Monthly Archives: February 2021

Its a classic case of better late than never.

This week the provincial government announced 20 sites for designation as parks or protected natural areas, bringing the province barely to its long-held goal of protecting 13 per cent of the provinces land for nature, and for people to connect with and enjoy nature, respectfully.

Its late because Stephen McNeil promised that the goal would be achieved during his first term in office, which ended some 45 months ago.

The announcement, coming in the dying days of McNeils Liberal government, gives his successor a little breathing room, at least on this file.

Liberals pick a new leader today, and he will be installed as Nova Scotias 29th premier sometime in the next week or two.

Each of the three leadership contenders Labi Kousoulis, Iain Rankin and Randy Delorey pledged to hit the 13-per cent target post haste, so the winner can strike that promise from the daunting to-do list that already awaits him.

Rankin went a step further, promising to protect all of the remaining sites more than 100 still remain unprotected on the eight-year old Parks and Protected Areas plan that McNeils government inherited.

While this weeks announcement bought the next premier a little time, the reprieve will be short-lived. As the McNeil Liberals dithered, balked and winced all the way to the modest if not timid 13 per cent, the world passed us by.

In 2010, the UN adopted a new goal to protect 17 per cent of the worlds land. Canada signed on to that goal and Bill Lahey included it in his seminal 2018 study and report recommending the province move to ecologically sound forestry practices. The province accepted Laheys report and is implementing it at a lazy snails pace.

More recently, the 30-by-30 movement has taken hold and much of the world including Canada and, since the election of President Joe Biden, the United States has pledged to protect 30 per cent of its land by 2030.

Thats an ambitious even audacious goal, but scientists say 30 per cent is both essential and minimal to combat the Earths twin environmental crises global warming and mass extinction.

Post-pandemic, when the world turns its attention back to, well, saving the world, the 30 per cent target is likely to become the standard and Nova Scotias 13 per cent will be seen for what it is wholly inadequate.

Many Nova Scotians wont be happy with a government thats making them laggards in the global effort to make peace with nature. There will be political pressure to protect more of Nova Scotia, and their will be opponents to the protection of one more hectare of usable land.

Word seeping out of the provincial government is that there are voices in McNeils cabinet opposed to protecting any new land and who consider every acre placed under protection another acre lost to economic exploitation. Thats the same mindset that brought the world to the brink of environmental ruin, climate catastrophe and the mass extinction of thousands of plant and animal species where we are today.

The provincial Lands and Forestry Department confirmed this week that when and if the 20 new sites are protected the province will have about 720,000 hectares of land under protection. This includes wilderness areas, provincial parks, nature reserves, private conservation lands (land protected by organizations like the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and Nature Conservancy of Canada), and federal lands such as National Parks and National Wildlife Areas.

Even with of all that, the province barely breaks the 13 per cent barrier.

Nova Scotias landmass is roughly 5.5 million hectares so, when the proposed sites are added, the province will have protected 13.09 per cent of its land. It will have cleared the 13 per cent bar by a mere five hectares. By comparison, New Yorks Central Park is about 340 hectares and Truros Victoria Park is over 1,200 hectares.

Nova Scotia attainment of the 13 per cent goal is still only notionally, because a dozen of the named sites will undergo a period of public comment before they are officially designated, but thats considered largely a pro forma exercise.

All the sites in the Parks and Protected Areas plan including the 20 announced this week got there after extensive consultation, so the places in question have already cleared that hurdle once.

Plus, most folks living near those sites will likely be surprised to learn that they arent already protected, just as folks on the Eastern Shore were shocked to learn that Owls Head provincial park wasnt a park at all, but prime real estate for a golf resort.

The Liberal government surreptitiously removed Owls Head from the Parks and Protected Areas list a couple of years back to clear the way for a golf development, unleashing a firestorm of protest that still rages on.

The next premier, like the departing premier, will have to find his own balance between often competing interests to preserve the land or to exploit the land.

For generations, politicians have been claiming to balance environmental and economic considerations and for generations economic considerations carried more weight and, almost invariably, the day.

Thats changing in more enlightened jurisdictions, where the existential threat from continued environmental degradation has sunk in, and where theyve discovered that there are new economic opportunities to be found in protecting the planet.

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JIM VIBERT: Finally, N.S. hits land protection landmark, barely - The Journal Pioneer

While it is highly doubtful that Weld County will ultimately leave Colorado and become a part of Wyoming as recently proposed by a citizens group called Weld County Wyoming, the motivation behind the proposal is understandable.

