Home » Posts tagged 'british columbia' (Page 8)

Tag Archives: british columbia

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Forget the Praise: BC’s Carbon Tax Is a Failure

March 9, 2016

Forget the Praise: BC’s Carbon Tax Is a Failure

Higher emissions, slow growth, regressive taxation. Sorry, what’s to celebrate?

Premier Clark at GLOBE 2016

‘We think in British Columbia a carbon tax is a really successful way to go,’ BC’s premier said last year. The only problem is it doesn’t work. Photo of Premier Clark at GLOBE 2016 by Mychaylo Prystupa.

“Let’s cut the crap about B.C.’s carbon tax. The impact of the carbon tax has been overstated by people who love carbon taxes, and it’s annoying that the tax has generated so much uncritical praise.” — Marc Lee, pro-carbon tax economist.

To hear it from Premier Christy Clark, our province is a beacon of trailblazing perfection in the battle against climate change.

And the crowning glory of B.C.’s efforts is the carbon tax introduced in 2008. The tax now adds 6.67 cents a litre to the price of gasoline and imposes costs on other fuels for residents and industries.

“We think in British Columbia a carbon tax is a really successful way to go,” Clark said in November 2015 before jetting to the Paris climate change talks.

Cue the applause, from the New York Times to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to new group Smart Prosperity that launched last week in Vancouver, with none other than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to validate Clark’s claims that you can price carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions — without hurting your economy.

The only problem is that B.C.’s carbon tax doesn’t work.

Marc Lee, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in the province, likes carbon taxes. But “don’t believe the hype on B.C.’s carbon tax,” he says.

“The reality is that since 2010, B.C.’s GHG emissions have increased every year; as of 2013 they are up 4.3 per cent above 2010 levels,” Lee writes on the CCPA website.

Even on a per capita basis, emissions have risen.

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

Three Wacky Accounting Numbers for LNG and Shale Gas

March 2, 2016

Three Wacky Accounting Numbers for LNG and Shale Gas

Close read of BC’s budget shows realities of this subsidized industry boondoggle.

Three things don’t add up in the British Columbia budget when it comes to declining revenues from the battered shale gas industry and its non-existent cousin, the province’s liquefied natural gas fantasy.

The first concerns revenue. Premier Christy Clark promised in 2013 that profits from the LNG industry would pour like manna into a $100-billion provincial prosperity fund.

In the months before the election that year, the government persuaded citizens that a complex, high-cost and foreign-owned industry, tied to a volatile greenhouse gas, could somehow make the province debt-free and bless it with Alberta-like prosperity.

Twenty LNG proponents all lined up at the government trough, expecting low royalties and taxes. But not one of the 20 proponents has committed to go ahead with a LNG project, because the economic justification has vanished in a sea of volatility. Many are folding, such as the Douglas Channel LNG project, because of what industry calls “unfavourable market conditions.”

New LNG terminals in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Angola have created an oversupply while demand is falling in key markets like Japan, South Korea and China due to economic stagnation. Prices for LNG are expected to remain in the tank for years or become as volatile as oil.

No matter. Faced with her pet industry’s dire prospects, Premier Clark took $100 million, about what the province will bring in through higher Medical Services Plan premiums, and boldly placed those hard-won tax dollars into B.C.’s newly created LNG prosperity fund.

Clark is trying to preserve the illusion of a revenue stream that doesn’t exist. In so doing, her government has out-Orwelled Orwell with some very creative explanations.

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

As Hydro Rates Climb, an Idea to Reduce Bills for Low-income Folks

February 27, 2016

As Hydro Rates Climb, an Idea to Reduce Bills for Low-income Folks 

Advocates pitch affordability program, but minister insists rates are modest.

Fist-Paper

‘Most other jurisdictions in North America have bill affordability programs. We don’t.’ Bill photo via Shutterstock.

With electricity rates continuing to spiral upwards, an advocacy organization is pushing to have BC Hydro adopt measures to make bills more affordable for people surviving on low incomes.

“Most other jurisdictions in North America have bill affordability programs,” said Sarah Khan, a lawyer with the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre. “We don’t.”

Confirmation of the latest BC Hydro rate hike came Friday when president and CEO Jessica McDonald said the Crown utility is seeking to raise rates by four per cent on April 1, consistent with a 10-year plan set out in 2013.

