ocean’s surface. The ocean produces half the planet’s oxygen and curbs global warming, she added. Yet little more than one per cent of the ocean is protected.

“The treaty is hugely important,” Fuller said.

“When have we ever had an opportunity to put into place a global framework to protect biodiversity for fully half the planet?”

Coastal nations like Canada, which has the longest coastline in the world, are highly dependent on the health of marine life in the ocean, she said.

“People really depend on different species, many of which spend part of their lives in the high seas, for their culture or for food.”

Global Affairs Canada, headed by Minister Mélanie Joly, is the lead agency negotiating at the conference, Fuller said.

Although global human and ocean health are intertwined, the high seas are still largely uncharted territory, inadequately governed by a loose patchwork of international agreements and agencies, Laura Meller, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, told Canada's National Observer.

Most existing rules and tools in international governance are solely focused on exploiting the ocean, Meller said.

“This treaty is very much set up to do the opposite,” she said.

“It can really transform the way we approach the global ocean that belongs to all of us.”

A strong ocean treaty is the litmus test for global leaders’ promise to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans and lands by 2030, Meller said.

The landmark international pledge was set out at the UN biodiversity conference, COP15, hosted by Canada in Montreal in December.

Failure to secure the ocean treaty would seriously jeopardize the 30x30 target just months after the pledge was signed, Meller said.

There’s an expectation that Canada’s leadership should show up and speak up at the negotiations, Meller added.

In the past couple of years, Canada has built recognition and momentum in the international community on the importance of protecting the ocean, Meller said.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault helped secure the biodiversity framework at COP15, and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray just finished hosting IMPAC5, a global ocean conservation summit in Vancouver. Both ministers co-chaired the leadership summit at IMPAC5 and cited the high seas biodiversity treaty as the top priority.

Last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also committed Canada to the High Ambition Coalition, 50-plus countries working at a high political level to secure the high seas treaty.

“It’s hoped Canada will carry on building on that leadership and doing the footwork to bring this critical international agreement over the line,” Meller said.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) did not respond to Canada’s National Observer questions on the federal government’s role or goals at the treaty conference.

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

TikTok investigation sign of data privacy, geopolitical climate: academics


Fri, February 24, 2023 



TORONTO — An investigation into TikTok launched by Canada's Privacy Commissioner this week is a symptom of growing unrest around data privacy, but also a sign of the extent of geopolitical tensions, academics say.

The investigation revealed Thursday by the federal privacy watchdog and its counterparts in B.C., Alberta and Quebec is meant to delve into whether the video-based social media platform owned by Beijing-based ByteDance complies with Canadian privacy legislation.

Investigators also intend to look into whether the app is obtaining "valid and meaningful" consent when collecting, using and disclosing personal information.

TikTok has long been embroiled in privacy concerns because the Chinese government has a stake in ByteDance and laws allow the country to access user data, but experts see Canada's recent attention to the matter as part of a wider concerns surrounding China and privacy.

"It’s a timely and meaningful way for Canada to enter into a really crucial conversation unfolding in the U.S. the EU and in other parts of the world about incredibly popular and incredibly powerful social media companies," said Sara Grimes, director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto, in an email.

"How are they using our data? What are they doing to protect our privacy?"

TikTok, she added, is the focus because the U.S. and the EU have recently banned staff from using TikTok on work-issued devices and class action lawsuits in both Canada and the US were settled last year, which alleged TikTok was collecting data without consent.

"Canada has historically been very slow and hesitant to regulate internet and other digital technologies," Grimes said.

"But there’s a shift happening right now — a groundswell of public demand for better protection of user rights, for more transparency from companies and governments about their data practices."

It also comes after the U.S. decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese high-altitude balloon early this month. The balloon crossed into Canadian airspace, but China's government denied it was a spy device.

Three other high-altitude objects were downed over North America in the days that followed and since then, the Globe and Mail newspaper has reported the Canadian military detected Chinese monitoring buoys in the Arctic.

"There has to be some acknowledgment of the political climate in context that we're debating this (TikTok issue) now," said Vass Bednar, the executive director of the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society at McMaster University.

"And I think asking why now is an awkward question because an investigation like this could happen any time and it probably should happen to other companies on social media."

But Bednar believes the launch of the investigation is unlikely to force Canadians to rethink their use of TikTok. The app is designed to be addictive, so people keep watching videos and posting content, so TikTok likely knows people won't easily abandon it.

"Which perhaps makes the threat (of an investigation) more empty," Bednar added.

However, Grimes said the discovery of privacy violations or other issues could shift consumer thinking.

"If the investigation does confirm that TikTok is violating our privacy rights, and/or the privacy rights of teens and children, I think it will definitely sway user habits," she said.

"Contrary to popular belief, young people do care a lot about their privacy and how their data is used. And parents care a lot about their children’s data too."

Though ByteDance is not based in Canada, it has an office and staff in Toronto and Grimes said Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other privacy laws apply to anyone doing business in the country.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with the federal and provincial privacy protection authorities to set the record straight on how we protect the privacy of Canadians," TikTok spokesperson Danielle Morgan said in an email Thursday, when news of the investigation broke.