One of its members succinctly told an AP reporter that Colorados political leadership is at war with three major economic drivers for Weld County: small businesses, agriculture, and oil and gas.

Indeed, it seems like all of rural Colorado is under assault by urban liberals from Denver and Boulder Counties who dominate the ruling Democratic Party leadership.

Gov. Jared Polis is from Boulder. U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper are both from Denver. Speaker of the House Alec Garnett is from Denver. Attorney General Phil Weiser is from Denver. Secretary of State Jena Griswold is from Boulder. Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg is from Boulder. The only exception is Senate President Leroy Garcia from Pueblo.

This is not a new dynamic. Going as far back as 30 years ago, previous Democratic senators were Tim Wirth (1987-1993) and Mark Udall (2009-2015) of Boulder while previous governors were Roy Romer (1987-1999), Bill Ritter (2007-2011) and John Hickenlooper (2011-2019) of Denver. Ritter and Romer had rural roots but their political careers were built in the city of Denver.

Meanwhile, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (1993-2005) of Ignacio was first elected as a Democrat in 1992 but found the national Democratic Party so hostile to his brand of moderation he switched parties in 1995 and was re-elected as a Republican in 1998. Other previous Republican senators were Hank Brown (1991-1997) of Greeley, Wayne Allard (1997-2009) of Loveland and Cory Gardner (2015-2021) of Yuma.

The only Republican to be elected governor in the past fifty years, Bill Owens (1999-2007), was from Aurora.

But this reality goes way beyond residency. The Denver-Boulder axis doggedly pursues its social and environmental agendas while showing contempt for the people and communities of rural Colorado.

Colorado Democratic leaders have confirmed they are once again going to seek to ban private prisons which would be disastrous for the two small counties where those prisons exist today. This comes on the heels of President Joseph R. Biden declaring he would abolish private prisons in the federal system.

Crowley and Bent counties in rural southeastern Colorado are two of the poorest counties in the state and their two private prisons are the counties largest employers. Because these prisons are privately owned they provide a huge tax base that funds local schools, fire and ambulance, and other community services.

This isnt the first time Bent County has been in the crosshairs of a Democratic governor. One of the first actions by the then newly-elected governor, Hickenlooper, in 2011 was to abruptly close the state prison at Fort Lyon that housed geriatric and other special needs prisoners.

Fort Lyon had been a Veterans Administration hospital for decades before the federal government offered the expansive facility to the state of Colorado. Gov. Bill Owens accepted Fort Lyon for the prison in 2001 thereby preserving the employment base for the county until Hickenlooper closed it.

Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 112 in 2018 that would have dramatically and adversely impacted the oil and gas industry across Colorado, especially in Weld County, by creating strict setback limits from buildings, houses, rivers and streams. But the will of the voters was of no concern to majority Democrats in the state legislature in 2019 as they passed and Gov. Polis signed into law Senate Bill 181 that essentially had the same impact as the defeated Proposition 112. Democratic legislators vehemently denied that SB 181 would increase setbacks, but that is exactly what is happening just a year later. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies are struggling and jobs are being lost across rural Colorado.

Piling on the state assault on oil and gas, President Joe Biden has imposed a moratorium on new leases on federal land and drilling permits impacting Western Slope jobs and communities. State Sen. Bob Rankin says I believe the gas industry in Western Colorado may collapse affecting thousands of people.

Democrats are hell-bent to not only destroy the oil and gas industry, they are rabid about killing coal mining in northwest Colorado. There is no doubt our economy is making a transition to more renewables, but these hard-working coal miners, power plant workers and the communities they live in such as Craig, still supply 45% of Colorados net energy generation.

Whether it comes from some level of remorse or just a way to provide political cover, Democrats created the Office of Just Transition which ostensibly is supposed to help former oil and gas workers and coal miners make a just transition to new jobs which so far remain very elusive and undefined.

At least Bidens new climate czar, former Massachusetts U.S. Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry, had an answer, however flippant as it was, to a question about what oil and gas workers could do to replace their high paying jobs. They can assemble solar panels, the wealthy and elitist Kerry sneered, as he was clearly irritated such a question was posed to him.

Meanwhile, Polis had to quickly backtrack from promoting plant-based fake meat products at the expense of livestock producers who account for 70% of Colorados $7 billion agricultural economy.

But Polis is not backtracking from his recent appointment of a self-proclaimed anti-meat activist, Ellen Kessler, to the Colorado Board of Veterinary Medicine. Kessler was removed from a Costco store in October 2020 during a protest by Direct Action Everywhere, a militant animal rights group.

