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A Dam(n) Big Fracking Problem

A Dam(n) Big Fracking Problem

Regulators left behind as industry built dozens of unauthorized dams — many at risk of failure.

More than half of 48 dams that oil and gas companies built in recent years without first obtaining the proper permits had serious structural problems that could have caused many to fail.

And now, the BC Oil and Gas Commission, which appeared to be asleep at the switch in allowing the unlicensed dams to be built in the first place, is frantically trying to figure out what to do about them after the fact.

Information about the unprecedented, unregulated dam-building spree is contained in a raft of documents that the commission released in response to freedom of information requests filed by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The documents obtained by the CCPA, along with other materials recently posted on the OGC’s website, reveal that 28 of at least 48 unlicensed dams on Crown (meaning public) lands had significant structural flaws or other problems belatedly identified by commission staff.

All the dams were built to trap fresh water used by energy companies drilling and fracking for gas in northeast B.C. In some fracking operations in the region, companies are pressure-pumping the equivalent of 64 Olympic-size swimming pools of water underground to break open gas-bearing rock formations, triggering earthquakes in the process.

The OGC paved the way for the construction of the dams by granting companies numerous permits under the Land Act to use public lands to “store water.”

But in approving the applications, commission personnel failed to ask basic, critical questions: How did companies intend to store the water? In tanks? In pits? Behind dams?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

In Photos: The Canadian Mining Boom You’ve Never Seen Before

In Photos: The Canadian Mining Boom You’ve Never Seen Before

 

“If you’re in Vancouver this is way out in the middle of nowhere, but way out in the middle of nowhere is our backyard.”

Those are the words of Frederick Otilius Olsen Jr., the tribal president of a traditional Haida village on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

When I met him, he had travelled to Ketchikan, Alaska, to meet with officials about the risk posed by the mining boom across the border in British Columbia.

He stood on the boardwalk overlooking Ketchikan’s fishing fleet and waved his hands animatedly while he told me about how his culture — and southern Alaska’s economy — depends on salmon.

The week before, I’d spent several hours flying in a small fixed-wing plane over B.C.’s mining boom to capture never before seen images of the province’s largest and most remote mines.

Door removed, I captured hundreds of frames as we passed over the Red Chris copper and gold mine, which began operation in late 2014. Its tailings pond and dam rises impossible and angular out of a soft, sloping valley.

Set within the vast and largely intact headwaters of northwestern B.C.’s greatest wild salmon rivers, the Red Chris mine is just one of 10 mines either in operation, in development or in advanced exploration stages in this region.

It is owned and operated by Imperial Metals, the company responsible for the Mount Polley mine disaster in central B.C. If the name seems familiar, it’s because in 2014, a tailings dam at Mount Polley collapsed, resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in Canadian history. All told, 24 million cubic metres of contaminated mining waste flooded into a lake —  a source of drinking water and salmon-spawning ground that feeds the Fraser River.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Lessons from the front lines of anti-colonial pipeline resistance

Lessons from the front lines of anti-colonial pipeline resistance

A bridge leads to the entrance of the Unist’ot’en territory in British Columbia, Canada. (WNV/Jeff Nicholls)

The Standing Rock standoff over the Dakota Access Pipeline was a reminder that colonization, and resistance to it, both exist in the present tense. Fossil fuel pipelines that despoil indigenous lands and waters have become key flashpoints in long-standing anti-colonial resistance.

An important precursor and inspiration for the Standing Rock camp is an indigenous occupation in northern British Columbia, Canada. For the past eight years, the Unist’ot’en clan have reoccupied their traditional territory. When the camp began in 2009, seven pipelines had been proposed to cross their territory, as well as their water source, the salmon-bearing Morice River. But thanks to Unist’ot’en resistance, oil and gas companies have been blocked from building new fossil fuel infrastructure. The lesser known but wildly successful Unist’ot’en encampment holds crucial lessons for anti-pipeline and anti-colonial organizers across North America, or Turtle Island, as many indigenous nations call it.