BC Hydro rates have gone up by 50 per cent over the past 10 years and they are scheduled to go up another 11 per cent over the next three years, Khan said.

They’ll rise even further when the $10-billion Site C dam is completed on the Peace River and customers start paying for it, she said.

Meanwhile, the provincial minimum wage and welfare rates haven’t kept up while the cost of living has become more expensive, leaving many struggling to pay their bills, Khan said.

The advocacy centre has a proposal to make bills more affordable for some 170,000 families in B.C. who live below the low-income cut-offs set by Statistics Canada, around $32,000 a year for a family of four depending on what size community they live in.

On behalf of seven anti-poverty and seniors’ groups, the centre plans to submit the proposal in April as part of BC Hydro’s ongoing rate design review in front of the B.C. Utilities Commission. Launched by the provincial government, the review’s mandate includes evaluating the current rate structures to ensure they are fair.

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

B.C. LNG: AltaGas shelves Douglas Channel project near Kitimat

February 26, 2016

B.C. LNG: AltaGas shelves Douglas Channel project near Kitimat

Company says decision due to poor economic conditions and worsening global energy prices.

Another LNG project in B.C. has been shelved in response to falling global energy prices.

Another LNG project in B.C. has been shelved in response to falling global energy prices. (CBC)

In another blow to B.C.’s nascent liquefied natural gas industry, AltaGas Ltd. is shelving the development of its Douglas Channel LNG plant near Kitimat.

The decision to halt work on the project was blamed on poor economic conditions and worsening global energy prices.

“We believe the project could deliver LNG to Japan at very competitive prices,” AltaGas CEO David Cornhill said Thursday.

“However, without a meaningful offtake agreement the consortium can no longer continue the development of the project.”

AltaGas, along with its global partners in the project, had been aiming for the project near Kitimat, B.C., to begin exporting LNG in 2018.

The announcement comes just weeks after Shell Canada announced it was postponing its final investment decision (FID) on their huge LNG terminal proposal in Kitimat until the end of the year.

Significant decisions to come

Minister of Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman said today’s news does not mean B.C.’s LNG industry is in trouble.

“I don’t think so,” Coleman said Thursday.

“I think we’ve got some significant FID discussions taking place in the next 60-90 days on a couple of projects

“Obviously there’s been two that have told us they want to get to their FID by end of this year…and they’re much larger. This was a very small project.”

The Douglas Channel project is one of the smallest of the more than 20 proposed LNG projects in Canada with the potential to export about 2.4 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year, compared with 33 billion cubic metres for Shell’s LNG Canada project.

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

Site C Is a Climate-Change Disaster, Says Suzuki

February 24, 2016

Site C Is a Climate-Change Disaster, Says Suzuki

‘We have to rethink everything’ says noted environmentalist. A Tyee Q&A.

David Suzuki at Site C announcement

David Suzuki and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip at a media scrum outside the B.C. Superior Court Monday morning. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa.

Flooding valuable farmland to build the Site C dam undermines Canada’s commitment to meet international climate-change targets, environmentalist David Suzuki said outside a B.C. courtroom this week.

The farmland is needed to reduce B.C.’s dependence on imported foods, Suzuki said, and eliminate the huge amounts of carbon fuels needed to bring those foods here.

“It seems to me crazy to put farmland in the north underwater,” he said. “We live in a food chain now in which food grows on average 3,000 kilometres from where it’s consumed. The transport of all that food is dependent on fossil fuels.

“Food has got to be grown much closer to where it’s going to be consumed,” he said.

Instead of building dams and pipelines, Canada should “massively encourage” wind, solar and geothermal energy projects and put a stiff price on carbon emissions, he said.

Suzuki joined Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, at a news conference on the steps of B.C. Supreme Court just before the latest battle over the Site C hydroelectric project began inside.

BC Hydro is seeking an injunction to prevent protesters at the Rocky Mountain Fort camp from “physically interfering” with the construction of Site C. The B.C. government approved the $8.3-billion dam in late 2014.

If completed, Site C would flood about 83 kilometres of the Peace River valley near Hudson’s Hope, much of it fertile land, and generate enough electricity to power 450,000 homes.

