British Columbia

Energy

Indigenous Peoples

BC Finally Terminates Environmental Assessment for Raven Coal Mine

07/04/16

Link:

Wilderness Committee

VICTORIA – The Wilderness Committee is celebrating an announcement by the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) late yesterday afternoon, which terminated the assessment for the proposed Raven Coal Mine in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island.

Category:

Canada

Coal

Beijing's Long Game in the Oil Sands

04/04/16

Author:

Kai Nagata

Link:

Blogwood

Beijing has high hopes for the new Trudeau government.

On October 20th, 2015, Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau received a congratulatory call from China’s ambassador Luo Zhaohui. The next day, the state-run China Daily newspaper celebrated “improved prospects for a Free Trade Agreement with China” under Canada’s new Liberal government. A week later Premier Li Keqiang himself picked up the phone.

Category:

Woman’s hunger strike draws attention to Site C dam project protest

04/04/16

Author:

Mark Hume

Link:

The Globe and Mail

A flotilla of canoes make their way down the Peace River near Fort St. John, B.C. during the 10th Annual Paddle for the Peace to protest the Site C Dam project. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)

Kristin Henry and her supporters wanted media attention for their protest against the controversial Site C dam project, and at Day 19 of her hunger strike, they got it.

But it came at a heavy cost: Ms. Henry was admitted to hospital because her heart rate had fallen dangerously low.

Category:

Energy

Protest - Revolt

Site C hunger-striker condemns Christy Clark hours before hospitalization

02/04/16

Author:

Elizabeth McSheffrey

Link:

National Observer

Site C protester Kristin Henry has been camped outside BC Hydro's office in downtown Vancouver since March 13, 2016, with little more than tea to keep her going. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark "will have blood on her hands" if she continues to move forward with the Site C Dam, said protester Kristin Henry on the 19th day of her hunger strike against the controversial hydroelectric project.

Category:

Energy

Protest - Revolt

Indigenous water laws may impact pipeline and mining projects

01/04/16

Author:

Gordon Hoekstra,

Link:

The Vancouver Sun

March 29, 2016 -- George George Sr., whose Nadleh Whut'en hereditary leadership name is Yutunayeh, signs a water policy declaration that covers the traditional territory of his First Nation and that of the Stellat'en. Nadleh Whut'en chief Martin Louie looks on.

The hereditary leaders of two northern B.C. First Nations proclaimed the first traditional aboriginal water laws in the province, which could have implications for industrial development including mining and LNG pipeline projects.

Category:

Indigenous Peoples

Woodfibre named B.C. LNG plan most-likely to move forward

01/04/16

Author:

Brent Jang

Link:

The Globe and Mail

The number of proposals in serious contention to export liquefied natural gas from British Columbia has dwindled to four, down from a dozen viable plans in the fall of 2014, a new study concludes.

Trade publication World Gas Intelligence said the player with the best chance of forging ahead is Woodfibre LNG, a small-scale project near Squamish, 65 kilometres north of Vancouver.

Category:

Was Massey bridge project in Vancouver motivated by LNG?

31/03/16

Link:

Steve Rees blog

[Webpage editor's note: It has long been suspected that one motivation for the proposed 10 lane bridge to replace the currrent 4 lane Massey tunnel under the Fraser River in Metro Vancouver was to enable larger ships to sail up and down the river (the tunnel limits a deeper river channel). Steve Ree's blog provides some evidence regarding LNG carriers.]

Category:

Urban

90 per cent of seismic activity in B.C.-Alberta region linked to fracking: Study

31/03/16

Author:

Dan Fumano

Link:

The Vancouver Sun

Protesters erected a 15-foot fracking rig last November in front of B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s Vancouver home. A new report, set to be published in the journal of the Seismological Society of America, examines an area straddling the B.C.-Alberta border and finds that between 90 and 95 per cent of seismic activity Magnitude 3 or larger in the last five years was caused by activity connected to hydraulic fracturing, widely known as "fracking."

Category:

First Nations Vow Fight Against Site C Dam in BC After Setback

31/03/16

Author:

Daniel Mesec

Link:

Indian Country Today

Artist rendering of B.C. Hydro's Site C dam, which would flood sacred Treaty 8 lands in the Peace River Valley in British Columbia.

From atop a ridge overlooking the Peace River Valley, rolling hills speckled with swaths of prairie lands cover the horizon far into the distance. It’s an area known for its rich soils and flowing grasses, prime agricultural lands that are quickly disappearing.

For the past few months this bountiful range has undergone a transformation that will see it changed forever. This is the location of the British Columbian government’s cherished Site C dam, a massive hydroelectric project in the midst of preparatory construction in the heart of the Peace River Valley.