We visited the occupation this summer. Upon arriving, visitors must undergo a border-crossing protocol. There is only one way in and out of Unist’ot’en territory – a bridge that crosses the Morice River. Before being allowed to cross, we were asked where we came from, whether we worked for the government or the fossil fuel industry, and how our visit could benefit the Unist’ot’en.

We explained that we are both settlers, people living on and benefiting from indigenous lands. We also expressed our willingness to help in whatever ways were needed during our stay, such as kitchen duty, gardening and construction. Finally, we shared our commitment to decolonization and climate justice, and our appreciation for how Unist’ot’en land defense accomplishes both; it returns indigenous lands to indigenous peoples while blocking fossil fuel infrastructure that threatens the entire human estate. After a short consultation, clan members welcomed us to leave Canada and cross into Unist’ot’en territory.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Behind Vancouver’s Housing Bubble: How Canadian Casinos Are Use To Launder Millions In Chinese Drug Money

Behind Vancouver’s Housing Bubble: How Canadian Casinos Are Use To Launder Millions In Chinese Drug Money

Nearly two years after we first observed that Vancouver‘s soaring real estate market is nothing but a bubbling melange of criminal Chinese oligarch “hot money”, desperate to get parked offshore in any piece of real estate, but mostly in British Columbia regardless of price, a new multi-year investigation has uncovered extensive links – including money laundering and underground banking – between China’s criminal underworld and British Columbia drug and casino cash and VIPs, and their connections to China, Macau and the norotious triads.

Here is Postmedia’s real estate reporter Sam Cooper reporting on and explaining how British Columbia casinos are used to launder millions in drug cash.

* * *

On Oct. 15, 2015, a Mountie burst through the front door of an office in Richmond, carrying a battering ram and with a rifle slung on his back. The door swung shut behind him, locking him inside. He was in the lobby of Silver International Investment, a high-end money transfer business, surrounded by bulletproof glass. Behind a second glass door, a woman rushed to make a call while hiding several cellphones. Under her desk was a safe stuffed with bundles of cash. The Mountie, a large man, counted seconds anxiously, wondering if the woman would unlock the interior door.

It was one of 10 police raids in Richmond that day — part of a major investigation that has uncovered massive money laundering and underground banking networks with links to Mainland China, Macau and B.C. casinos, allege the RCMP’s federal organized crime unit and China’s national police service.

Postmedia has spent six months looking into the case, involving freedom of information requests for thousands of documents and dozens of interviews with government and law enforcement sources that were not authorized to be identified.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

BC Premier Says Kinder Morgan Pipeline Plan Meets Her Conditions, Opposition Objects

BC Premier Says Kinder Morgan Pipeline Plan Meets Her Conditions, Opposition Objects

Project’s foes call Clark’s decision a ‘surprise to absolutely no one’ and ‘simply deceitful.’

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark says Kinder Morgan’s proposal to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline has met her government’s requirements for approval.

“The project has met the five conditions,” said Clark. “We always said the five conditions were a path to ‘yes’ and that if the project met the five conditions we would say ‘yes’, and that’s where we are today.”

NDP leader John Horgan said he’s opposed to the project because it poses too great an environmental risk to B.C.’s coast.

The project would triple the capacity of Kinder Morgan’s existing pipeline between Edmonton, Alberta and Burnaby, B.C. and add about six oil tankers a week leaving Vancouver. It received conditional approval from the federal government in November.

The B.C. government announced Wednesday that it had given provincial environmental approval, with 37 conditions, to the project. Clark also said Kinder Morgan has now met her requirement to make sure B.C. received a “fair share” of fiscal and economic benefits.

Kinder Morgan has committed to paying B.C. up to $1 billion as a share of revenue from the project, which the province will use to fund grants to community groups doing environmental protection work, Clark said.