However, Canada and the commissions can do little to compel TikTok to comply with the investigation, Grimes said.

"They can publish their results, raise public awareness, and make recommendations to ByteDance for how to bring itself into compliance with PIPEDA and the other Acts involved in this investigation," Grimes said.

"But yes, it would be much better if they could also fine offending companies and restrict operations for companies that repeatedly broke Canadian laws."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2023.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

YUKON

Federal dollars sought to close funding gap for Atlin hydro expansion


Fri, February 24, 2023 

The Atlin Hydro Expansion Project would increase the power output of existing infrastructure from 2.1 megawatts to 10 megawatts. It would provide Yukon Energy with clean power and reduce the territory's reliance on diesel generation. (Philippe Morin/CBC - image credit)

Multiple players behind the Atlin Hydro Expansion Project are looking to the federal government's spring budget to close a growing funding gap that Yukon's energy minister says endangers the entire plan.

The project's proponent is Tlingit Homeland Energy Limited Partnership. The project would increase the generation capacity of existing infrastructure and include transmission lines upgrades.

The hydro expansion would be complemented by a 40-year power purchase agreement, where the additional electricity would be sold to Yukon Energy. This would supply the utility with clean power during winters and reduce the territory's reliance on diesel generators rented from Alberta.

Last fall, financing for the project faced scrutiny in the Yukon legislature as critics pointed to its escalating cost and significant funding shortfall. The Yukon government has committed a $50-million grant. It is one of multiple funding partners, which among them include the B.C. and federal governments.

At the time, Tlingit Homeland Energy said the project had risen in price due to factors including inflation, supply chain problems and a weak Canadian dollar. It said the funding gap would need to be closed by January to preserve the target for commercial operation in 2025.

The latest estimate for the project is $330 million, according to Lee Francoeur, the president and CEO of the Taku Group of Companies.

Francoeur further revealed that the funding shortfall is at $106 million, which includes a $30-million contingency for increased borrowing costs due to rising interest rates.

"We were a victim of circumstance and we are just trying to do our best to keep the project on the rails," Francoeur said.

While the gap hasn't been closed, Francoeur said there is a "small window" to avoid pushing timelines further back.

"And I wish that we would have an all-of-government approach so that everyone as quickly as possible can get this project moving forward, because it's not going to get cheaper. Everyone in the world right now is trying to move towards green energy, and that is causing a spike in these prices," he said.

Claudiane Samson/Radio-Canada

Yukon Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker said none of the money committed has been spent yet. He said at this stage, partners are trying to "line up" funding before work on the hydro project can begin in earnest.

Streicker said getting all the needed funds at once is a challenge. Tlingit Homeland Energy secured $80 million for the project from the Canada Infrastructure Bank by borrowing against the sale of electricity. Streicker said the bank has agreed to lend "at a very low level of interest."

"Interest rates have been changing. Suppose that we don't get the money this spring to close the gap. It's possible that that gap could change on us. And so that could put the whole project at risk, not just the timing of the project," he said.

Streicker said the Yukon government has been helping. He said he traveled to Ottawa with Francoeur last fall to pitch the project to the federal government, which has already pledged $32.2 million.

Streicker said he believes the federal government recognizes the merits of the project, since the hydro project is First Nations-led and would expand existing infrastructure. However, Streicker was unsure if Ottawa would come through with the money.

"I think they agree with it in principle, but … they have to make hard decisions around their budgets," Streicker said.

The shortfall is too big for the Yukon to cover alone, Streicker said. But if the federal government were to get "80 per cent there, or 90 per cent there," Streicker said he would explore whether covering the rest would be possible.

That would rouse critics like Yukon Party energy critic Scott Kent. His party has been raising questions about the project's viability and its timeline. Kent pointed out that in 2019, the project's estimate was at $120.7 million.

As the territory's electricity demands are expected to increase in years ahead, Kent said the government needs a solid plan to meet it.

Chris WIndeyer/CBC

"The government needs to come up with some viable alternatives amidst those growing concerns around the energy plan," Kent said.

"Atlin is one of those projects in [Yukon Energy's] 10-year renewable plan. Moon Lake [pumped storage project] is another one and it hasn't even gotten off the ground from the design phase. So it could be years and years away."

If the funding gap isn't closed, Streicker said the government would look to other options. He said there's a suite of measures to keep Yukoners powered, like policies allowing them to connect renewable technologies to the grid, a grid-scale battery in Whitehorse and renewable projects in the communities.

He also pointed to the Moon Lake pumped storage project, which is scheduled to come online near the end of the decade, and talks about connecting to the main B.C. grid.

"So we're always in these conversations about how we're going to work to build up reliable, affordable, clean energy over time," he said. "So Atlin is an important project, but it's not the only project."

