Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-05-10 17:01 [p.6978]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot for his speech.

Unfortunately, I will be speaking in English because these are technical issues.

I may be the only member of Parliament who read the entire report of the United States transport safety inquiry into the Kalamazoo spill of 2010 in which it detailed gross negligence. Yes, modern pipeline companies have all sorts of alarms, bells and whistles, which we keep hearing about, that will alert control room staff when there is any possibility of a leak. One alarm from that spill rang for five full minutes, while Enbridge employees went around the control room shutting off the noise. The next shift came in and it was not warned there had been signs of a leak. That is when they pumped over 800,000 gallons of bitumen and diluent into the Kalamazoo River, which could never be cleaned up.

I wonder if my colleague has any further points to add on how this reputation of negligence has undermined Canada’s case.

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot)
2021-05-10 17:03 [p.6978]

Madam Speaker, apparently that incident has not changed Canada’s official position. Still today, we see that Michigan has concerns. It was traumatized by this event, there are no two ways about it. All we are doing is unanimously dismissing the fears expressed by Michigan.

Again, it is highly likely that these fears are not entirely justified, but they are legitimate and deserve some consideration, some thought and some close attention. That is my response to my hon. colleague.

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Minister of Environment and Climate Change

House of Commons

K1A 0A4

April 30, 2020

RE: Consultation Submission on the Ministerial Regulatory Proposal to Designate Offshore Exploratory Drilling East of Newfoundland and Labrador for Exclusion under the Impact Assessment Act

 Dear Minister Wilkinson,

I am writing today to provide feedback on the proposed regulation which would exclude offshore exploratory drilling east of Newfoundland and Labrador from assessments under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA). I am very grateful for this consultation opportunity.

This consultation ignores the elephant in the room. Neither the Canada- Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board nor the Canada-Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) should have any role in environmental assessments (EAs). Prior to 2012, they never did. The Harper administration’s CEAA 2012 put the National Energy Board, the Canada Nuclear Safety Commission, and offshore boards in the position of running EAs. The Liberal 2015 platform pledged to repair environmental review. The EA expert panel convened by your predecessor, the Honourable Catherine McKenna, strongly recommended that these regulators have no role. Yet, C-69 continued to give these regulators roles as members of panels, and in the case of the offshore boards, through an amendment, are allowed to chair a panel.

This proposal, like the regional EA on which it is based, completely ignores this large and, in my view, insurmountable problem: The C-NLOPB has a conflict of interest because of its mission to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. Although the federal environmental assessment process is deeply flawed, excluding a federal assessment would further lessen transparency between the oil and gas industry and the Canadian public. Below, I explain my views in greater detail.

Exclusion of Climate Change Considerations in the Regional Assessment

I was pleased to review the regional assessment and see that it was very comprehensive. However, I am still firmly opposed to excluding offshore exploratory drilling east of Newfoundland and Labrador from assessments under the IAA, because the regional assessment ignored a key consideration: climate change

It is irresponsible to exclude the consideration of climate change when conducting an environmental assessment. Climate change is Canada’s single greatest threat, and without studying the impacts of offshore drilling on Canada’s carbon emissions, the regional assessment — comprehensive as it may be — is useless.

C-NLOPB’s Conflict of Interest

The Atlantic Accord, which outlines the C-NLOPB’s mandate, states that its primary purpose is: “a) to provide for the development of oil and gas resources offshore Newfoundland for the benefit of Canada as a whole and Newfoundland and Labrador in particular”.

Clearly, a regulatory board whose mandate is to provide for the development of oil and gas cannot at the same time be the board who reviews whether a project has met the environmental assessment requirements.

It is exactly this conflict of interest that led to the largest oil spill in Newfoundland’s history, which was deemed “impossible to clean up.” The Husky Energy spill was preventable, but the body that oversees regulations cannot be the same body that promotes project expansion.

Transparency to the Canadian Public

While I lament the federal environmental assessment process, I still think that in this context, two environmental assessments are better than one. Not only because the IAA may pick up on an issue that the regional assessment didn’t pick up on — such as climate change considerations — but also for the media and public attention a federal environmental assessment tends to garner. It is in the best interest of our democracy that the public is familiar with the undertakings of their government.

It would be cynical to suppose that the government wants to exclude offshore oil and gas projects from federal review because of this, therefore I will not suppose it. Instead, I hope that this is merely an oversight of the government, and that you will re-consider your proposed regulation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth May, O.C.