According to state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Logan County, Kessler also attacked the venerable 4-H program because it teaches children that animal lives dont matter. I would dare to say Kessler is no friend to farmers and ranchers across the state struggling to make a living.

Colorado is much more than Denver and Boulder, but you would never know it from the urban liberal assault on rural Colorado led by the Denver-Boulder Democratic axis.

Dick Wadhams is a Republican political consultant and a former Colorado Republican state chairman who is a native of rural southeastern Colorado.

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Wadhams: Weld County secession to Wyoming may be unlikely, but the urban-liberal assault on rural Colorado is real - The Denver Post

Democrat Joe Biden had only been the US president for a week when, on one single day, he rained down enough executive orders to completely reframe the global politics of climate action. After eight years of our local Liberal/National government stalling on meaningful climate policy, Australia is embarrassingly unprepared for the new reality.

Biden already rejoined America to the Paris climate accord on his first day in office. His subsequent action includes protecting a third of Americas land and ocean resources. Hes ditched the contentious Keystone XL pipeline and introduced climate-friendly policies for urban communities and farmers alike. Hes moving the entire US federal road transport fleet to zero-emissions vehicles, there are plans for oil and gas drilling to be prohibited on public land, and for a citizen-led green corps to restore damaged lands and waterways. There are mooted tax breaks for wind and solar investment, vast infrastructure spending, carbon pricing and a US$2tr clean energy plan to shift Americas climate grid to run carbon-free within 15 years, building energy-efficient homes and electric cars and mopping up pollution.

Its apparently just the beginning. Twenty-one US federal agencies will join a climate mega-body, while the powerfully competent John Kerry who represented America in Paris has been enshrined as Bidens can-do climate czar.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Liberal government MP Craig Kelly may have finally gained a prime ministerial ticking-off for spruiking online coronavirus misinformation, but as of only Wednesday he was still beating a loud drum of climate denialism, unrebuked. Infamous for supporting the outrageous claim that mask mandates equal child abuse, Kelly insists climate alarmism also, somehow, damages children, on a Facebook page thats actually heavier with praise for fossil fuels than even for discredited hydroxychloroquine treatments.

The Liberal/National Coalition originally won office with an aggressive promise to destroy successful carbon pricing. Theyve since relied on the backing of fossil fuel barons to be re-elected, their most loyal media pluggers are sceptics, and their fake, scaremongering insistence about the need to maintain a creaking local coal industry is an endless chorus. LNP Senator Matt Canavan has posed in coal-dust drag to promote the industry in which his brothers an executive. The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, couldnt bear to blame last years lethal bushfires on the fact of a crisping climate, so he chose horse-poo instead. As much as Craig Kelly resembles a bug, hes a feature; hes a government-appointed member of the parliamentary house standing committee on Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources, and, prime minister Scott Morrison says, hes doing a great job.

How well the likes of Kelly, that committee or any other part of the Morrison governments policy apparatus is going to cope with the worlds most influential economy taking a rapid turn for climate action is now a challenging question for the Liberals. The past four years of rabid anti-environmental Trumpism in the US provided effective cover for an Australian government that was one of the most obstreperous hold-outs on action in and since Paris, and has relied on weasel words rather than deeds to meet the barest of its international climate commitments for years.

Australias ruling conservatives may be hoping Republican denialists yet remaining in the American senate will be able to filibuster and obstruct Bidens agenda from realigning the world economy. Theyd do well to absorb that the activist new president has already shredded 100 Trump-era environmental rollbacks with executive orders and the Democrats new senate majority allows the passage of budget allocations, filibuster-free.

What Americas Democrats also have is an overwhelming popular mandate for action. Corporations, too, have read the climate room and are already remaking markets and industries. Iconic US manufacturer General Motors is transitioning to carbon neutrality, major investment funds are restructuring assets around climate risk and the US Chamber of Commerce backs a carbon price.

Trumps loud condemnation of Bidens pledge to transition America away from fossil fuels turned out to be a grand political miscalculation. Electorally, Bidens repeated refrain of when I think of climate change, I think of jobs dissolved the decades-old, right-confected wedge between labour and the environment. The Democrats long-established credibility as a workers champion enabled one single sentence to twin a promise of economic opportunity with one for existential relief, and it had potent appeal.

This credibility is something Australias anti-union, wage-suppressing Liberals lack, in a policy terrain they ideologically cannot countenance. What Bidens now blown open wide is a local electoral field thats entirely Australian Labors to claim.

