Liberals say they will also announce new protections for oceans, lakes and rivers

Feb 08, 2018

The federal Liberal government says it will streamline the approval process for major natural resources projects, scrapping the National Energy Board and empowering a new body to conduct more extensive consultation with groups affected by development.

The changes are part of the largest overhaul of Canada's environmental assessment process in a generation.

Lost in the heated arguments over Kinder Morgan's proposed Trans Mountain pipeline is this simple fact: more than a quarter of the bitumen flowing through it will end up as pollution spilling into our oceans — one way or the other.

All the bitumen that doesn't spill from pipelines or tankers gets burned, ending up as carbon pollution dumped into our environment. Over one quarter ends up in the oceans, acidifying them for millennia to come.

February 8th

A former senior minister in the Stephen Harper government has come up with a novel argument for forcing British Columbia to accept Kinder Morgan's $7.4-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project.

Jason Kenney, now the leader of Alberta's United Conservative Party, has launched a petition urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to "invoke the 'declaratory power' of the Constitution to declare BC's actions as being against the national interest".

NDP leader argues two provinces would be good neighbours now had the prime minister kept promise to modernize pipeline regulation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bears the blame for the inter-provincial spat between British Columbia and Alberta, says federal New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced Tuesday her province would no longer be importing British Columbian wine through its government liquor agency. The move is reported to be costing B.C. winemakers $70 million in sales.

'If the natural resources minister does threaten to use the army ... that's where this is going to go'

The relationship between the Alberta and B.C. governments has been strained in recent weeks as the two sides battle over a proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

The five companies that own most of the oilsands production in Alberta should come clean with the public about the "enormity" of the costs — adding up to nearly $2 trillion in a worst-case scenario — of their pollution, says a new study.

"The Big Five need to start publicly disclosing their emissions modelling for the sake of transparency and accountability," reads the report, released Wednesday by the Parkland Institute, an Alberta public policy research network based at the University of Alberta.

'The only way we can get any of those things is if we do all 3 of those things together,' PM says

Feb 02, 2018 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to bridge the divide between Alberta and British Columbia on Friday with a vow that climate change and spill protection programs won't go ahead unless the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion is built. 

It's naive to think that reducing carbon emissions is costless, writes Thomas Walkom.

The latest pipeline faceoff between Alberta and British Columbia is more than a constitutional tussle.

It is also a reminder of the unresolved contradictions within Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate-change policy.

More specifically, it is a reminder that the core of that policy — the assertion that carbon emissions can be adequately reduced without significant economic cost — is simply not true.