A government backgrounder says the company will pay the province between $25 million and $50 million for 20 years, depending on whether or not the pipeline is operating at full capacity on its spot market contracts, for a total payment between $500 million and $1 billion.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trudeau Approves Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline As Part of Canada’s ‘Climate Plan’

Trudeau Approves Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline As Part of Canada’s ‘Climate Plan’

Justin Trudeau announced the approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline Tuesday, saying the project is integral to meeting Canada’s climate commitments.

Tweet: Sorry, what? @JustinTrudeau says #KinderMorgan is integral to meeting Canada’s climate commitments http://bit.ly/2g3PQLx #bcpoli #cdnpoli“Today’s decision is an integral part of our plan to uphold the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions while creating jobs and protecting the environment,” Trudeau told reporters at a press conference.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will twin an existing pipeline running from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C. increasing transport capacity from 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 890,000 barrels per day. Trudeau also approved an application to increase capacity of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline from 390,000 to 915,000 barrels per day.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the two pipelines combined represent an increase of 23 to 28 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent released into the atmosphere.

Under the Paris Agreement Canada pledged to reduce emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Canada’s current policies aren’t expected to meet those targets. According to a recent analysis by Climate Action Network, Canada is expected to miss those targets by 91 megatonnes.

Trans Mountain and Line 3 put Canada at a further disadvantage when it comes to meeting those targets.

If built, these projects would facilitate huge growth in the tar sands,” Adam Scott, analyst with Oil Change International, said, “increasing total greenhouse gas pollution by as much as [27 megatonnes] of CO2 every year — equivalent to the pollution from 58 million cars on the road.”

Trudeau acknowledged the Trans Mountain approval was made in light of increased production in the oilsands.

We know there will be an increase in the production in oilsands in coming years,” Trudeau said, adding Canada’s pipeline network is operating at capacity, meaning more pipelines are necessary.

But Scott says that position isn’t backed up by the facts.

There is no need for any additional pipeline capacity,” Scott said, pointing to a recent analysis done by Oil Change International.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

David Suzuki: We Can’t Dig Our Way Out of the Fossil Fuels Hole

David Suzuki: We Can’t Dig Our Way Out of the Fossil Fuels Hole

Rather than focusing on short-term economic and corporate priorities, though, politicians should first consider the long-term health and well-being of the people they’re elected to represent. When it comes to climate change and fossil fuels, many aren’t living up to that.

We celebrate the federal government’s decision to implement nation-wide carbon pricing, even though what’s proposed won’t, without additional measures like regulations, get us to our commitments under the Paris Agreement, which is also inadequate for keeping global warming from catastrophic levels. A government could be forgiven for going slow on a measure opposed by some industrial sectors, provinces and citizens, but it’s difficult to take a government seriously when it approves or supports expanding fossil fuel infrastructure and development while the world continues to break warming records, with increasingly dire consequences.

massive B.C. “carbon bomb” LNG project in the midst of critical salmon-rearing territory, in defiance of many area First Nations’ wishes. Likely approval of at least one more bitumen pipeline to support expanded oil sands development. A provincial government that pretty much says, “We’ll support federal efforts to fight climate change if you support our efforts to fuel it.” None of this makes sense.

As a report from non-profit Oil Change International and 14 other groups concludes, “The potential carbon emissions from the oil, gas, and coal in the world’s currently operating fields and mines would take us beyond 2°C of warming,” and “The reserves in currently operating oil and gas fields alone, even with no coal, would take the world beyond 1.5°C.” That’s without any new development!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Premier Clark on ‘Historic Debt Binge,’ Says Conservative Leader

Premier Clark on ‘Historic Debt Binge,’ Says Conservative Leader

‘Debt-free BC’ 2013 campaign promise called unrealistic, simplistic.

Premier Christy Clark won the provincial election in 2013 promising a “Debt-Free BC,” but an opponent now accuses her of overseeing a “historic debt binge” since coming to office.