Anthony Albanese may have borrowed his new jobs, jobs, jobs! slogan from British Labours Keir Starmer, but in a post-pandemic Australia where one million people are unemployed and at least another million are looking for more work, its efficient recycling. Labors promise of climate-friendly, targeted job-creation is not one the Liberals can match, given their decade of loud disinterest in new industrial opportunities from electric-car-making to renewable energy. Its all been Labor policy for some time, but the new economy that Biden is building relocates environmental policy from the realm of the ideal to the real.

The Democrats winning message was that crucial climate action can take place in the political space between dangerous denialism on one hand and impossible purism on the other - and it speaks directly to Labors greatest policy strength; creating jobs in the service of the common good.

If Labor only communicates to Australians with the clarity Biden did in America, its a game-changing opportunity; for climate action, for the party, and Australia.

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Can Australias Labor party match Joe Bidens winning message on climate action? - The Guardian

opinion

Is this America, the home of the brave and the land of the free?

I have an analogy: a tale versus recent events. Imagine a government official is undergoing a show trial in a banana republic. Uniformed soldiers line the streets. Hundreds of witnesses swear they saw him commit the crime. He provides no proof of innocence but takes the stand and demands the witnesses recant and apologize. He accuses them of racism and demands they be censured, silenced, resign and painted with ScarletLetters (If you are ignorant of the story, look it up). He gets off Scotfree and proudly states: Justice has been served. The courts dutifully acquiesce.The media cheer! Trumpets blare!

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Democrats have been accused of cheating in the election and stealing it. Hundreds of whistleblowers testify under oath they saw cheating with their own eyes. Democrats who lied in the past about collusion with Russia feign innocence but wont debate the evidence. Instead, they label the whistleblowers as racists and cultists. There are demands that certain Republican senators and representatives recant, apologize, resign or be recalled because they question the honesty of the election and suggest a commission be appointed to study it. Vindictive Democrats compile a list of Republicans to be blacklisted and banned from getting a job. Representative A.O.C. suggests children of Republicans be sent to re-education camps.Katie Couric suggests deprogramming them. Twitter and Facebook ban certain Republicans. Simon & Schuster refuse to publish Sen. JoshHawleys book (outright censorship). Freedom of speech is dead for Republicans but the media and Big Tech back the Democrats so they can say anything they want.

Democrats control the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives and have bluffed the judiciary into submission (the Supreme Court cowers in fear of being expanded and packed with liberal, activist judges who will re-write the constitution). Democrats have threatened to give statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, DC so they will control the Senate forever.

Uniformed soldiers and police line the streets during the presidential inauguration. Joe Biden has the gall to state: Democracy has prevailed. The media fawn dutifully! Trumpets blare!

Is this America, the home of the brave and the land of the free? Or has it become Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, North Korea, or a banana republic? Are we going to meekly acquiesce or are we going to vote the rascals out in the next election? Will there ever be another fair election in America? Sigh!

Don Decker, Halstead

What happened to truth?

Whatever happened to elected officials actually having the guts to have truth in advertising their intentions?

I read news reports saying that Gov. Laura Kelly wants to use medical marijuana revenues to pay for the costs of Medicaid patients. I'm not opposed to Kelly finding revenue to pay for Medicaid but she should have the guts to say she wants straight general taxation to fully fund that worthwhile program.

I'm supportive of Medicaid to worthy/needy persons.I am a bit leery of Kelly claiming Medical Marijuana taxes are a "tool" to use as a revenue generator.I truly feel that the so-called 'medical marijuana" is fake. If it does help,then let the patient be confined (like Otis the town drunkin the old "Andy Griffith Show") until the buzz wears off.Many people tout marijuana's safety, yet various governors (including Nebraska Gov.Pete Ricketts ) believe that "pot"causes more harm than good. I concur. I know, in the off chance that it works, those people shouldn't mind being temporarily in custody (I hesitate to use the word incarcerated), but studies show that car drivers are impaired after using marijuana and "pot"can even cause birth defects in male sperm.I know I wouldn't want a person using so-called "medical marijuana" driving 75 mphin the lane next to me on any interstate highway.

I think Kelly is "robbing Peter to pay Paul."Or in this case, she is paying Judas with such a kooky plan.She'll entice more people on dope. If she wants to fully fund Medicaid,fine. Let her impose taxes that tell taxpayers purpose and intent. Let's have truthful accounting, instead of"accounting acrobatics"by our governor,

James A Marles, Esbon

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Letters to the editor - Newton Kansan

A 61% majority of voters across Colorado and seven other western states are more worried than hopeful about nature, pointing to climate change impacts, and 57% plan to get outdoors more often when the COVID-19 pandemic abates, a new opinion poll has found.

