Article by Crawford Kilian at The Tyee. "Dr. [Kristi] Miller, a DFO scientist, published an article in the U.S. journal Science last January. She was trying to identify reasons why so many salmon die in the rivers just before spawning -- a phenomenon called prespawn mortality... [Her] testimony in August may help clarify the specific causes of the 2009 Fraser sockeye collapse. But DFO's credibility, never high since the destruction of the cod fishery, is in danger of collapsing like the 2009 Fraser sockeye run." Read article

From TheTyee.ca - May 3, 2011

by Tyee Staff & Contributors

HURRAY! TO THE LIFEBOATS!
Colleen Kimmett

"It's like winning bingo on the Titanic," said my fellow election viewer Mitch Anderson, referring to Elizabeth May's win and Jack Layton's minority in the wake of a Harper majority this evening.

Watching the election results roll in with a handful of others in Anderson's apartment in East Vancouver felt indeed like a historic event, even Titanic in the realm of Canadian politics. The Bloc Quebecois is virtually dissolved, its leader resigned, and the Liberal party is, as Peter Mansbridge put it, "near destruction."

What it signifies for the future of Canada is less certain. While some in the room tried to look on the bright side -- this election is a historic first for both the New Democratic and Green parties -- other were worried that, like the fated ship, their Canada is sinking into a deep, dark place. Especially the artists, women and homosexuals.

Jack Layton has a big job ahead of him, but I think he could unite progressives in this country to defeat the Conservatives in the next election. Working with his new Quebecois cabinet will be a challenge, but perhaps the bigger challenge will be breaking through to those who don't identify with either French or English speaking Canada. A victorious Conservative MP Jason Kenney told the CBC's Terry Milewski that internal party polling showed the new Canadian vote, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, was a hugely important to the Conservatives' win.

I am an optimist. When there is a growing chorus for change there will be equal push for things to remain constant. I predict the next four years will be a polarizing, but interesting period in Canadian politics.

Colleen Kimmett writes about food and environment for The Tyee and others.

HARPER CAN REALLY DO THE SPLITS
Charles Campbell

The biggest loser this election night is not Michael Ignatieff or his Liberal party. It is the Canadian electorate. As British Columbians should know rather well, the biggest determinant in the outcome of many Canadian elections is which side of the political spectrum splits its vote. In all but one of the last six elections, the Conservative or Reform/Conservative vote has fallen within two points of 38 per cent. The only true majority tonight is the 60 per cent of Canadians who didn't get a government they supported at the ballot box.

What happened to make this so? Of course it began with that loveless marriage eight years ago of the two parties to the right. Quebec yet again revealed its uncanny ability to vote with one collective mind. Prime Minister Stephen Harper showed remarkable skill in framing issues his way. The Liberals received the final payback for decades of arrogance and, as Jack Layton so resonantly put it during the English debate, sense of entitlement. Finally, the difference in tone of the NDP and Liberal campaign ads revealed that Canadians are more easily swayed by comedy than scare tactics.

And while the prognosticators and heir apparent Bob Rae try and sort out the Liberals' future, the rest of us can now go home for four whole years, thankful we don't have to face an election we don't want. Right?

Charles Campbell is a Tyee contributing editor.

WE MAY RUE THE BLOC COLLAPSE
Rafe Mair

There are a great many enormous questions to be asked and answered. It would be foolish to think that Quebec separatism has ended and indeed I would argue that the extent of the BQ loss was bad news. While they were in Ottawa in some numbers, separatism could be handled by dealing with the BQ across the floor. Now it is leaderless even though their twin, the PQ, seems poised to win Quebec provincially. It is as I said in a speech some years ago: "If there were not a Bloc Quebecois we would have to invent one."

 Separatism will be different in Quebec. Although Stephen Harper has representation, sovereignists will be looking at Jack Layton to express their ambitions and he won't do so. Prime Minister Harper will use the public purse as best he can as is traditional, but I foresee a great deal of ferment ahead.