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

Average Canadian house price up another 12% to $454,342

January 16, 2016

Average Canadian house price up another 12% to $454,342

But if B.C. and Ontario are stripped out, average house price declined by 2.2% last year

Hot markets in Toronto and Vancouver are skewing the national average price of a Canadian home higher, CREA says.

Hot markets in Toronto and Vancouver are skewing the national average price of a Canadian home higher, CREA says. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

The average price of a Canadian home increased by 12 per cent in the year up to December and is now worth $454,342, the Canadian Real Estate Association says.

As it has done for a while, the realtor group says Toronto and Vancouver are skewing the national average higher. But if those two cities are stripped out, the national average drops to $336,994 while the annual gain is still 5.4 per cent.

“Leading the charge was Vancouver, where we have run out of superlatives to describe just how wild its market is,” BMO economist Sal Guatieri said. “[Vancouver] sales were up 33.7 per cent in December and benchmark prices vaulted 18.9 per cent.”

‘We have run out of superlatives to describe just how wild [Vancouver’s] market is’– Sal Guatieri, BMO

Indeed, those two cities are masking a housing market that is now getting cheaper on a national level. If the entire provinces of British Columbia and Ontario are stripped out, the average Canadian home was worth $294,363 in December — a decrease of 2.2 per cent during the past year.

Prices weren’t the only part of the housing market that rose during the month. The actual number of sales was up by 10 per cent in December compared to the same month a year ago. December is not typically a strong month for home sales as demand goes away during cold winter months.

“December mirrored the main themes of 2015, with strong sales activity and price growth across much of British Columbia and Ontario offsetting declines in activity among oil producing regions,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist.

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

British Columbia First Nations’ Failing Fisheries

January 14, 2016

Climate change means marine creatures are migrating—away from First Nations’ territory.

Seafood has sustained the First Nations of British Columbia for millennia. The annual migration of Pacific salmon, in particular, is lifeblood. Each year, millions of salmon swim and leap their way up major river systems such as the Fraser and Skeena all the way to landlocked communities in the province’s interior. But now, climate change is threatening to strike at the heart of those time-honored connections by pushing marine life farther north in search of cooler waters.

As a new study warns, “unprecedented climate change poses a considerable threat” to First Nations’ food, cultural, and economic values. By 2050, aboriginal catches are expected to decline significantly, depriving indigenous people from 16 coastal communities of up to CAN $12-million annually in commercial fisheries, the study shows.

Warming and changing oxygen concentrations in the ocean, spurred on by anthropogenic climate change, will send marine life swimming northward at an average rate of about 10 to 18 kilometers per decade. For the 98 fish and invertebrate species studied, this will equate to an average drop in annual catches of 4.5 to 11 percent, with the declines being much higher for certain species.

The study shows that two critical species will suffer the greatest declines: salmon by 17 to 29 percent; and their prey, herring, by 28 to 49 percent. Catches of green sea urchin could shrink by as much as 36 percent, flounder and sole by 30 percent, shrimp and prawns by 18 percent, and halibut by 13 percent.

Aboriginal groups located in British Columbia’s more southerly waters are expected to suffer the greatest catch losses: up to 27 percent for the Tsawwassen First Nation near the Canada-United States border, compared with 6.6 percent for the Haida First Nation off the province’s north coast.

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

Condo sales with no cash down payment proposed by B.C. developer

January 13, 2016

Condo sales with no cash down payment proposed by B.C. developer

Buyers would get a discount, which would become a virtual down payment

Townline wants to sell condos in The Strand development in Port Moody, B.C., to buyers who don't have the cash for a down payment.

Townline wants to sell condos in The Strand development in Port Moody, B.C., to buyers who don’t have the cash for a down payment. (Townline)

A B.C. developer wants to sell condos in Metro Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market to first-time buyers without the cash for a down payment, but not everyone is sure it’s a good idea.

“It’s just a different spin on, ‘How do we provide an affordable home ownership option to buyers who otherwise can’t get into the market?'” says Townline vice-president of marketing Chris Colbeck.

The company is proposing that buyers on limited incomes be allowed to purchase a unit in its Port Moody development for eight per cent less than the appraised market value.

The appraisal would be done by an independent third party, allowing the eight per cent to be used as a virtual down payment for a mortgage.