Uncontrollable wildfires, loss of pollinators, and low water in rivers ranked among top concerns, according to results unveiled Thursday from the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project poll.

The poll also found strong support for protecting nature 85% favor restoring Clean Water Act coverage for smaller streams and wetlands and 93% support requiring oil and gas companies to pay all costs of cleanup and land restoration. The results show 84% of respondents want the government to create new national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, tribal protected areas at historic sites and other recreation areas.

Were seeing strong voter concern for nature, which is translating into calls for bold action on public lands in the West, said State of the Rockies Project director Katrina Miller-Stevens, a Colorado College economics professor. If federal and state policy leaders are looking for direction on public lands, the view from the West is clear.

The State of the Rockies poll, conducted annually since 2010, gives a look at western positions on environment and climate warming issues. Lawmakers, legislative lobbyists and advocacy groups watch it closely.

The State of the Rockies Project commissions the poll, which this year was based on a random sample of 3,842 voters, who were interviewed using English and Spanish between Jan. 2 and Jan.13 in eight states (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) with at least 400 polled in each state. The margin of error was 2.2% overall and 4.8% for individual states.

The polling was done by a bipartisan team of Lori Weigel and her firm New Bridge Strategy, rooted in Republican politics, and Dave Metz of FM3 Research, which works mostly with Democrats.

Voters surveyed reflect a diverse population, with 38% identifying themselves as politically conservative, 22% as liberal and the rest as moderate. Poll data show 45% of respondents voted for Joe Biden and 42% for Donald Trump.

What stands out in this poll is the agreement on big issues that often get painted as controversial, said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Denver-based Center for Western Priorities.

President Joe Biden has emphasized addressing climate change as a national priority. Westerners responses to 53 questions revealed voter priorities on specific environmental problems. For example, 63% of respondents ranked loss of pollinators such as bees and butterflies as extremely or very serious.

And 71% said wildfire is more of a problem now than 10 years ago, blaming climate change and drought. To address wildfire risks, 94% favored removing overgrown brush and selected or dead trees and 86% favored updating zoning and building codes for new development near forests to keep houses out of burn zones.

Over the past decade, the polling has shown rising climate concerns, Weigel said. Theres a growing sense in the Rocky Mountain West that this is an issue that affects people directly.

Biden officials looking at the West can see a growing consensus for action, Metz said. It is a solid majority, not just among Democrats and Independents but among Republicans. There was a sense before that maybe this was a partisan issue. That has changed.

Among other findings:

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Majority of voters in the West worry about the future of nature, poll finds - The Denver Post

The Newfoundland and Labrador Prospectors Association is not opposed to the creation of small ecological reserves in terms of protecting rare plants, fossil localities or rare birds.

But at the present time, president Norm Mercer, said there are significant parts of the island that are excluded from prospecting and explorations activities and that includes national parks, wilderness areas and ecological reserves.

For the prospecting industry that means there are a lot of areas that could have potential for mineral exploration and development that are off-limits.

And the association is concerned that even more areas will be excluded if the Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Advisory Councils (WERAC) plan to classify 32 areas on the island portion of the province as protected ecological reserves proceeds.

"We have world-class geology, we have world-class mineral endowment and each time you remove areas for those types of activities youre removing a portion of that potential and what comes from that activity with regards to meaningful high paying jobs, economic development opportunities, revenue streams, and much of that would impact rural parts of the province and smaller urban areas of the province.

In 2019 the province released a new mineral strategy to grow the industry and Mercer said that growth has been occurring.

Removing areas that could be accessed for exploration flies in the face of that strategy.

We have world-class geology, we have world-class mineral endowment and each time you remove areas for those types of activities youre removing a portion of that potential." Norm Mercer

Instead, his group supports multiple use policies.

Mercer said prospecting and mineral exploration are non-intrusive activities. Its only a temporary use of the land. A prospector going through an area, hiking through the country knocking off a grab sample or taking a soil (sample) is no different than berry picking, hunting or fishing, he said.

If a mine were found, Mercer said the provincial and federal governments have strict regulatory regimes and environmental assessments that would have to be followed.

In the end, these activities provide well-paying jobs, support communities and create revenue streams.

Mercer said the demand for minerals is growing for use in things like electric batteries, solar panels and wind turbines as countries shift to lower carbon economies.

This is one of our great treasures and great assets. At a time when were in a situation where we have record debt, a deep recession and significant numbers of our smaller communities that are basically eroding away and with the amount of land thats already been removed, where does it stop and is there proper conversation happening by all parties involved as to the impacts.