Malaysia helps poor, raises taxes for rich in 2023 budget

Fri, February 24, 2023 


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia will raise development spending and plans new taxes for the wealthy in a smaller budget plan this year, as the new government seeks to balance between spurring economic growth and reining in the budget deficit.

Three months after his election victory, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim unveiled a 386.1 billion ringgit ($87 billion) national budget in Parliament on Friday that focuses on helping people grappling with the rising cost of living amid an economic slowdown.

Fuel and other subsidies, along with cash aid for the poor, farmers and industries are being retained, and new incentives will aim to tackle youth unemployment and bolster foreign investment. Anwar said the income tax system will also be rejigged to lower taxes for some 2.4 million middle-income earners but raise taxes for those in the high-income group.

Anwar, who is also finance minister, said the government plans to introduce a luxury goods tax this year and is considering a capital gains tax. The budget also proposed 97 billion ringgit ($21.9 billion) in development spending, up from 71.6 billion ($16.1 billion) last year.

But Anwar said the country faced key challenges including a high national debt, global economic slowdown and slow recovery in foreign investment.

He said Malaysia's economy is forecast to expand at 4.5%, down sharply from 8.7% last year. He said the country needs to improve its public finances, as national debt and liabilities had surged to over 1.5 trillion ringgit ($338 billion), or 80% of gross domestic product.

While spending by previous governments rose to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, Anwar said billions of dollars were also lost due to corruption and leakage. He said projects awarded by the previous government without public tenders have been canceled and that new tenders will be called to ensure transparency. His government is aiming to narrow the budget deficit to 5% of GDP this year, from 5.6% last year.

“A major shift is needed ... a shift to fight corruption that has denied our people opportunities to enjoy a more meaningful life, to good governance in our spending and to socio-economic empowerment,” he said. “We may have different political views, but don't let our differences prevent us from making real changes."

Anwar's alliance formed a unity government with other smaller parties after November's election led to a hung Parliament. He faces another test with elections due in six states in the next few months that would determine the strength of his government against a strong Islamic-dominated opposition.

The Associated Press

Big Oil's net-zero pledges not aligned with climate science

Fri, February 24, 2023

The net-zero greenhouse gas emissions pledges touted by Canada’s oil and gas sector ring false as the industry continues its push to expand fossil fuel use and oppose climate policy, a new analysis states.

This “net-zero greenwashing” flies in the face of United Nations guidelines on what makes a credible net-zero pledge, according to new analysis by InfluenceMap, an independent think tank that maintains the world's leading database of corporate and industry association lobbying on climate policy.

InfluenceMap examined the climate-related policy messaging and engagement of Canada’s six largest oil and gas companies and the main industry group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

It found that CAPP — whose members collectively produce about 80 per cent of Canada’s oil and gas — is the most actively opposed to climate policy progress: pushing for oil and gas development and resisting emissions reduction policies.

Although CAPP received the lowest score when it came to climate policy engagement, none of the six companies analyzed managed to crack a D+. There has been broad opposition from industry to the federal government’s plan to cap oil and gas sector emissions as part of Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction plan.

Both CAPP and TC Energy told a government committee they are against the cap, while the CEOs of Cenovus, Canadian Natural, and Imperial Oil have publicly opposed the policy.

Fossil fuel-involved corporations make up the majority of organizations opposed to climate action, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) April 2022 report. It said “opposition from status quo interests that are exerting political influence” over the policymaking process is a key barrier to making global progress on climate policy.

Canada’s former environment minister, Catherine McKenna, is chair of the UN expert group that raised the bar for what makes a credible net-zero pledge with a November 2022 report aimed at combating greenwashing. She weighed in on InfluenceMaps findings.

“If you're gonna put up your hand and say you're a climate leader, that you're committed to net zero, you need to do that work,” McKenna told Canada’s National Observer in an interview. Aligning net-zero pledges with climate science requires targets for ending support for and use of fossil fuels, according to the UN expert group.

“We were very clear in the report I chaired for the secretary-general … you had to have targets aligned with the science, you had to have interim targets, you had to have a detailed transition plan, your emissions had to go down and you could not be increasing new fossil fuel infrastructure or lobbying against climate policy,” said McKenna.

“Canadian oil and gas companies — and trade associations like the Pathways Alliance and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers that represent them — continue to advertise that they're committed to net zero while lobbying against the climate action needed to make this goal possible,” said McKenna.

The oil and gas industry shouldn’t be demanding taxpayers — who are currently paying high prices for fossil fuels — subsidize technology and actions it needs to achieve emission reduction targets, particularly at a time when the oil and gas companies are making massive profits, said McKenna.

Instead of returning those profits to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, that money should be invested in clean tech, but “Canadians have yet to see any evidence of that,” she said.

The six companies and CAPP have all supported net zero as a policy goal but their actions and positions on climate policy include a push to expand the fossil fuel industry and advocacy for new oil and gas projects, according to InfluenceMap. These goals and actions stand in “stark contrast” with the IPCC and International Energy Agency’s 1.5 C net-zero scenarios that call for a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels, said the report.