Member of Parliament

Saanich-Gulf Islands

Parliamentary Leader of the Green Party of Canada

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OTTAWA – The Green Party of Canada applauds today’s announcement by the Trudeau administration to invest $1.7 billion to clean up abandoned and inactive “orphan” oil and gas wells in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

The government will also establish a $750 million fund to reduce methane emissions with $75 million of that total tagged for the offshore oil and gas sector in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The government says the two initiatives will generate approximately 10,000 jobs in the energy sector and bring much-needed relief to workers in an industry beset by rock-bottom oil prices and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re pleased with the federal government’s announcement,” said Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). “We have stated repeatedly that while we oppose subsidies to fossil fuels, we make an exception for funding to clean up orphan wells, creating employment for fossil fuel sector workers. Greens propose the work be undertaken in partnership with First Nations, and wherever possible, capturing renewable green energy through geothermal electricity.”

In February’s pre-budget submission to finance minister Bill Morneau, the Green Party underscored the fact that environmental remediation and restoration in the fossil fuel sector is labour intensive not capital intensive. The Green Party submission pointed out that if subsidies were shifted to the labour portions of remediation costs, the funds would have a significantly greater effect on employment and would encourage employers to spend on remediation while still in operations, rather than, as seems likely given history, to default on such liabilities in bankruptcy.

“We are in a climate emergency, and so these commitments are encouraging as they will help us prepare for the much more aggressive targets required under the terms of the Paris Agreement,” said Ms. May. “The release today of the shocking efforts of Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), using the excuse of the COVID-19 pandemic to roll-back environmental and climate actions, as well as lobbying rules, should give all Canadians a sense of relief that CAPP is not calling the shots.”

Green caucus critic for labour, employment, workforce development and disability inclusion, Paul Manly (MP, Nanaimo-Ladysmith) affirmed that subsidizing the cleanup of orphaned and abandoned oil wells is the first step towards a just transition for oil and gas workers. “Workers who are the casualties of an international price and supply war do need relief,” said Manly.

“After the mess left behind by the oil industry is cleaned up these workers need opportunities to use their skills in the transition to a new energy economy. Iron and Earth, an organization formed by former fossil fuel workers, has identified that most energy workers could easily transition to the creation of renewable energy infrastructure such as an east-west electrical grid and geothermal, wind, solar and tidal generation.”

“Let’s face it,” concluded Manly, “fossil fuel corporations have been dining on Canadian resources and dashing on the clean up bill for decades.”

Greens have long urged the federal government to focus on the economic opportunities that come with the shift to the Green economy and to ensure that there is a “just transition” for fossil fuel workers. Mission Possible – the Green Climate Action Plan outlines a clear and comprehensive strategy to transition towards a zero-carbon economy through the creation of new industries and well-paid jobs.

“COVID-19 is understandably on everyone’s mind right now, and we must continue to focus our efforts on doing everything we can to help Canadians get through this difficult time financially, safely and responsibly,” said Green Party Interim Leader Jo-Ann Roberts. “Today’s news that the government will bring some economic relief to fossil fuel workers, while at the same time committing to our climate goals, is welcome indeed.”

# # #

For more information or to arrange an interview:

Rosie Emery

Press Secretary

613-562-4916 ext, 204

rosie.emery@greenparty.ca

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OTTAWA – The Green Party of Canada is calling for a review of work practices in British Columbia’s oil and gas sector during the on-going COVID-19 crisis.

Work on projects such as Coastal GasLink (CGL), the Site C dam, LNG Canada and the Trans Mountain pipeline(TMX) continues, with workers being flown in and out. Green MPs say that these employees, arriving from all over Canada and housed in close quarters in on-site camps, could be seriously jeopardizing their own health as well as the health of nearby Indigenous populations.

Paul Manly (MP, Nanaimo-Ladysmith), who visited Wet’suwet’en territory during the standoff with the RCMP in January, noted that Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have suspended their community consultation regarding the Coastal GasLink project, to comply with the health authority. The communities are in lock-down and are keeping non-members out.

“Air Canada flights have been suspended but the Smithers airport remains open for emergency medical evacuations and charter flights including charters for workers. The Terrace Kitimat airport remains a revolving door for workers coming in from all over the country,” Mr. Manly said.

“This is a major threat to northern Indigenous communities. How is it possible that CGL, TMX, LNG and Site C can get an exemption during a health crisis like this, when Canadians are being ordered to self-isolate and maintain physical distance? Oil and gas workers continue to be flown in and out of these communities, potentially carrying in a deadly virus. And it’s been noted that the RCMP are still rotating personnel in and out of Wet’suwet’en territory. Many of these communities are woefully underserved when it comes to essential services including healthcare. This has to stop.”

On March 18 2020 the B.C. Building Trades Council issued a Statement calling for the scaling down of some major construction projects that house large numbers of workers in remote camps. Executive director Andrew Mercier said: “We need to flatten the curve and alleviate pressure on the rural health care systems.”