He said the challenge the association has with WERAC is that the process is not inclusive and that the people selected for the WERAC committee are those with an interest and background in the protection of lands.

We feel that all stakeholders should be at the table, he said.

Its fine to say that were going to protect these areas and that theyll be there for communities, but if the communities are dying whos left to partake of nature.

Mercer said the plan has already been submitted to the government but the association wants whatever party that forms the next government to put it on hold as it believes that enough land has been removed and that the proper due diligence is not being done.

Last week the association sent a letter to the Liberal, PC, NDP and NL Alliance asking for their positions on the WERAC plan. As of Monday, it had not received a response from either party. And only the Liberals responded to a request from The SaltWire Network for comment prior to publication of this article.

Our Liberal government recognizes how important it is for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to have access to natural resources and to outdoor activities they enjoy - and want to maintain it. The Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Advisory Council (WERAC) released its draft plan and the independent body is now in its public consultation process. No decisions connected to WERACs recommendations to government have been made. Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador

Mercer said members are being encouraged to talk with candidates to get a sense of how they see the economy growing and balancing prospecting and mineral exploration and access to land.

WERAC chair Graham Wood said the committee has met with the association and understands where it is coming from.

Its explained that the areas outlined right now have all been vetted with Industry, Energy and Technology and areas with major staking were set up as transitional reserves. That means mineral and oil exploration would still be allowed in those reserves and the industry would have 10 years to try to find something.

In terms of the land that is already protected and the land outlined in the WERAC plan, Wood said it takes in 12.5 per cent of the land in the province. Thats a lot less than the 85.7 per cent of land in the province that is available for exploration.

Its also less than 17 per cent goal that the federal government had set for 2020 as outlined in the UN conference on biodiversity. That 17 per cent goal has now been moved to 25 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030.

Because WERAC is an advisory board appointed by the provincial government, Wood is not able to make any major statements during the election.

He said the committee has been meeting weekly are is in the process of finalizing documents and reports that will be presented to the minister, including a What we Heard document and recommendations that includes information and data collected during public engagement in Phase 1. Hes hopeful the committee will move into Phase 2 of the consultation process after the election.

[emailprotected] @WS_DianeCrocker

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Put WERAC process on hold: Newfoundland and Labrador Prospectors association - The Telegram

ST. JOHN'S, N.L.

The fishing industry is worth over $1 billion annually to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy, according to the provinces 2019 Seafood Industry Year in Review report.

Yet until last Friday, Jan. 29, none of the parties seeking election on Feb. 13 had offered any details on their ideas on the fishing industry.

The Progressive Conservative Party was the first to unveil their platform.

In a press release on Jan. 29, PC leader Ches Crosbie said, We will help fish harvesters and coastal communities rejuvenate their economies by working directly with those in the industrynot government bureaucratsto develop policies that work for them."

Yet some of the ideas put forward by the PC party would depend on agreement by Ottawa to change federal regulations.

The Conservatives have been pushing joint management. Its an idea thats been floated for decades by premiers and governments of the past, both Liberal and Conservative, and it always failed to get traction.

That doesnt stop the Tories from hoping.

Crosbie says a PC government would work to convince Ottawa to agree to a joint management regime for the fishery, similar to the Atlantic Accord that governs the oil and gas industry.

The party also said it would seek options to curtail the waste of unintended by-catch, fish that are accidentally caught in pursuit of other species. Federal regulations under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) require those by-catches to be dumped.

The Conservatives also say they favour fish over seals, If a cull is required to reduce predation to save fish stocks, we will find a way to make that happen.

Again, the management of seals, including decisions on seal hunting quotas, is decided by the DFO.

Once seals are harvested, however, the provinces processing and business regulations come into play.

Crosbie said the PCs would work to ensure full use of the seal and to help in the development of markets, from oil to leather to protein.

Within provincial legislation, the party says it will empower the Fish Processing Licencing Board to review foreign ownership and influence in processing operations and make recommendations.

(January 29, 2021) PC Leader Ches Crosbie says joint management of fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador is essential...

The party also said there is potential for an expanded aquaculture industry to boost the rural Newfoundland and Labrador economy.

According to the 2019 Seafood Industry Review, aquaculture represented 12 percent of the $1.9 billion value of the fishery that year.

The PC party says it will champion an environmentally-sustainable industry that is not working to the detriment of our existing wild stocks, and one that leverages science and innovation to provide long-term opportunities.

The party also said it will work to streamline the existing regulatory framework while increasing transparency in reporting and monitoring of our aquaculture industry.