The IPCC’s April 2022 report noted removing fossil fuel subsidies would reduce emissions and improve public revenue, among other environmental and sustainable development benefits.

The federal government has pledged to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in 2023 — a task to be overseen by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson — a measure CAPP and Canadian Natural both opposed.

The report flags the oil and gas industry’s promotion of “clean” fossil fuels, particularly so-called natural gas and the use of carbon capture to continue and increase the use of fossil fuels as another clear misalignment with climate science.

InfluenceMap found a few instances where Suncor Energy indicated “more supportive positions” on policies offering alternatives to fossil fuel use. For example, a lobbying report in British Columbia last summer disclosed Suncor’s advocacy for investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and a different lobbying filing in Alberta appeared to support renewable energy development, according to the findings.

While the UN report is an important tool to crack down on greenwashing, McKenna said the next step is having stricter disclosure and regulation of net-zero commitments.

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Northern Alberta First Nation welcomes ruling declaring election laws discriminatory


Fri, February 24, 2023 

The Federal Court decision was released on Feb. 15. 

(Andrew Lee/CBC - image credit)

A legal victory of two Cree women has restored the right to vote for generations of women at an Alberta First Nation.

On Feb. 15, the Federal Court struck down two election rules at Whitefish Lake First Nation #128. One prohibited members in common-law relationships from candidacy; the other deemed thousands of women ineligible from voting because their mother, grandmother or great-grandmother had married a non-status man.

In a 69-page decision, Justice Paul Favel declared the Bill C-31 Voting Policy and the Common Law Marriage Prohibition were unconstitutional. The decision has been suspended for seven months to give Whitefish Lake time to adopt a membership code and amend its election regulations.

"I'm going to be happy the day my mom can actually, finally vote," said Karen McCarthy, who was not allowed to vote in the Whitefish Lake elections in April and May 2021 because she was of "Bill C-31 descent."

Karen McCarthy

"My mom has never, ever been allowed to vote. And I haven't myself, my children haven't, so it has affected three generations in my family alone."

Bill C-31 is an amendment introduced by the federal government in 1985 to retroactively restore registered status to Indigenous women disenfranchised under the old Indian Act by marrying someone without status.

'Wanted a re-election'

But like many bands, Whitefish Lake argued that the amendment infringed on its Indigenous right to self-government and refused to restore voting rights.

McCarthy said Favel's ruling didn't go far enough for a First Nation where members' rights are often violated.

"I wanted a re-election because I feel that the amount of people that they suppress from voting would significantly change the outcome of the election," McCarthy said in an interview with CBC News.

"Voter suppression is very real in First Nation communities that have poor governance, and ours is one of them."'

Favel's decision noted that rules around ineligibility had been applied in an arbitrary manner and were not rooted in Whitefish customary law but rather the adoption of harmful colonial concepts.

Favel's ruling also addressed a constitutional challenge filed by Lorna Jackson-Littlewolf, who was removed as a candidate in the 2021 election because she was in a common-law relationship.

Election code referendum

Whitefish program manager Rennie Houle, who described current election laws as outdated, ambiguous and discriminatory, welcomed the Federal Court decision.

He said a referendum taking place this week asks members to approve a new election code, which was a year-and-a-half in the making and addresses those issues.

Houle said the ruling exceeded his expectations because it recognized Whitefish Lake as an autonomous Treaty 6 Nation, rather than part of Saddle Lake.

While both communities have a chief and council, they are considered one nation under the Indian Act. Saddle Lake traditionally wields more power and wealth based on its larger population.

"We're very excited by the ruling that was made and the changes coming on with this new election bylaw," Houle said.

"This is one step toward Whitefish Lake First Nation developing their own path to self-determination, to how they want to govern themselves."

This week's referendum is being held unilaterally by Whitefish leadership. Results will be announced Friday.

Dennis Callihoo, a lawyer representing Saddle Lake, declined comment.

 CBC made several unsuccessful attempts to reach Saddle Lake leadership for comment.

Manitoba, federal government reach $6.7B health-care deal

Fri, February 24, 2023



WINNIPEG — The federal government says in a news release that it has signed an agreement in principle with Manitoba to invest more than $6.7 billion in the province's health-care system over 10 years.

That includes more than $1.2 billion for a new bilateral agreement focusing on shared health-care priorities.

It also includes $72 million in an immediate, one-time top up to the Canada Health Transfer paid to Manitoba to address urgent needs, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms and for long surgical wait times.

Manitoba is the sixth province to sign onto a new health-care deal proposed by Ottawa earlier this month, following Ontario and the four Atlantic provinces.

The "agreements in principle" are a first step to completing the $196-billion, 10-year health-care funding proposal that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made on Feb. 7.

To get the money, the provinces must come up with specific plans showing how they would spend it and how they would prove to Canadians that their health-care systems are getting better.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Feb. 24, 2023.

The Canadian Press

One fish, two fish, red fish, dead fish? Feds fail to disclose Coastal GasLink data on salmon eggs, habitat


Fri, February 24, 2023 

Shannon McPhail said she felt like the “world’s biggest schmuck” after reading an email from a senior official at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The official told her it was “impossible to confirm” how many living salmon eggs were in the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline at a major river crossing.

