A federal judge has set aside a December 2020 decision by the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to phase out open-net fish farming in B.C.’s Discovery Islands by June 2022. Ruling on primarily procedural grounds, the judge outlined the proper approach the Minister should follow to make such a decision to remove open-net salmon farms from this area, based…
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Georgia Strait Alliance responds to new TMX conditions
Image by Jennie Wyatt. Yesterday, the Province of B.C. released the long-awaited new Environmental Assessment conditions for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. In response, Georgia Strait Alliance’s Energy Campaigner Andrew Radzik said: “The new conditions – to study the human health impacts of an oil spill and the collection of baseline data for B.C. shorelines in…
Read more »New analysis finds the BC climate plan still lags behind Pacific Coast neighbours
Since 2010, B.C. has experienced a 10.7% increase in emissions, which is considered to be very high. The Province’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions inventory shows that in the first year of data available under CleanBC, emissions continued to rise, and the federal inventory shows that they are rising faster than the national average. Last week, the B.C. Government released…
Read more »GSA responds to CleanBC: a climate roadmap going nowhere
Image by Gerd Altmann, Pixaby. Andrew Radzik, Energy Campaigner at Georgia Strait Alliance, responds to the Province’s CleanBC Roadmap announced today, saying: “People across BC felt the climate crisis this year. Hundreds died during the Heat Dome event, thousands were evacuated due to wildfires, and hundreds of thousands faced choking smoke. We desperately need a bold…
Read more »Georgia Strait Alliance response to Province’s sector targets to reduce climate emissions
Image by Li-An Lim. In response to the Province of B.C. splitting the economy into four sectors to establish targets for climate emissions reductions by 2030, Georgia Strait Alliance’s Energy Campaigner Andrew Radzik, says: “We applaud the B.C. government for setting a standalone target for the oil and gas industry. However, we are concerned with how…
Read more »GSA statement on B.C.’s “climate gap” nearly doubling
On Wednesday, the Provincial government released its 2020 Climate Change Accountability Report. It shows that B.C. is far from meeting its legally-mandated 2030 climate goal. A major reason is because the oil and gas industry in B.C. now emits more climate pollution than all other industries in the province combined, while other industrial sectors have reduced their emissions. In response,…
Read more »B.C. Government breaks promise on key climate deadline
Image by Unsplash. The Province of British Columbia has missed its own deadline to complete the CleanBC plan, another in a long string of broken promises on climate action. The government had promised to unveil additional climate actions to meet its 2030 target by December 5, 2020. Despite Premier Horgan’s repeated assurances that Liquefied Natural Gas…
Read more »Seismic survey threatens endangered whales
Image by Rachael Merrett. As the oceans become quieter amidst the global pandemic, an application for seismic surveys off the West Coast of Vancouver Island threatens the recovery of endangered Southern Resident killer whales. This week, in response, a coalition of conservation groups has written to the federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans to inform her…
Read more »GSA responds to TMX decision by the Federal Court of Appeal
Photo credit: Carla Hunt. Today, the Federal Court of Appeal released its decision regarding six challenges made by the Coldwater Indian Band, the Squamish Nation, the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribes, and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation regarding consultation with Indigenous communities affected by the Trans Mountain project following the project’s second approval by the federal government last June. In response,…
Read more »Emergency Management laws in B.C. must address climate costs, say organizations and academics
B.C. is not doing enough to investigate, prepare for, and protect taxpayers from the looming costs of climate change, say 25 B.C.-based organizations and four leading academics. In a submission to the B.C. government’s consultation on emergency management legislation, the groups are calling on the Province to better incorporate the increasing financial costs expected to prepare for, respond to and…
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