That would mean the bank would be financing 100 per cent of the cost for the buyer, says Colbeck.

The idea has already been approved by B.C. Housing, says Colbeck, and Townline is hoping the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) will approve the program as well.

“It’s a partnership we’ve made with B.C. Housing that’s providing us the ability to do this affordability program that hasn’t been done before. They’re the ones that have structured this program,” he says.

Under review by CMHC

Townline’s proposal is still under review, said CMHC spokeswoman Karine LeBlanc.

Normally home buyers are required to put down a minimum of five per cent to qualify for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation insurance, and 10 per cent for homes costing more than $500,000. It is protection that banks and other lenders insist on when providing a mortgage worth more than 80 per cent of a home’s value.

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

As Housing Prices Soar, Finance Minister Is Well Invested

January 12, 2016

As Housing Prices Soar, Finance Minister Is Well Invested

Gov’t must be ‘careful about intervening,’ says Mike de Jong, who has a stake in several properties.

MikeDeJong_300px.jpg

Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s most recent financial disclosure shows he received rental income from seven investment properties. Photo: BC Gov’t Flickr.

Taking action to reduce housing prices in Vancouver could sap the equity people have built up in real estate, British Columbia Finance Minister Mike de Jong warned last year.

The hit from anything the provincial government might do to drop real estate prices in B.C. would be particularly painful for investors like de Jong, who has a personal ownership stake in seven investment properties in Abbotsford, an hour’s drive from Vancouver.

“You’ve got to be careful about intervening, about having the state intervene to try and regulate pricing, or depress pricing,” de Jong said last May as the #Don’tHave1Million campaign drew attention to the negative effects of high house prices in the region.

“Those who are expressing a concern, I think if you really assess what they are seeking, it is a reduction in the value of homes in Vancouver and that will have consequences for a lot of families,” de Jong said.

“If property values in Vancouver were to reduce by, let us say five per cent, that could easily translate into a reduction in equity for families that own homes in Vancouver of 60, 70 or $80,000,” he said.

“All I’m saying is you’ve got to be careful about how you use the tools and levers of taxation, and you have to be clear on what your objective is.”

If de Jong sounded more sympathetic to people who already own homes than to people trying to enter the market, it could be because like them he would be personally exposed to the pain that would come with dropping prices.

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

B.C. property assessments spike up to 30% in Vancouver

January 5, 2016

B.C. property assessments spike up to 30% in Vancouver

The home of Lululemon founder Chip Wilson was the highest-valued residential property in the province

Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon yoga wear, has the home valued as the most expensive in B.C. by authorities.

Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon yoga wear, has the home valued as the most expensive in B.C. by authorities. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Property assessment notices have been mailed to homeowners in the Greater Vancouver area this week, with some homes jumping in value by up to almost 30 per cent.

The most expensive property in B.C. belongs to Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, whose seven bedroom, nine bathroom home on a double lot on Point Grey Road is now worth $63.8 million — an increase of 11 per cent from the year before. Yoga pants palace

Former LuluLemon CEO Chip Wilson’s new waterfront home in Vancouver’s Kitislano neighbourhood took five years to construct on three waterfront lots. (Google Maps)

The 10 most expensive residential properties in B.C. in 2016 were almost all worth more than $30 million. Most of them are located in Vancouver’s Point Grey, Shaughnessy or Kitsilano neighbourhoods.

“The 2016 assessments are indicating significant increases from 2015,” said assessor Jason Grant in a written statement.

“Increases of 15-25 per cent will be typical for single-family homes in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Tri-Cities, New Westminster and Squamish.”

The total value of real estate in the province has increased to $1.34 trillion, or by 11 per cent since last year — with most of that coming from residential properties.

In Greater Vancouver alone, total assessments increased to $636.2 billion, an increase of about 16 per cent from the year before.

The municipalities with the largest increases in property values were:

  • Lions Bay: 17.96 per cent.
  • Squamish: 17.33 per cent.
  • Burnaby: 17.01 per cent.
  • West Vancouver 16.9 per cent.
  • Vancouver: 16.84 per cent.

The province-wide assessments reflect the market value of the properties as of July 1, 2015. Anyone can search the value of their property by using B.C. Assessment’s e-Value B.C. tool.

Homeowners who disagree with their property’s appraisal should contact B.C. Assessment by the end of the month.

