Canada

Canada's North is already experiencing significant impacts due to climate change. In Nunavut changes to sea ice cover threatens traditional hunting routes. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

As Canada’s first ministers prepare to meet next month to discuss a national climate plan, a new report from the Yukon shows the toll climate change is taking on the North.

February 11, 2016

Open Letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

There’s nothing clean about the Site C dam:

Canadian organizations condemn Peace River hydroelectric mega-project for human rights violations

Dear Prime Minister,

Burnaby residents could “suffer extreme consequences” if a major earthquake were to hit the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tank farm, according to a group of local citizens against the pipeline expansion.

Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE) presented its final argument to the three-person National Energy Board panel on Thursday, at the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre. 

“A major earthquake in this region is not a remote possibility,” said BROKE’s lawyer Neil Chantler. “It’s not a question of if, but when.”

Canada’s late biennial climate change accountability report came out this morning, projecting increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

TransCanada Corp put “substandard materials” — made by Quebec manufacturing company, Ezeflow — in an Alberta natural gas pipeline that blew up in 2013, Canada’s pipeline regulator said on Friday as it finally responded to a four-year old warning from a whistleblower with a new industry-wide safety order.

I have two Canadian updates this week. The first is from Nora Loreto on what’s happening in Quebec after the fall’s anti-austerity strikes. Nora is a Quebec City-based journalist and labour activist. She gives an account not only of what happened during the strikes in Quebec, but also what to expect in their wake (see the previous podcast, from just before this strike wave, here).

...Today, the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU) signed a Solidarity Accord affirming its support for the Save the Fraser Declaration, an Indigenous law signed by representatives of well over 100 First Nations banning tar sands transp

The campaign to get the University of British Columbia to stop investing in fossil fuel companies will push forward even after the board committee voted against divesting, organizers say.

UBC's finance committee on Wednesday rejected a student and faculty-supported proposal to divest its $1.46-billion endowment fund of fossil fuel investments. About $85 million of that is invested in the energy sector.

"The campaign is not going to stop until they divest," said Alex Hemingway, a UBC PhD student and divestment coordinator.

Fastest way to transition Canada to a green economy? Quit the giveaways.