Separatism has always been a political force in Quebec and, like poison ivy, its venom waxes and wanes with the moment. The target of the next incarnation of separatism will be what Jacques inelegantly called the "ethnics." This has been going on but the pressure will increase once the Bloc and PQ sort out, in a blood bath, who will lead what and where. They can count and know that separation needs these "ethnics."

British Columbia will be an interesting study. I think many British Columbians, much like Albertans, have shrunk from voting NDP because they were seen as a party of labour leaders, professors and what my father would call "parlor pinks." Layton, now at least officially leading the "government in waiting," has the opportunity to gain for the NDP the traditional slightly leftish voter who once voted Liberal or Red Tory.

Former Socred minister Rafe Mair's column runs every other Monday in The Tyee.

Read full article

From The Tyee - April 11, 2011

by Christopher Pollon

The demolition and removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts could begin in as little as five years, opening a wide swath of virgin land to public space and development -- and forming the eastern core of Vancouver's new 21st-century downtown.

The early results of a feasibility study unveiled Friday, April 7 at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre show that three "viaduct removal concepts" are currently being considered by the City of Vancouver, ranging from removing 20 per cent of the structures in five years to complete removal in 20 years.

The viaducts, which connect Vancouver's eastside to the downtown via raised concrete "bridges," are the only major pieces of Vancouver's abandoned 1970s freeway design ever built -- a plan that would have destroyed much of present-day Strathcona and Chinatown. At the time, a funding shortfall and an extremely effective grassroots protest ensured that the rest of Vancouver's freeway vision never materialized.

Now almost 40 years old, the viaducts have created an unusual opportunity, one which has city planners and developers collectively salivating: land equivalent to about five city blocks underlies the structures, which would reappear as if by magic if the viaducts disappear.

"Let's make a bold decision to get rid of the viaducts," said Vancouver's visionary former co-director of planning, Larry Beasley, one of five speakers at the capacity-filled event presented by SFU's City Program. "Then, convene a great international urban design competition to design the eastern part of the core. Let's decide to design our city."

Read full article

From The Tyee - April 1, 2011

by Andrew McLeod

Even before British Columbia NDP leadership candidates headed into an April 2 debate in Vancouver centred on environmental sustainability, observers were noting the role green issues have had in the campaign.

That role provides a contrast both to the recent BC Liberal leadership race and the NDP's own record in the 2009 election.

"They're talking about issues unprompted by us," said Kevin Washbrook, a Conservation Voters of B.C. board member. "Generally I'd say it has a place of prominence in the race. More so than it did in the Liberal race."

CVBC is evaluating Mike Farnworth, Adrian Dix, John Horgan, Nicholas Simons and Dana Larsen's positions and may or may not endorse anyone, but won't have that ready for at least another week, he said.

The group Organizing for Change put a list of questions to all of the leadership candidates in both the Liberal and the NDP races.

"In the Liberal race it was like pulling teeth to get answers to those questions," said provincial OFC lead Lisa Matthaus. Of the Liberals, just Mike de Jong answered, and he did so at the very end of the campaign, she said.

"With the NDP they've all responded, except for Dana Larsen," Matthaus said. And since responding, they've continued to release environmental positions. "It's interesting to see how much more the NDP is making the environment part of the debate among themselves."

'Huge departure' for NDP: Vicky Husband

All the front runners have picked up the environmental banner, said long time environmentalist Vicky Husband, who added she believes John Horgan is the most committed among them.

"We never saw Carole James take a strong stand on an environmental issue," said Husband. Comparing the race to where the NDP was in the last election, she said, "I think it's a huge departure. I think they were on the wrong side, certainly on the carbon tax issue."