Three Fibs Premier Clark Uses to Sell LNG Dream

December 21, 2015

Three Fibs Premier Clark Uses to Sell LNG Dream

Sorry, it’s not clean. It won’t pay off. It’s not popular. Here’s why.

Why does Premier Clark keep saying LNG will bring a bonanza of jobs and revenues? Photo: Province of BC Flickr.

The more Christy Clark defends her dream of an LNG industry, the more she turns cold gas into hot air. The B.C. premier’s interview with Andrew MacLeod published last week in The Tyee is a case in point. As MacLeod pressed with many LNG-related questions, Clark resorted to three big, bloated fibs.

Fib #1: LNG is ‘clean’

While making our documentary Fractured Land about fracking in B.C., co-director Fiona Rayher and I journeyed to Cornell University to interview Dr. Robert Howarth. He is a global expert on the climate impacts of fracking.

CLARK’S SITE C INCONSISTENCIES

On the massive, taxpayer-funded Site C dam project, our premier remains where she’s always been: all over the map.

First, she told us the power was needed for the enormously energy-intensive LNG industry.

Then she creatively interpretedthe Clean Energy Act to mean that LNG plants could power themselves by burning some of their own gas, saving them money. That would produce three times the greenhouse gas emissions as would electric power. It also means her previous justification for Site C is gone.

Even BC Hydro recently admittedto the BC Utilities Commission that without powering LNG, we wouldn’t need the electricity from Site C until at least 2029.

This dam is therefore an unnecessary taxpayer-funded boondoggle of at least $9 billion that would flood or disrupt30,000 acres of some of the best farmland left in Canada, while violating First Nations’ treaty rights. — D.G.

We told him our premier has affixed the label “Cleanest Fossil Fuel on the Planet” to B.C. LNG (derived almost entirely from a massive increase in fracking in the province’s northeast).

 

They’re Killing the Peace River Valley Now

December 17, 2015

They’re Killing the Peace River Valley Now

The $9 billion flaying, then drowning of a fertile zone has begun. We still don’t know why.

Random Acts of Kindness comic panel
Photos by Garth Lenz.

Last month the B.C government commenced the destruction of the fertile Peace River Valley, awarding a civil works contract worth $1.5 billion as construction crews methodically denuded the landscape of trees.

Taxpayers will be on the hook for at least $7.5 billion more by the time the devastation is done. The question looming larger than ever is whether the Peace River Valley must be sacrificed at all.

A range of rising voices insist that every argument made by the government for rushing to build a new mega-dam on the Peace River fails to hold water.

The government-dubbed “Site C Clean Energy Project” will flood scores of kilometers of valley river bottom (much of it valuable Class 1 agricultural land) and eventually generate enough power, says the province, to light up the equivalent of 450,000 homes.

According to one press release, the dam “will provide British Columbia with the most affordable, reliable clean power for over 100 years.” Jessica McDonald, president and CEO of BC Hydro, explained that “Site C is essential to keeping the lights on while maintaining low rates for our customers.”

Bill Bennett, Minister of Energy and Mines added that, “It’s clear that to keep rates low, we must choose the option of building Site C.”

Critics also say the high-risk dam, which could eventually cost $13-billion, won’t lower rates for citizens but raise them.

They also explain that hydroelectric dams are not climate friendly or “clean” by any scientific measure.

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

‘Northern Gateway Will Never Happen’: Oil Spill Consultant

November 14, 2015

‘Northern Gateway Will Never Happen’: Oil Spill Consultant

No-Pipeline

Activists cheered Trudeau’s tanker ban Friday for ‘effectively stopping the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.’ Photo by Jackie Dives.

Trudeau-ordered ban on north coast oil tankers expected to kill Enbridge pipeline.

Conservationists are heralding the federal government’s decision to ban crude oil tanker traffic along British Columbia’s north coast as the death knell for the proposed Enbridge oil pipeline.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered instructions Friday to the ministers of transport, fisheries, natural resources and environment to formalize a moratorium that experts say will block the controversial Northern Gateway project from continuing.

A ban would prevent hundreds of tankers each year from carrying diluted bitumen extracted from Alberta’s oil sands and piped up to northern B.C. from being shipped for export overseas.

