Shipments of crude oil by rail are steaming forward in B.C. even as investigators said Thursday the federal government has failed to eliminate "critical weaknesses" in the rail system in the six months since the deadly Lac-Mégantic train disaster. Officials from the Transportation Safety Board delivered this warning as they jointly issued "critical" safety recommendations in partnership with the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board.
The mayor of the Vancouver region municipality of Burnaby speaks out against the environmental review process of the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks coal export terminal.--website editors
Many of us think of B.C.’s forests as important carbon sinks, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and helping mitigate climate change. However, according to new provincial data quietly released on a government website, B.C. forests are now approaching a full decade as a carbon source rather than a carbon sink.
Although British Columbia is covered by some of the most productive carbon-storing forest ecosystems on the planet, B.C. forests have been releasing more carbon than they sequester since 2003.
This month, provincial MLAs are preparing for the upcoming legislative session, in which they will debate rules for carbon pollution and taxes for liquefied natural gas (LNG) development. The connection between LNG development and carbon pollution is significant. And just how the government chooses to manage both issues will have serious long-term implications, for the province and the country. Last year, Minister of Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman was asked on CBC's Early Edition what B.C.'s LNG plans could mean for the province's climate targets.
“It was a good starting point because I saw Enbridge coming…like, four or five years ago,” Williams said about his involvement in New Brunswick. “I was talking about it with people, and people were, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s not going to go through; that’s not going to go through.’ But now they’ve got the green light.…It’s only a matter of time.”
Concerns are being raised about reports that former Conservative MP Chuck Strahl, who now oversees Canada's spy agency, is lobbying for Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.
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Strahl - who is also director and chair of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, which is dedicated to building Canada's conservative movement - couldn't be reached for comment on the matter Monday by The Vancouver Sun.
Strahl faced conflict of interest allegations this week from the NDP after the Vancouver Observer reported he registered on Dec. 6, 2013, to lobby the British Columbia government on behalf of Enbridge, which is behind the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project to move Alberta tar sands oil to the B.C. coast.
Resource development projects offer First Nations “an unprecedented opportunity” to gain economic benefits and resolve social issues in their communities, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during an informal discussion at the Vancouver Board of Trade Monday. Harper, in response to questions from board of trade CEO Iain Black, vowed that his government would not approve pipeline projects “unless they meet the highest standards of environmental protection.” Ottawa will also live up to its constitutional obligation to consult with First Nations on resource development, he said.