While the NDP championed other important environmental issues in the campaign, including re-evaluating run-of-the-river hydro projects, the carbon tax position put them offside with a large part of the environmental community, said Husband, a past conservation chair of the Sierra Club B.C. and a veteran of campaigns to preserve Clayoquot Sound rainforest, the Great Bear rainforest and wild salmon fisheries.

The Pembina Institute's Matt Horne, who was among prominent environmentalists who denounced the NDP's axe-the-tax position in 2009, said the NDP candidates all support keeping the carbon tax, though they would tweak it in various ways to make it work better. "[It] is a significant change from where they were in the last election," he said.

While there's further to go if B.C. is to meet its goals for carbon emission reductions, it's a positive step, he said.

Platform details

John Horgan was the first to release an environmental platform. The Juan de Fuca MLA's long list said he'd expand the carbon tax, invest in transit, pass an Endangered Species Act and protect more old growth forests.

Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth's environmental platform includes keeping a steady amount of land in the Agricultural Land Reserve, moving salmon farms to closed containment, giving local governments more say on significant projects, restricting raw log exports and planting more trees. He'd keep the carbon tax and extend it to industrial emitters, using it to pay for transit and other green initiatives.

Adrian Dix, who represents Vancouver-Kingsway, would use carbon tax revenues for transit and green infrastructure, invest in the park system and protect endangered species and ecosystems. He'd also recreate Environmental Youth Teams to create jobs for young people doing green work.

Read full article

From TheTyee.ca - Match 14, 2011

by Geoff Dembicki

In the hallways and offices of America's capital city, a war is being quietly waged out of view of most Canadians and Americans.

The outcome will decide North America's energy future and its impact on the planet's climate.

The tactics are all the high pressure persuasion and hard-ball politicking that tens of millions of dollars can buy -- many of those dollars contributed by Canadian taxpayers.

The war pits America's largest environmental groups against some of the world's wealthiest corporations and their "allies" in the Canadian and Albertan governments.

The battle line divides two viscerally opposed camps: Those arguing that North America's deepening dependence on Alberta's oil sands industry represents a pragmatic solution to looming energy crises, and those who say relying on oil sands crude marks an irreversible step closer to climate change catastrophe.

The prize, at end of the day, will be votes cast by politicians.

Will Washington's legislators pass laws that have the effect of opening the oil sands spigots wider, assuring that Alberta's bitumen crude increasingly, and permanently, flows into the U.S. market?

Or will they legislate against high carbon emissions fuel sources as a measure to reduce climate change? That could severely constrict the flow of oil sands' output into the U.S., dashing the profit dreams of corporations -- and some Canadian officials -- who have already bet hugely on providing bitumen-derived crude for American consumption.

The Tyee goes to the story

With so much on the line, there has been surprisingly scant coverage of how this battle is being waged and by whom. Until now. Beginning today, The Tyee is publishing The War for the Oil Sands in Washington, an in-depth, multi-part series that begins with three stories this week and many more in the coming weeks.

The reporting comes out of months of research capped by a week spent in Washington late in February, during which I interviewed oil sands lobbyists, environmental advocates and the congressional insiders either side hopes to influence.

What I found was an intense lobbying campaign being waged by each camp, both battling for the sympathies of Congress and the White House administration. The odds are clearly in favour of the oil sands coalition, which holds enormous political influence and has won major legislative victories on several fronts. But the green coalition, especially with Barack Obama in power, has more clout than its limited resources might suggest. 

Read full article

From TheTyee.ca - Feb 23, 2011

by Colleen Kimmett

NDP leadership hopeful Mike Farnworth became the second candidate to release an environmental platform yesterday.

Farnworth's platform promises include:

• Opening all existing IPP power purchasing agreements for public review, and a moratorium on all new IPPs.
• A “no net-loss” policy for the Agricultural Land Reserve in each region and an enhance Buy BC program and BC Food First policy to support local food production.
• The creation of a “blue belt” to protect wild salmon spawning and migration areas and a move to innovative closed containment aquaculture technology.
• Repeal of the Significant Projects Streamlining Act that strips decision-making from local governments.
• A shift of carbon tax revenue to transit and low-carbon green initiatives and inclusion of industrial emitters to pay the tax.

Last week NDP leadership candidate John Horgan released his environmental platform, which touched on many of the same topics. He also promised to continue lobbying for a federal moratorium on coastal tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas drilling.

Today, Horgan issued a press release promising to revive Buy BC, a local food labelling and marketing program which was promised in the Liberal's 2008 agriculture plan but has yet to be implemented. Liberal candidate George Abbott also promised to fund program if elected.

The Wilderness Committee supports the environmental platforms of both Farnworth and Hogan. "I thought they compared very favourably," said its policy director Gwen Barlee. "They're both comprehensive, they're talking about legislative changes, important movement on energy, retaining the carbon tax and moving on climate change in a significant way.

"They set a bar and we hope that other candidates will meet that bar. Because two weeks ago, discussion of the environment was missing in action, not only in the NDP leadership race but also definitely with the Liberal leadership race."

The NDP's environmental support suffered in the 2009 provincial election when then-leader Carole James took an anti-carbon tax position. That move alienated some environmental organizations that had traditionally been on side with NDP policies.

Barlee said she thinks these platforms will help heal that rift. "I think people are sort of saying 'show me the money'. They're looking for leadership on the environment, and I think the environmental community will act accordingly."

Read original article

From the Tyee.ca - Feb 10, 2011

by Colin Campbell and Andrew S. Wright

Ezra Levant's powerful but critically flawed argument re-branding Alberta’s oil sands as "ethical" appears to be re-shaping Canadian public policy as Prime Minister Harper and Environment Minister Peter Kent adopt the catch phrase -- despite both ministers having not read the original work. As the catch phrase "ethical oil" enters the lexicon of Canadian political language, the need for a productive facts-based debate in Canada, a debate leading to real conservation solutions, appears to be more urgent than ever.

This is especially true in British Columbia where candidates in the Liberal party leadership race have systematically failed to embrace discussion of environmental and conservation policies as an integral part of their policy platform offerings.

Critical debate is important because arguments that the oil sands contain almost half the world's total known oil reserves and will therefore ensure world peace, global food and energy supplies for the next half century are dangerously flawed. Current oil sand production of two million barrels a day is technically limited by water availability to approximately a maximum of five million barrels a day, a mere fraction of the world's daily consumption. This misrepresentation promises economic stability yet ignores global (peak) oil supply concerns, the technical upper limit of oil sand production, and climate change. Alberta's oil sands development will not deliver global economic stability in the face of these issues.

Pipelines that import risk

At risk is our often forgotten dependency on the services of healthy natural systems which are as important as economic benefits, and in ignoring this reality the first of many weaknesses of the argument is exposed. In examining the benefits of the proposed Enbridge pipeline to Kitimat, consider the grizzly bear family, photographed in an estuary not 10 kilometres from the proposed west coast tanker route that penetrates the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. This area provides many valuable food-based sustainable jobs in the salmon, halibut and shellfish fisheries. An accident comparable to the Exxon Valdez spill or the Gulf of Mexico eruption in these treacherous waters would render this estuary and the ecosystems that support rich wild fisheries in the region fallow. The "at risk" grizzly family is a metaphor for our own lives. Pipelines in these pristine environments import risk for which there is no insurance -- just the cost of desecration.

Levant's notion of ethical oil involves little more than choosing "to buy oil from nice guys". It comforts us by redirecting our judgment to the dealer and away from the consequences of the deal that we are making. It is not this simple. If an oil source is to be judged as ethical, then the list of considerations made must include its long term greenhouse gas emissions, contributions to ocean acidification, the rate at which a major watershed is made toxic and the cumulative impacts on future generations. We should also consider buying preferentially from nations that use their oil revenues to develop renewable energy sources.