With wild salmon populations in decline throughout the watershed, McPhail wanted to know what the government agency is doing to ensure eggs laid in the path of the pipeline aren’t harmed — and she wanted data.

But the federal department wasn’t telling her everything it knew.

The government message, sent via email in early December, addressed a list of detailed questions McPhail, co-founder of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, had sent more than a month prior. To draft its reply, the fisheries agency, commonly called DFO, asked Coastal GasLink (CGL) to look over the questions, according to documents obtained by The Narwhal through freedom of information legislation.

A Coastal GasLink contractor promptly replied. To the question of how many eggs were in Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) on Wet’suwet’en territory, where the company started drilling a large tunnel under the river in September, the pipeline worker was forthright: “Oodles.”

“But following DFO’s blasting guidelines we will assume only [spawning beds] within 150 metres of the tunnel path have the potential to be impacted by vibrations,” the contractor, whose name was redacted in the released documents wrote in a Nov. 17 email. “A conservative estimate of coho eggs in the gravels within 150 metres of the tunnel path [is] 273,000.”

McPhail was stunned into silence when she learned the government agency had not disclosed the information.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” she blurted out on a phone call with The Narwhal. “They were gaslighting me. This just blows my mind. I have been pushing so hard for so long trying to find out this information, which I felt was a reasonable request based on reasonable concerns. And they purposely withheld that information.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not reply to questions about the details of the released documents prior to publication.

According to TC Energy, the Alberta-based pipeline operator that is building Coastal GasLink, drilling under the river at a depth of more than 11 metres below the riverbed won’t disturb salmon eggs. Provincial and federal regulators told The Narwhal the same — but declined to share details of the evidence it reviewed about potential impacts of the drilling. McPhail’s questions included a request to see spawning surveys, which Coastal GasLink provided to fisheries officials, according to the newly released documents. The federal department did not share those surveys with McPhail.

“When the pipeline company is being forthcoming with the data but the regulators are not, that’s a pretty significant red flag,” she said. “I can’t even believe this level of willful negligence and gaslighting and withholding of information. This, to me, is criminal and they need to be held accountable.”

Brad Fanos, director of the federal government’s Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, told McPhail the department couldn’t confirm how many eggs were in the river because it would depend on fish species, numbers of successful spawners, size of the females and how many natural mortalities had occurred during the run. Fanos also echoed the pipeline company’s claims the work would not impact salmon eggs.

“There is no reason to believe any of the incubating eggs are being impacted by the directional drill beneath the Morice River,” he wrote, adding that monitoring had not picked up any indication of “physical or behavioural impacts” to fish or spawning beds at the site.

The exact wording Fanos would use in his email to McPhail was being discussed internally just two hours after the department received information from Coastal GasLink, according to the records. But it would take another 19 days before the department sent its response.

Eric Hertz, an analyst with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, said it’s “technically true” Fisheries and Oceans Canada wouldn’t be able to confirm the exact number of eggs, but he didn’t understand why the department wasn’t willing to share Coastal GasLink’s data.

“They were provided an estimate from industry so it is surprising that they weren’t able to pass that along — or they chose not to pass that along,” he said, adding he shares concerns about the lack of transparency.

While Coastal GasLink noted a conservative estimate of 273,000 coho eggs, the actual number of salmon at risk could be much higher. In the email to fisheries officials, the pipeline contractor noted individual females can lay between 2,000 and 7,000 eggs per clutch. And coho isn’t the only species that spawns in the river. According to the industry survey, the pipeline crossing is home to 13 fish species considered by a Coastal GasLink consultant to be of concern, including bull trout, lamprey, steelhead, mountain whitefish and all five species of Pacific salmon.

Wet’suwet’en fish and wildlife inspectors have rarely been able to monitor construction. Coastal GasLink has blocked access to worksites and told chiefs and their supporters they would be arrested if they ignored the warnings. TC Energy told the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, an administrative body that operates on behalf of the Hereditary Chiefs, that anyone wanting access to sites needs to give 24 hours notice and arrange to have private security accompany them, according to Wet’suwet’en fisheries officials.

Hereditary Chief Na’moks said if the federal fisheries officers have data, it’s vital the public has access to that information.

“They are there to protect salmon and fish species,” he told The Narwhal in an interview. When data is “smothered” people are led to believe construction of the pipeline isn’t damaging the environment, he said, accusing government officials of “just spreading pixie dust on the territory” by creating an impression that “everything’s fine and dandy.”

Coastal GasLink also told federal officials in an email sent in November that they were looking at installing vibration monitors, but neither the company nor the department confirmed whether it followed through on that plan.

“We have the spawning areas mapped so we can place the monitors in the best sampling location and avoid disturbing any redds,” a Coastal GasLink contractor wrote in the email.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the company was doing this in response to “ongoing public concerns” but did not confirm whether it had verified information it was receiving from the company.