”It will mean that Northern Gateway will never happen,” said Gerald Graham, a Victoria consultant specializing in oil spills for more than 40 years.

He said it remains to be seen what oil and gas activities will be permitted and which communities could be affected.

”It’s one thing to say what can’t take place, but another to say what will be allowed.”

The moratorium makes official a non-binding motion the House of Commons passed in 2010. It would put the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound off limits to tanker traffic in the government’s bid to protect ecologically sensitive areas.

The policy’s roots date back more than four decades to Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who worked with a British Columbia MP to pass an original ban involving the coastal waters north of Vancouver Island.

”I celebrated 44 years ago and I may be celebrating again. It’s basically an echo,” said David Anderson, who chaired the government’s environmental committee in 1972 and later became Liberal environment minister.

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

 

After Summer of Drone Dramas, BC Calls for Crackdown

September 6, 2015

After Summer of Drone Dramas, BC Calls for Crackdown

Province tells feds all UAVs should be registered and pilots certified.

Drone-BC

The British Columbia government wants all drones to be registered and pilots certified, according to a submission to a federal panel looking at the expanding technology. Whether it’s reports of near-misses with airplanes or spying on neighbours, Victoria is in a race to catch up with the burgeoning technology.

The submission is in response to federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt’s call for opinions on proposed amendments to drone regulations in Canada.

Drones weighing 35 kilograms or less can fly without authorization, but operators must conform to Canadian Aviation Regulation rules and respect federal, provincial and local laws about trespassing and privacy. Those who fly larger drones or for commercial purposes must apply for special flight operations certificates from Transport Canada.

”The advantages and opportunities that [unmanned aerial vehicles] present must be balanced with government’s interest in protecting the personal safety and privacy of its citizens,” said the B.C. report.

”Rapid development, growth and adaption of UAV technology are challenges to both the aviation sector and the public that require the attention of policy makers and regulators. Of particular concern to British Columbia is the unsafe use of UAVs in proximity to other aircraft, violation of personal privacy and the current inability for provincial or municipal enforcement.”

The report includes a list of civil aviation near-misses with drones in 2014 and 2015, mostly around B.C. airports, and a much-publicized allegation that a drone-sighting near Oliver, B.C. wildfires grounded water bombers for more than four hours for safety reasons in August. The only description of the drone in the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System, filed Sept. 1, was that it was ”fluorescent orange-coloured from above.”

 

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

The Trouble With Tailings: Toxic Waste ‘Time Bombs’ Loom Large Over Alaska’s Salmon Rivers

September 4, 2015

The Trouble With Tailings: Toxic Waste ‘Time Bombs’ Loom Large Over Alaska’s Salmon Rivers

Mount Polley dam failure

There are a few unarguable truths about mine tailings, the pulverized rock, water and sludge left over from mineral extraction — mining is a messy business, the leftovers have to be dealt with forever and it’s impossible to guarantee against another tailings dam failure such as the Mount Polley catastrophe.

In B.C., there are 98 tailings storage facilities at 60 metal and coal mines, of which 31 are operating or under construction and the remaining 67 are at mines that are either permanently or temporarily closed

That means communities throughout B.C. and Alaska are looking nervously at nearby tailings ponds, which sometimes more closely resemble lakes, stretching over several square kilometres, with the toxic waste held back by earth and rock-filled dams. The water is usually recycled through the plant when the mine is operating, but, after the mine closes, water, toxins and finely ground rock must continue to be contained or treated.

It’s the realization that tailings have to be treated in perpetuity that worries many of those living downstream, especially as the Mount Polley breach happened only 17 years after the dam was constructed.

“The concept of forever boggles people minds. In one thousand years is the bank account still going to be there? These people are going to be dead,” said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders.

“There are time-bombs up there without a plan to deal with them. Are they going to be able to build a mine that’s going to keep its integrity forever?”

It raises the question of whether there should be any mining in an area that is vital to five species of salmon and sustains the livelihoods of so many Alaskans, said Heather Hardcastle, a Juneau fisherman and coordinator of Salmon Beyond Borders.

“This is why this region of the world is so globally significant and why we care so much,” said Hardcastle, who is among those pushing for the issue to be referred to theInternational Joint Commission.

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

Post navigation

← Older posts Newer posts →

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress