ST. JOHN’S—After a “vigorous” debate, the nation’s premiers have finalized a Canadian Energy Strategy that tries to balance tackling climate change with safely getting fossil fuels to market.
“It’s a huge step forward,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told the Star in an interview here Friday at the Council of the Federation meeting.
Her comments came after the 13 provincial and territorial leaders unveiled the 35-page strategy that mentions “greenhouse gas” 24 times, “climate change” 20 times, “oil” 11 times, and “natural gas” and “pipelines” four times each.
Dissent: Green MLA Andrew Weaver is less reticent, accusing government of ‘selling out the next generation’ through deal with Petronas.
After all the buildup for the special summer session of the legislature, the key debate on the B.C. Liberal government’s controversial liquefied natural gas agreement came and went in short order this week.
Bill 30, the LNG Project Agreements Act, passed second reading, the stage where MLAs debate the merits in principle of a piece of legislation, after just three days on the order paper.
Inside the earthquake surge at the epicentre of Canada’s fracking boom With dirty pickup trucks in nearly every driveway, advertisements for energy service companies hanging at the local baseball diamond and work camps scattered nearby, Fox Creek cannot hide the fact it is a one-industry town.
Wade Davis is an anthropology professor and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Tom Rafael is a retired lawyer. Both live on Bowen Island, at the mouth of Howe Sound.
Bill 30 was introduced into the BC Legislature on July 13, 2015. An explanatory note in the Bill reports that it "authorizes the Minister of Finance to enter into LNG project agreements to indemnify persons from costs incurred as a result of specified legislative or program changes."
Babes in the woods. Sitting ducks. Easy prey. Fish in a barrel.
All idioms that apply to those who dare to outbluff Big Oil, convinced that they are too shrewd to get burned and too gifted to get taken. The industry lives for such hapless victims.
Temperatures are soaring, the province is on fire and Premier Christy Clark has called a rare summer sitting of the legislature.
One hopes our government would call an emergency sitting to address the health and economic crisis facing B.C. communities as a result of climate change-induced water shortages and wildfire.
Photo: Demonstrators took to the land and sea last week to protest the prospect of an LNG plant near Squamish. (Photo by Tim Turner.)
When Christy Clark ran for election in 2013, she promised that developing B.C.’s liquefied natural gas industry would help pay off provincial debt, and in time, generate 100,000 jobs and $1 trillion in economic activity.
Last month, her government announced a rare summer recall of the legislature to pass a law that would enable the province’s first LNG project, a special session that began today.
The Project Development Agreement between the BC Government and the (Petronas-led) Pacific North West LNG LP was released to the public on July 6 at: http://ow.ly/PfXxd .