“Through conversations with CGL, DFO understands that vibration monitoring along the drill path was conducted on both the east and west sides of the river using geophones that were positioned outside of the wetted stream to avoid any potential disturbance to [spawning beds],” a spokesperson with the department told The Narwhal.

Coastal GasLink’s email noted “environmental inspectors visit the location daily to inspect for compliance with permitting conditions” and industry biologists have been monitoring water quality “24/7 since the start of tunnelling works.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not directly answer whether it was involved in inspections or water quality monitoring at the site.

As The Narwhal recently reported, fisheries officers decided in late October to avoid monitoring in areas they considered “tense locations” due to perceived conflict between land defenders, police and pipeline workers. Internal government messages revealed that federal enforcement officers used vandalism as an excuse not to do required inspections.

Walter Joseph, fisheries manager with the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, said his experience working with fisheries officers has been positive and habitat issues or concerns have been handled appropriately. But he said monitoring is challenging.

“From what I’ve seen with their working with CGL is that local helicopter companies have a lot of business with CGL, and are reluctant to endanger their work by having DFO fly low over their site,” he told The Narwhal in an email. “When they do so, CGL calls the helicopter base to complain.” Joseph said pipeline workers stopped by the office in Smithers to complain after he flew over construction sites near the river crossing.

The federal agency confirmed the river system provides vital habitat for numerous fish species but did not directly answer whether fisheries officers were keeping an eye on the crossing on the ground or from above.

“Morice River is considered important fish habitat and supports spawning of a number of salmonid species in proximity to the pipeline crossing site,” the spokesperson said. “Because of this sensitivity, DFO recommended that instream works be avoided at this location.”

“The regulator’s interpretation is that the absence of any evidence that there could be an impact is the evidence,” Hertz said. “There could be an impact but they don’t want to think about that.”

“Given the importance of salmon in the Skeena and elsewhere in the province, having an independent body to ensure that works are being done in the most appropriate way for salmon is important,” he added. “It’s concerning that DFO is relying on these companies to report on themselves.”

Between federal and provincial investments, more than $900 million has been allocated to Pacific salmon conservation initiatives in the last four years alone, including a sockeye recovery program in Wedzin Kwa, which supports a third of the watershed’s Chinook salmon. As populations throughout the region continue to slip further on a decades-long decline, anything that could harm fish or fish habitat — from illegal poaching to major industrial projects — runs a gauntlet of legislation and regulations put in place to prevent species from going extinct.

It’s all based on a dizzying array of data: years of field studies, comprehensive climate change modelling, water chemistry calculations, collaboration with First Nations, academics and industry and much more. There’s a complex network of officials overseeing the laws and regulations meant to keep people and companies in check. Conservation officers float the rivers to check sport fishers’ licences while compliance and enforcement authorities drop out of the sky in helicopters to make sure heavy equipment operators are keeping their machines from leaking toxins into fish-bearing streams.

At 670 kilometres, the Coastal GasLink pipeline is roughly equal to the distance between Vancouver and Calgary. The path crosses the northern Rocky Mountains, spans vast stretches of forests pockmarked by decades of clearcutting, rises back up into the glacier-capped Coast Mountains and finally drops down to meet the Pacific Ocean. Building the gas pipeline through all this terrain means crossing more than 700 creeks and rivers.

Despite the international scope of the project — getting fracked gas from massive shale deposits in B.C.’s northeast to buyers in Asia on behalf of a consortium of foreign-controlled corporations — oversight of the pipeline is primarily handled by provincial regulators. That’s because construction is taking place within provincial borders.

The main watchdogs are the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission (which quietly announced it is changing its name and expanding its regulatory responsibilities last October) and the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.

Since starting construction in 2019, Coastal GasLink has continually struggled to prevent sediment from entering wetlands, lakes and rivers. Sediment reduces available oxygen in fish habitat and can suffocate fish in large amounts. For its failures, the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office has issued dozens of rebukes and fined the company more than $450,000 for infractions. Yet the company still struggles to control the issue and cited it as one of the reasons for skyrocketing costs — on Feb. 1, TC Energy announced the pipeline now had an revised price tag of $14.5 billion, more than double its original estimate.

“This project is a boondoggle,” McPhail said. “It’s a boondoggle for the province, for the feds and for Coastal GasLink.”

Officials at Environment and Climate Change Canada can step in if the project is in violation of federal legislation.

“As the issue is currently in relation to the erosion of a wetland and fish habitat, but does not concern the release of deleterious substances into fish-bearing waters, [Environment and Climate Change Canada’s] enforcement branch has not been involved in this matter,” a department spokesperson told The Narwhal in an email. It later added in a follow-up response that the deposit of deleterious substances could include sediment in certain circumstances.

“Eggs and anything in the gravel would be a big concern,” Hertz said. “A fry or smolt has some ability to move and find areas that are less turbid, but for a fish that’s developing and in the gravel, you’re kind of stuck with where you were laid.”

Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, a Gidimt’en clan wing chief, noted neither provincial nor federal governments have jurisdiction over Wet’suwet’en lands and waters. In 1997, a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case affirmed the nation had never given up its Rights and Title to the 22,000 square kilometre territory.

But she said Canada still has a duty to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“The federal government has responsibilities to us, as Indigenous people. I’m not saying they have jurisdiction, but they have legal responsibilities to Indigenous people. The same goes for DFO.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada told The Narwhal it typically stays out of B.C. processes but monitors “provincial project decisions and focuses on any related Fisheries Act or Species at Risk Act regulatory decisions.”

Yet, according to internal documents the federal agency appears to be in regular contact with Coastal GasLink and conducts periodic inspections of worksites.

In October, for example, the pipeline company reached out to a fisheries protection biologist with the department for permission to work in a fish-bearing stream on Wet’suwet’en territory outside of a prescribed “least-risk” window. Coastal GasLink is also required to file regular reports and keep the department up to speed on any negative impacts to habitat.

“The fact that they’ve been involved without anybody knowing seems a little suspicious to me,” Wickham said. “They’ve said nothing, they haven’t supported us in any way to find out information, to find out accountability processes — that’s critical information that we need in order to protect our territory and our fish and our water. Why are they hiding the fact that they’ve been involved this whole time? If anything, you would think that they would be transparent about it to prove that they’re doing their job.”

With so many government agencies involved, it’s hard to know who to turn to for answers. McPhail said figuring out which agency has jurisdiction over various conservation issues has been a major source of frustration. Prior to sending her first lengthy email to provincial and federal regulators, she said she spent weeks trying to connect with regulators on phone calls.

“We get these responses that don’t include answers to the questions, that are completely trying to dodge responsibility and, in some cases, are outright misleading or outdated information that presents a reality that doesn’t exist.”

When it comes to how and when the various government regulators talk to each other, things get murkier.

The federal Fisheries Department said it has been coordinating with B.C. “on specific issues related to their project monitoring that intersects with DFO’s mandate, and vice versa.”

But both the federal and provincial governments responded to The Narwhal’s freedom of information requests by saying they had no records of communications between the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office and federal fisheries officers between Sept. 1 and Nov. 24, 2022, when Coastal GasLink was conducting major work crossing salmon rivers and tributaries and the pipeline company continued to struggle with erosion and sediment control issues.

A spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy confirmed it was not in contact with the federal agency about the pipeline during the period, noting the environmental assessment office takes a backseat to the federal department and the energy regulator for “instream works and crossings.”

“It is a cross-jurisdictional issue with a number of federal and provincial agencies involved in regulating both potential causes of fish habitat impact and the potential impact itself,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. They added that the province didn’t detect any instances of non-compliance that required inter-agency communication during the fall months.

“These agencies are aware of each other’s mandate and which agency is the best-placed regulator to respond to an incident or to ensure compliance with habitat-protection requirements.”

In a similar request for communications between B.C.’s assessment office and the provincial energy regulator, The Narwhal was told “no records were located.”

Hertz said it’s not surprising there is confusion.

“Having so many different entities involved, I think, is a recipe for issues like this to come up,” he said. “Who is supposed to be keeping track of what? It seems troubling.”

To McPhail, the best bet to protect salmon lies with the pipeline workers.

“There are a lot of people who are out there trying to make a good honest living for themselves and for their families,” she said. “I want to empower those people to be our eyes and ears out there, because our regulators are not. We need the local people who are working on this pipeline to keep working it — that’s exactly who we want out there. And if they see something, we need them to say something because the regulators, both provincially and federally, aren’t doing it.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

A 3D Printer Isn’t Cool. You Know What’s Cool? A 3D-Printing Factory

A startup founded by SpaceX veterans aims to realize the potential of a technology whose big promises have never quite come through.

Freeform Future co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Erik Palitsch 

watches one of the company’s 3D printers in operation.

By Ashlee Vance
February 1, 2023 

Since it first began to receive mainstream attention about 15 years ago, 3D printing has had a magical air to it, holding out the promise of turning every home into a miniature manufacturing hub while simultaneously upending the way industrial-scale factories operate. But 3D printers—which create objects by layering materials according to a plan sent by a computer—have gained a reputation for being unwieldy, expensive and slow. The utopian dream of the printers becoming a household appliance as ubiquitous as the personal computer has largely faded.

There has been more progress on industrial uses, although there, too, major players have fallen into a multiyear funk. Venture capitalists continue to dedicate significant resources to startups promising innovations to fix the technology’s underlying flaws. One particularly radical approach comes from Freeform Future Corp., a five-year-old startup based in Los Angeles. The company has raised $45 million so far from investors including Founders Fund, Threshold Ventures and Valor Equity Partners.

Instead of trying to build a single machine that can print three-dimensional objects, Freeform is looking to turn entire buildings into automated 3D-printing factories that would use dozens of lasers to create rocket engine chambers or car parts from metal powder. The company, which has never before discussed its approach publicly, says the technique could allow it to make metal parts 25 to 50 times faster than is possible with current methods and at a fraction of the cost.