Dan Brooks, who won back the BC Conservative Party leadership on Sept. 17 after stepping down earlier this year, said in a press release that last week’s first quarterly report shows the province’s total debt has grown by 45 per cent — $20.1 billion — under Clark.

Total provincial debt was around $45.2 billion when Clark took office in 2011 and has swollen to $65.3 billion, according to the quarterly report. It is projected to hit $71.9 billion in 2019.

The total debt includes accumulated operating deficits from past years as well as borrowing for any number of purposes, including building schools, hospitals, social housing and public transit. It also includes “self-supported debt” such as that carried by Crown corporations including BC Hydro.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong, commenting on the quarterly report, highlighted the operating surpluses that mean the province has stopped adding to the operating debt. He also pointed out that taxpayer-supported debt has been dropping when expressed as a percentage of the province’s Gross Domestic Product and is lower than in most provinces.

Brooks was unavailable Tuesday, but in the press release said: “From the moment she first took office in 2011, Christy Clark has been spending taxpayers’ dollars in a misguided, reckless manner… If somehow she is able to secure another four-year mandate in 2017, there can be little doubt that the BC Liberals will perceive it as permission to leave an even larger legacy of debt for future generations.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Ottawa sets up working group to monitor housing market

Ottawa sets up working group to monitor housing market

Finance Minister Bill Morneau says he will work with cities and provinces to get more and better data

Policymakers are looking at all the tools at their disposal to take care of the housing market.

Policymakers are looking at all the tools at their disposal to take care of the housing market. (David Donnelly/CBC)

The federal government plans to work with British Columbia and Ontario and the cities of Toronto and Vancouver to keep a close eye on housing markets in those two cities and across the country., Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Thursday.

“The working group will review the broad range of policy levers that affect both supply and demand for housing, the issue of affordability, and the stability of the housing market,” Morneau said in a speech to the Economic Club in Toronto on Thursday.

Morneau said that while he worked with his provincial counterparts on Canada Pension Plan issues, the housing market was also a major topic of conversation in Vancouver at their meeting Monday evening.

“Housing prices have surged by 15 per cent in Toronto, and 17 per cent in Vancouver in the last year alone,” Morneau said. “People want to know what’s going on.”

Managing the housing market to ensure new buyers can still get in without harming existing owners is an “extremely complex problem,” Morneau said, made even more so by the fact that no level of government has complete control over the issue.

“We want to make sure housing stays affordable for Canadian families but we also want to make sure the market stays stable, that it’s not vulnerable to economic shocks,” he told the CBC’s Peter Armstrong in an interview set to air on The Exchange at 7 p.m. eastern time.

“It’s important to understand that while the federal government has some levers it can pull, we don’t have all of them,” Morneau said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘No Need for Site C’: Review Panel Chair Speaks Out Against Dam in New Video

‘No Need for Site C’: Review Panel Chair Speaks Out Against Dam in New Video

I think we’re making a big mistake, a very expensive one,” Swain says in the video. “Of the $9 billion it will cost, at least $7 billion will never be returned. You and I as rate payers will end up paying $7 billion bucks for something we get nothing for.”

Since 2005, domestic demand for electricity in B.C. has been essentially flat, making it difficult to justify the dam which will flood 107 kilometres of the Peace River and destroy thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land.

There is no need for Site C,” Swain says. “If there was a need, we could meet it with a variety of other renewable and smaller scale sources.”

With a price tag of $8.8 billion, Site C dam is the most expensive public infrastructure project in B.C.’s history. The joint review panel that Swain chaired found demand for the power had not been proven and called for the project to be reviewed by the B.C. Utilities Commission — a recommendation the B.C. government ignored.

Swain first spoke out about the Site C dam last year, but this is the first video interview on the subject with the former deputy minister of Indian and Northern Affairs.

