First the good news:

After spending months ignoring the recommendations put forward by British Columbia's Climate Leadership team, Premier Christy Clark has finally found someone to take charge of this very important file.  

May 19, 2016 4:19PM EDT - The National Energy Board has conditionally approved the $6.8-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.

The regulator said Thursday that Kinder Morgan Canada Inc.’s Trans Mountain project must meet 157 conditions.

“These conditions would address issues such as safety, protection of the environment and other considerations,” the NEB said in a 533-page report. The conditions address areas such as engineering, safety, the environment, socio-economic issues and emergency management.

For all the political noise coming from municipalities and provinces in opposition to various pipeline projects, in reality they may lack any legal leverage to stop the projects or insist on conditions.

13 May 2016 - At the end of the day the $10-billion wildfire that consumed 2400 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray may be the least of the region's problems.

If you’re trying to figure out how Alberta’s already hurting budget is going to get battered by the Fort McMurray wildfires, don’t get too bogged down in the reports of massive losses in oil production shutdowns. You’re better off keeping an eye on the way the oil price responds to the drama playing out in the Alberta oil patch.

Canada’s symbolic signing of the Paris climate agreements Friday was a hopeful and necessary step. Yet symbolism and rhetoric need to be followed by urgent action here at home if we are serious about avoiding a catastrophic four to six degrees Celsius of warming.

Pipelines and fracked gas are not the pathway to Paris solutions; they are the path to increased wildfires, water shortages and other increasingly unmanageable climate impacts.

[Note: Details of training for the event:Training will take place at Cates Park in North Vancouver on Friday, May 13. The actions will be the following day.

TAKE NOTE - TRAINING FOR THOSE IN BOATS IS MANDATORY because of obvious safety and coordination considerations. Register at the website that is the last thing in the article below. Training sessions will start about 4:30 p.m. at Cates Park. There will be two or three of them, so go to the website and get more details.

Unseasonably dry and hot weather in Fort McMurray, northern Alberta has inflicted disaster on the city.