Staff engineer Rueben Mendelsberg observes a 3D printer starting up at Freeform Future’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Freeform’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Erik Palitsch, spent a 10-year stint at Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Elon Musk’s aerospace company. SpaceX has famously pushed the limits of 3D printing in its rocket engines, and Palitsch led a number of its highest-profile engine development programs. But he says both he and Musk knew the existing 3D printers were inadequate for the company’s most ambitious efforts. “When we told Elon how much the machines would cost for some of our new projects, he nearly lost his mind,” says Palitsch. “And it always took an army of people to operate them.”

Venture Funding to 3D-Printing Companies
Source: Crunchbase

In late 2018, Palitsch and fellow SpaceX veteran Thomas Ronacher started Freeform, hoping to rewrite some of the fundamentals of 3D printing. Typically, an object or a few objects are printed at the same time inside a shed-size machine. While it can make just about anything, the amount of work this kind of printer can do is limited by its size and its printing area.

Chief Scientific Officer Tasso Lappas oversees Freeform Future’s 

3D-printing process from the control room at company headquarters.


Freeform, on the other hand, is creating machines that can fill a warehouse. Its current factory, in Hawthorne, California, used to serve as Keanu Reeves’s motorcycle storage facility. (Freeform still ends up with some of the actor’s mail.) Inside, machines shuffle objects back and forth along rapidly moving conveyors, so the system can work on many things at once. Other companies have set up multiple printers in a single facility, but this strategy doesn’t improve their speed, it just increases scale by having them work in parallel. Freeform, by contrast, is redesigning the process by which 3D printing can turn raw materials into finished products. In a sense, it’s akin to the establishment of the assembly-line process pioneered by 20th century industrialists like Henry Ford. “We have to achieve a state of mass production to open this up to more industries,” says Palitsch. “And you simply can’t get there with a conventional machine.”


Freeform’s backers are focused on the industrial realm rather than home-based production. “The main thing they will be able to do is get the price of this down to where it’s more like automotive manufacturing costs instead of aerospace costs,” says Tom Mueller, who led SpaceX’s engine development for many years and is an angel investor in Freeform. “They also just get the printing speed up by a huge amount.”

A layer of metal powder being fused.

3D printers create objects from a range of materials, including plastics and metal. Freeform specializes in the latter, using a well-known approach where a laser fires onto a bed of metal powder to fuse it into specific shapes. A new layer of powder is then applied, and the laser fires again, and again.


A typical 3D printer today might have two to four lasers and concentrate them on a single metal plate where it builds objects. The lasers hit the metal powder, then cease firing while a new layer of metal powder is placed on the plate before firing again. A limiting factor is the rate at which metal and plastic melt and fuse. Typically, the printer has to take breaks because it also gets too hot. Companies consider it a success if a 3D printer is operating 60% of the time.

Lead electrical engineer Dennis Ren manages cables connected to the lasers on top of a 3D printer.


Freeform looks to significantly reduce downtime. It has two parallel conveyor systems lined up with multiple metal plates traveling along them. Its 18 lasers fire nonstop while conveyors move plates in and out of the beams. Tasks like applying fresh metal powder to a plate or polishing the edges of a part take place in other areas of the machine, leaving the lasers to continue doing their work on other objects. A combination of cameras snap images at more than 70,000 frames per second, feeding the data into computer vision algorithms that orchestrate how the lasers fire. Where a standard machine can fuse about 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of metal powder an hour, Palitsch says Freeform does five kilograms an hour now and will do even more soon with new versions of its technology.

Palitsch


While the extra speed and lower price are bonuses, the real value of Freeform’s system is how it monitors objects during the printing process, according to Nick Doucette, chief operations officer at rocket engine maker Ursa Major Technologies, which has tested Freeform’s technology. 3D-printed parts can have flaws, and customers tend to use antiquated, manual practices to check how strong and solid the final objects are. Freeform uses its host of sensors, scanners and artificial intelligence software to assess quality and can make adjustments while something is being built. “The usual way we do this is a nightmare of testing samples and tweaking things,” says Doucette. “Freeform just prints something and gives it to me.”

A flow distributor printed by Freeform Future.

As has so often been the case in the industry, Freeform’s current machine has seemingly revolutionary potential but also a short track record and just a few paying customers. It still has a mad scientist prototype quality to it, with all manner of tubes and electronics hanging off its body. Nor is it as big or as automated as the company envisions for more developed products. For the technology to be a real breakthrough, Freeform will have to prove that its machines operate quickly and cheaply enough to open 3D printing to a wide range of new markets and to tackle traditional mass manufacturing head on.

The end goal, says Palitsch, is to have more lasers and more conveyors, adding up to a system of printers that can fill a 100,000-square-foot building. Jobs that typically take weeks will be done in hours, and few, if any, humans will be involved. “It’ll be a fully autonomous printing factory,” Palitsch says.

Photographer: Spencer Lowell for Bloomberg Businessweek