The provinces have the responsibility for the management of natural resources. I don’t think British Columbia has done its job,” Swain says, referring to B.C.’s failure to investigate alternatives to the Site C dam.

Swain outlined the economic case against the dam in an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun on Friday.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

NEB approves Trans Mountain pipeline with 157 conditions

NEB approves Trans Mountain pipeline with 157 conditions

Federal government has 7 months to make decision on controversial project

Coastal communities in B.C. have raised serious concerns about spill risk and the potential damage it could cause to the environment.

Coastal communities in B.C. have raised serious concerns about spill risk and the potential damage it could cause to the environment. (Kinder Morgan)

The federal government now has seven months to make a decision on the controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, after the national regulator gave its support to the proposed project.

The National Energy Board is recommending the multi-billion dollar pipeline be constructed if 157 conditions are met, including 49 environmental requirements. The NEB described the requirements as achievable for the company.

Kinder Morgan must meet the conditions in order for the company to construct and operate the pipeline.

Trans Mountain 20160519

A map of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline is seen in the foreground as Dr. Robert Steedman, chief environment officer of the National Energy Board, releases their report on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

The NEB concluded the Trans Mountain expansion will provide several economic advantages for Canada such as access to more export markets, thousands of construction jobs and increased government revenue.

At this point, the exact route of the pipeline is still not determined.

The federal government will take the NEB’s decision into account in addition to considerations about upstream greenhouse gases and views of First Nations and other communities along the route.

Alberta’s oilpatch welcomed the decision, although the excitement was measured.

“It’s beneficial in 2019 when there is actual oil flowing,” said Robert Cooper, with the institutional sales and trading team at Acumen Capital Partners in Calgary.  “Right now the immediate concern in the energy business is keeping the business alive.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Major BC Liberal Donor Named in Panama Papers

Major BC Liberal Donor Named in Panama Papers

Haywood Securities listed as a shareholder in firms registered in British Virgin Islands.

MichaelDeJongDowncast_610px.jpg

Finance Minister Michael de Jong said he had ‘no knowledge’ of a BC Liberal donor being named in the Panama Papers. Photo: BC Gov’t Flickr.

The name of a major donor to the British Columbia Liberal Party appears in a database drawn from the Panama Papers leak.

Haywood Securities Inc., a Vancouver company that has giventhe BC Liberals $332,000 since 2005, is described in the database as a shareholder in companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, a researcher with the Dogwood Initiative environmental group in B.C. discovered.

According to the database, Haywood held shares in Kola Gold Ltd., a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2014. The investment firm held the shares both directly and in trust for a holding company.

The database also lists Haywood as holding shares in African Aura Resources Ltd., a mining company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, in trust for 22 investors. And it held shares in trust for an investor in Gem Diamond Mining Company of Africa, which is also registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the database on May 9. On its website, the ICIJ describes the Panama Papers as a “giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies.”

A disclaimer in the ICIJ website stresses that there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts, and the organization does not intend to imply anyone appearing in the database has broken any laws or otherwise acted improperly.

Finance minister won’t ‘speculate’

The Tyee’s call to Haywood was put through to company president Rob Blanchard’s office. An assistant to Blanchard took the message, but the call was not returned by publication time.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

House flipping tax could curb speculative foreign money, CIBC says

House flipping tax could curb speculative foreign money, CIBC says

Tax on home flippers may be helpful, but most foreign investors are likely legitimate, Benjamin Tal says

Canada lacks concrete data on the level of foreign investment in the country's housing market, experts say.

Canada lacks concrete data on the level of foreign investment in the country’s housing market, experts say. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

Canada may consider a tax on foreign investors flipping Canadian homes for a quick profit, Benjamin Tal says, but overall the economist at CIBC says there’s no evidence that type of activity is a big problem in Canadian real estate.

In a report Friday, Tal delved into a topic that is currently a major focus of policymakers: the impact of foreign investment on Canadian home prices.