Aquaculture also involves Ottawa and the DFO is in the midst of a public consultation process to develop Canadas first-ever Aquaculture Act.

That consultation process concludes Feb. 12.

The Liberal party, meanwhile, focuses solely on aquaculture in its fishery platform, unveiled Feb. 2.

Our government will strategically invest in the provinces aquaculture industry so that it will have the competitive advantages it needs to succeed internationally, said Premier Andrew Furey in a press release, noting there is growing global demand for farmed fish and this province is well positioned to capitalize on that market.

Like the PCs, the Liberals offer no details or costing, just general statements on their vision for aquaculture.

They say a Furey government will:

(We) will work with industry to identify opportunities for secondary or further processing of our existing exports, as well as supporting the research and development of new processing activity for materials we currently consider to be waste or low-value by-products, the Liberals said in their platform release.

The New Democratic Party revealed their ideas for the fishery in its election platform released Wednesday, Feb. 3.

The party says it will bring fisheries into the 21st century."

One of their promises is to enact laws to prohibit processing companies from having controlling agreements in the inshore fishery, with strict penalties and fines for companies violating those rules. However, the issue of controlling agreements is already covered under federal law, through the amended Fisheries Act which becomes law on April 1.

The party also says it will ensure fairer fish price negotiations for harvesters. Fish pricing is regulated by the province through the Fish Price Setting Panel.

According to the NDP, when fish harvesters are negotiating prices for their catches, only one side the processors have all the information available.

The NL NDP believes transparency in fish price negotiations is essential for fair labour relations. The right thing to do is commit to collecting production information and pricing from processors on all products processed in Newfoundland and Labrador and make this information available to all parties in collective bargaining.

The NDP also say its time to amend the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act to allow the Fish Price Setting Panel to consider a second price recommendation during negotiations.

The party said it also supports aquaculture, but the industry has to be developed in the right way.

The NL NDP favours a transition from open pen aquaculture to land-based, they state in their platform.

The party also says it will require any new aquaculture enterprise to ensure the marine environment is fully protected and locally-farmed fish is processed locally.

The party also said there should be more help for young people and new entrants to become fishing enterprise owners.

The NDP said one way to do this would be to remove barriers to the loan guarantee program.

The Newfoundland and Labrador fishery is a billion-dollar a year renewable industry. Yet it is often treated as an afterthought in policy, as government chases the latest bright shiny idea rather than reinvigorating the industry that sustained us for centuries," the party states.

The NL NDP wants our fisheries to thrive and grow, continuing to provide employment, and supporting our coastal communities for years to come.

Read the NDP's full platform.

In a Zoom call with reporters on Tuesday morning, the provincial fisheries minister Elvis Loveless answered questions about joint management and corporate control.

On the question of possibly pursing joint fisheries management with Ottawa, Loveless said, It needs to be a very important discussion. We should be more into the management of our fisheries and in control of it. Joint management has been talked about for years but we need to act.

On the matter of corporate control and foreign ownership in the provinces fish processing industry, Loveless said he believes the Fish Processing Licencing Board process is a good one. He added the Liberals would be open to ideas around adjusting the mandate of that board.

The province's approval of Royal Greenland's application to buy out Quinlan Brothers operations earlier this year drew criticism from the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) and fish harvesters.

They expressed concern over corporate concentration, foreign ownership and the potential for reduced bargaining power by fish harvesters.

According to Loveless he had asked the Fish Processing Licencing Board to review the issue of corporate concentration, and the board was in the process of putting together a (public) consultation process.

Whether or not that process will continue now be determined after the election.

The provincial election certainly wont be determined, wholly and solely, on fisheries issues.

However, according to the provinces 2019 Seafood Industry report, 16,000 people in 400 communities, many of them in rural political districts, depend on the industry for their livelihood.

And the specific fishery ideas outlined by each party could be the deciding factor when they cast their vote on Feb. 13.

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UPDATE: Liberals, PCs pitch fishery platforms hoping to net Newfoundland and Labrador voters - TheChronicleHerald.ca

The steelworks on Rover Way, Cardiff. Photo Alex Seabrook

Alex Seabrook, local democracy reporter

A small plot of land tucked away between Rover Way, Cardiff, and the Severn Estuary has a dirty history.

The land behind the Celsa steelworks in Splott is also set to have a dirty future environmental campaigners and local politicians have warned harmful air pollution and carbon dioxide will be emitted from a planned power plant.

Developers Parc Calon Gwyrdd recently received renewed planning permission to build a biomass plant on the 16.5-hectare site, potentially burning 75,000 tonnes of virgin timber shipped from Latvia each year, and generating 9.5 megawatts of energy.

But before that can be built, the developers need to carry out an extensive clean up job, removing 1,000,000 tonnes of rubble and old car parts stripped of steel. The work is needed to prevent toxic chemicals from the landfill leaking into the estuary.

The dirty history of the site was revealed in documents filed as part of the original planning application in 2017. An environmental statement, written by planning agents Geraint John Planning on behalf of the developer, details how the site was used as a dumping ground.

The site was reclaimed from the estuary in the 1970s, according to the environmental statement, with eight metres of blast furnace slag from the neighbouring steelworks. Old cars stripped of their scrap metal by the steelworks were dumped on the land for decades.

Cocktail

But the cocktail of hazardous chemicals from the old car parts created two risks: pockets of gas underground exploding, and water seeping through the landfill, running off and polluting the estuary.

At the turn of the century, work was done on the site to make it safe. This included a passive gas venting system to stop pockets of gas building up, and a site-wide MDPE membrane to prevent the water running off to the foreshore.

But a few years later, rubble from the construction of the St Davids 2 shopping centre was also dumped on the site, blocking off the gas vents and potentially rupturing the protective plastic membrane.

The design statement, submitted in the original planning application for the power plant, explained the problem: A large amount of uncertified fill from sites such as St Davids 2 was deposited on the site, rendering a substantive amount of the remediation ineffective.

Around this time Cardiff council which owns the land built a motocross track on the site. The Foreshore Motocross Club works with troubled teenagers, to prevent illegal off-road motorbiking, and helps them stay in education and get into work.

Cardiff council did not respond to questions about whether an alternative site would be found for the club, now that developers want to build a power plant there.

Documents from the Land Registry show Cardiff council entered into a lease agreement with the biomass developers Parc Calon Gwyrdd in 2019. However, the council said the decision to lease the land was first taken in 2014.

Carbon

The decision to lease the land for a wood-burning power plant has been questioned by opposition councillors, given the councils commitment to reducing carbon emissions and air pollution. Campaigners claim burning wood emits more carbon than burning coal.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Emma Sandrey said: We would urge the council not to lease the land for this. Your actions have to align with your words. But they say one thing and do another. Its going to be feeding demand for trees to be cut down in other parts of the world.

Conservative Cllr John Lancaster said: Cutting down forest in Latvia to burn over here isnt quite so environmentally friendly. The fact the council owns the land makes it a more of a political question rather than a planning decision.

If they wanted to use it for something else, they clearly could do. They could put solar panels there, or small industrial units for start up businesses. If they wanted to take that position, they could do it.

Controversial

There was nothing in the One Planet strategy about this idea. They dont mention it, which suggests to me that they realised how controversial it would be, so they kept it out of the consultation.

Cardiff councils One Planet strategy sets out how the city can get to carbon neutral by 2030, including plans to plant thousands of trees which absorb carbon dioxide and air pollution.

While burning wood for energy legally counts as renewable energy, doubts are mounting about how green woody biomass is. Several recent investigations link rising demand for woody biomass, subsidised by the UK government, with deforestation in eastern Europe.

Gareth Ludkin, of Friends of the Earth, said: The woody biomass which is to be shipped in from Latvia and burned in this plant is not a clean or green form of energy. We should be protecting forests and planting more trees rather than cutting them down.

The Drax power plant in Yorkshire already burns more wood than the UK produces in a year and this plant will only fan the flames of greater deforestation in Europe and beyond without regulation.

Crazy

Science already tells us that burning wood produces more CO2 than burning coal, and at a time when we are supposed to be phasing out coal alongside plans to restrict or ban the use of wood burners and open fires at home, its absolutely crazy that government policy continues to allow the burning of wood for profit under the guise of green energy.

A Cardiff council spokesman said the decision to sell the lease on the land was made in 2014, prior to the election of the current administration. This is documented through an officer decision report at that time.

The spokesman said: The council is scheduled to meet with the developer, Parc Calon, in the near future to discuss the developers detailed proposals going forward.

However, it is important to point out that any renewable energy plant, whatever the technology proposed, is strictly regulated both through the planning process and by the regulator, Natural Resources Wales.

Parc Calon Gwyrdd has no online presence and no contact details could be found for the company. Emails sent to architects and planning agents involved in the plans, asking for contact details of Parc Calon Gwyrdd, were not answered.

See the article here:

The dirty past and future of new power plant site - Nation.Cymru