Furthermore the arguments' rudimentary moral appraisal implies no framework in which oil from sources with the lowest carbon footprint are utilized first, their revenues applied to fuel switching strategies, thereby deferring the worst oil for last use (hopefully never). Until means to accurately measure and compare the virtues of oil source A versus oil source B are developed we must ask the question, is it unethical to brand Alberta's oil sands as ethical?

Levant's thesis assumes that we must continue to use oil, ignoring the environmental impacts and offers permission to proceed by establishing the good character of the vendor. This massive (unethical?) distraction is compelling because human nature will seek an honorable reason to avoid resolving a pressing problem and the hard endeavor of seeking progressive solutions.

Read full article

From The Tyee - Jan 27, 2011

by Monte Paulsen

Thirty-two years elapsed between the invention of the Saskatchewan Conservation House and the erection of Austria House in Whistler (structures this series profiled in the previous two stories).

Canada's second certified Passivhaus was completed just a year later. And a dozen more Canadian Passivhaus projects are underway.

Passivhaus buildings -- which include schools, offices, apartments as well as a growing number of renovated structures -- use 90 per cent less energy for heating and cooling than conventionally built buildings. Since buildings consume up to half of all energy in North America, the prospect of a 90 per cent reduction poses what green building advocates believe is the most affordable way to reduce energy costs and slash the emission of greenhouse gasses.

Europe has embraced the idea. The continent already has more than 25,000 Passivhaus certified buildings. And by 2020, every new building in the European Union must be a "near zero energy building." With that shift has come a steep rise in new green construction jobs.

Given that both the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia have committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by 2020, it's worth asking: Is B.C. ready for Passivhaus building codes?

Read article

From TheTyee.ca - Jan 21, 2011

by Andrew MacLeod

Environmental issues were prominent in the 2009 election, with Premier Gordon Campbell's carbon tax giving him claim to the green high ground over the Carole James-led NDP which campaigned to axe a tax many environmentalists supported.

While there are varying opinions on whether those positions made a difference to either side's results, less than two years later none of the candidates to replace Campbell appear ready to pick up the green agenda.

Indeed, there have been few mentions of environmental issues in the Liberal race. Former cabinet minister and recent talk radio host Christy Clark has mentioned the green technology sector and jobs. Others have staked out where they stand on the carbon tax, with Kevin Falcon pledging to freeze it after 2012 and George Abbott saying he would hold a referendum on whether or not to freeze it.

But nobody in the running to be the next premier has really claimed the issue.

As Nathan Cullen, a federal NDP member of parliament who considered entering the race to replace James heading the BC NDP sees it, "The Liberals are running scared away from Campbell's climate change work, some of which needs to be enhanced and continued."

And environmentalists -- some of whom are encouraging people to join the parties and try to sway the campaigns -- are wondering whether there will be anyone to support in the Liberal race.

Read full article

From TheTyee.ca - Jan 14, 2011

Findings counter studies that put bitumen's carbon footprint slightly higher than regular crude.

A report by a major global research group representing the world's 10 largest car buying markets has concluded that Canada's bitumen is one of the world's dirtiest oils due to its poor quality, low gravity and the vast amount of natural gas needed to enrich it.

The study for the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which looked at the carbon intensity of oil from 3,000 fields now supplying European gasoline markets, also concluded that increasing reliance on dirty fuels will raise greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent above that of conventional oils.

The findings of the ICCT, a group that does technical research on the environmental performance of automobiles, contradicts modeling studies funded by the Alberta government and the oil sands industry which claim that bitumen has only a five to 15 per cent higher carbon footprint than conventional crude.

The study calculated the amount of green house gas emissions created by extracting, moving and refining different types of crude oil based on specific characteristics including weight, viscosity, purity, age of the field, leaks and the flaring of waste gases. (About 20 per cent of oil's carbon footprint comes from the production and refining process: the rest comes from cars burning gasoline.)

Read full article