“This is a crisis in the making,” said Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). “It’s unconscionable that Coastal GasLink would seize a moment when the process of Wet’suwet’en internal consultation and governance in response to the agreement achieved with the federal and provincial governments is on hold due to COVID-19, to push forward with construction. It’s also a blatant disregard for the explicit recommendations from our chief medical officers. Putting employees and vulnerable Indigenous populations at risk cannot be tolerated.”

On Monday, doctors and mayors in British Columbia’s East Kootenays expressed concern that the Teck Resources camp near Elkford that houses hundreds of employees could be a major risk to spreading COVID-19 in the region. Muskrat Falls, the large hydro project in Newfoundland and Labrador has said it is scaling down operations to protect the safety of labourers and the surrounding communities.

“We are navigating uncharted territory with this pandemic,” said Green Party Interim Leader Jo-Ann Roberts. “Indigenous communities are too often on the front lines of these mega-projects. It is incumbent upon us to make sure that all populations are adequately protected, and not subjected to unnecessary risk. Like every other sector of industry and commerce, large megaprojects will be affected by the economic hardships of this crisis. But financial interests cannot take precedence over human lives.”

# # #

For more information or to arrange an interview:

Rosie Emery

Press Secretary

613-562-4916×206

rosie.emery@greenparty.ca

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Canada undermined global climate negotiations in Durban in December, negotiated in bad faith, and immediately announced intent to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol when the Environment Minister touched down on Canadian soil. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver kicked off the New Year with an assault on environmentalists and First Nations as “radicals.”  The Prime Minister attacked environmental groups for accepting foreign funding, even as he courted Communist Party controlled state operations from China as investors in the oil sands.  One Parliamentary Secretary said anyone opposed to pipelines and tankers was “against Canada.”  When asked to withdraw the remark as un-parliamentary, she refused.

The legislative juggernaut, C-38, repealed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, replacing a coherent piece of legislation with a discretionary formula for confusion, conflict and court cases.  The gutting of the Fisheries Act raised the ire of four former federal Ministers of Fisheries.  Environment Minister Peter Kent insulted the four former ministers, suggesting they had not read the Act.  Mulroney era Minister Tom Siddon showed up to testify before the sub-committee on Finance and in short order made it clear he may be the only Minister who has read the act.  While Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield tried to claim the new Fisheries Act will improve habitat protection, the assault to habitat is real, underscored by the subsequent lay-off notices to all DFO habitat officers in British Columbia. The National Round Table on the Environment and Economy is scrapped.  The Species at Risk Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act amended to allow the National Energy Board to assume jurisdiction of endangered species or navigable waters are in the way of any pipeline.

Basic science and monitoring is being savaged with the end of funding to the Canadian Foundation of Climate and Atmospheric Science, elimination of the Adaptation research group within Environment Canada, the cuts to ozone monitoring, the closure of the Polar Arctic and Environmental Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka, the sale of the 58 lakes in the globally unique Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora, Ontario, the elimination of the marine contaminants programme within DFO, the loss of scientists in Natural Resources Canada to study ice cores data (and the hope to find a university with a large fridge willing to take the 80,000 year ice core record Canada’s government no longer wants), the end of monitoring smoke stack emissions, cut backs in the Canada Oil and Gas research group in Halifax, and cuts at NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) resulting in the closing of the Yukon Research Lab at Yukon College in Whitehorse.

The thin end of the wedge of privatization has hit National Parks – first Jasper and then the hot springs at Banff, while cuts to ecological staff in the parks compelled former Deputy Minister Jacques Gerin to call on Harper to stop gutting National Parks.

It is a blitzkrieg of bad news as cut-backs and programme cancellation hit the core areas of federal responsibility to protect nature.  The multi-faceted assault has the effect of blinding media and the public to the largest threat.  In 2012, Canada still has no plan to address the threat of climate change.

While Stephen Harper has succeeded in dramatically reducing the Canadian media coverage of climate science through the muzzling of government scientists, the atmosphere does not seem to have gotten the memo.  Around the world, the force and frequency of severe weather events has woken up even the mainstream US media.  Fires, floods, tornadoes, heat waves are wreaking havoc on agriculture and running up the bills to the insurance industry.  The culprit for much of this year’s strange weather phenomenon is the rapidly warming Arctic.  As the Arctic warms the differential in temperature between the Arctic and the Equator becomes less pronounced. That causes the jet stream to lose its straight and fast course. (Francis, Vavrus study, Rutgers/Univ of Wisconsin). Slowing down, it has allowed large low pressure systems and high pressure systems to sit for far longer periods than normal in one place —  causing flooding in the low pressure zones and heat waves and fires in the high zones.

Loss of agriculture, losses to floods and fires also cost the economy, as well as human lives. Despite the Prime Minister’s attempts to destroy the collection of data, the evidence of the climate crisis is all around us.  We are sabotaging our children’s future – but what does it matter as long as the bitumen flows?

Elizabeth May is the Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada.

First published in the Hill Times.

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