There is a perception in some quarters that a major cause of high house prices in Canadian cities such as Toronto and Vancouver is foreign investors. Specifically, it has been alleged that foreign money is flooding into real estate in those two places, and pushing prices out of reach for those who actually live there.

Unfortunately, hard data on foreign money is hard to come by, as Canada does not yet reliably track such information — although recent steps from B.C. to track residency info of buyers is a step in that direction.

Canada’s national housing agency, the CMHC, says it is trying to collect more information on the topic, and Statistics Canada was earmarked half a million dollars in the recent federal budget to beef up its data collection on the housing market.

In the report, Tal draws a distinct line between foreign money where the buyer has an actual foothold in Canada, and speculative investments where the buyer has no incentive other than a financial interest.

The first is the more common type of foreign investment, Tal said after speaking with a group of real estate brokers who deal exclusively with foreign buyers. And moreover — it’s nothing to worry about.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Gov’t Using Misleading Accounting at BC Hydro, Charges Dix

Gov’t Using Misleading Accounting at BC Hydro, Charges Dix

Minister counters that ‘rate-smoothing’ accounts make sense due to 10-year plan for rate increases.

Mt Seymour powerlines

BC Hydro transmission tower on Mt. Seymour. Photo by agaumont from Your BC: The Tyee’s Photo Pool.

The British Columbia government has chosen to use misleading accounting at BC Hydro to fudge the province’s finances ahead of the 2017 election, charges NDP energy critic Adrian Dix.

“They misled people about the state of B.C.’s finances, and they misled people about the state of BC Hydro’s finances,” said Dix, the MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway, in an interview. “This will affect every single person in the province.”

In particular, he said, the government is using “rate smoothing” or “rate stabilization” accounts to move up about $1 billion in revenue that the Crown utility won’t actually receive from ratepayers until after 2021 so that it is included as income for earlier years.

The accounting trick lets the government continue to take money out of the utility to help balance its own books, Dix said.

“We’re borrowing against nothing here,” he said. “This is a pure attempt to mislead people about the state of the province’s finances.”

A table from a March 30 BC Hydro presentation shows the practice peaks in 2017, which happens to be the same year as the next provincial election.

That year, BC Hydro will draw down $250 million from a rate-smoothing account, money that it doesn’t plan to finish repaying until 2024.

For context, the provincial government has budgeted an overall surplus of $287 million in 2017-2018, which in part depends on receiving $706 million from BC Hydro.

The rate-smoothing money is therefore more than one-third of the amount the government plans to take from the utility in the election year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Four More Whoppers about LNG in British Columbia

Four More Whoppers about LNG in British Columbia

The real facts behind Christy Clark’s rosy claims.

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BC Premier Christy Clark: a million-dollar website to drum up LNG jobs, but not a single job yet.

The B.C. budget claims the province is making money from shale gas. But last month The Tyee showed the province is pouring more cash into the industry than it is getting back.

In fact the only time the B.C. government made any money from shale gas was during a land lease boom nearly a dozen years ago. Ever since then, revenues have dwindled to next to nothing due to low royalties and taxpayer-funded subsidies to the ailing shale gas industry.

Dig deeper, and four more claims made by the B.C. government turn out to be liquefied natural gas whoppers as well.

New information on employment numbers, shale gas reserves, transmission lines and the LNG promise of economic prosperity show that stretching the truth remains a persistent trend in the Christy Clark administration.

Whopper #1: Vastly less gas to sell than claimed

Let’s begin with the government claim that British Columbia “has more than an estimated 2,900 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of marketable shale gas reserves,” or more methane in the ground than the entire United States.

Hughes pointed out in a report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that the BC Oil and Gas Commission estimated that B.C. only had 376 tcf of marketable shale resources. (Hughes added 40 tcf to this number for good measure, for a total of 416 tcf, to account for possible resources in developing plays.)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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