LISTEN: Notley . . Very Bad Year, 2 other articles

[Oscar]

LISTEN: Rachel Notley's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year – 28 min.
[ http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition ]
Premier Rachel Notley has had something of an "annus horribilus." Just over a year ago, she shocked the country when her New Democratic Party swept to power, with promises to create jobs and wean the province of its dependence on oil and gas revenue. Then the price of oil collapsed, 120,000 Albertans lost their jobs, and a devastating wildfire forced 90,000 people from their homes. She spoke to Michael Enright from Edmonton.

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Alberta NDP refuses to debate fracking resolutions

[ http://canadians.org/blog/alberta-ndp-r ... esolutions ]

June 12, 2016 - 9:47 pm

The Council of Canadians supported the call for the Alberta NDP to adopt at their convention this weekend (June 10-12) resolutions backing both a moratorium on fracking and a comprehensive expert study into it.

We circulated this petition [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=51299 ] calling on members of the Alberta NDP to support these two resolutions on fracking. [ http://canadians.org/sites/default/file ... n-0616.pdf ]

There were early signs of trouble.

On Friday afternoon, the Calgary Sun reported, "Resolutions will first be discussed Friday by closed-door panels of party members who will decide whether the policies will make it to the floor on the weekend for further debate." In the early afternoon, a National Observer reporter tweeted, "Motion to implement a moratorium on hydraulic fracking defeated by delegates on the convention floor." Later that afternoon, CBC noted, "Motions to bump the items on fracking and pipelines closer to the front of the agenda were defeated on Friday, as the convention got underway."

And by Sunday night the Calgary Herald reported, "Some delegates expressed disappointment over a lack of debate over controversial resolutions on pipelines and hydraulic fracturing. Paul Lawson, a labour delegate from Calgary, said he sensed the party is fearful of anything suggestive of the Leap Manifesto, an anti-fossil fuel agenda under discussion by the federal NDP that has been strongly condemned by [Premier Rachel] Notley and her government. He said in an interview that the resolution calling for a moratorium on fracking in Alberta should have been brought to the floor given the concerns that exist in rural areas."

It is too bad because the resolutions really only reflected what Ms. Notley had said less than four years ago while in opposition.

In August 2012, as the party's environment critic, she stated, "If we don't get a better ... understanding of what's safe for Albertans, we run the risk of doing some really long-term damage. In Alberta, we have no regulation — at all — that specifically covers fracking activity. [Questions need to be answered before] we start holus-bolus giving out water to the fracking industry without knowing the safety that needs to come along with that."

But that was then and this is now.

In fact even by June 2015 the Calgary Herald had reported, "NDP Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd [now says] she could not say whether there is too much hydraulic fracturing in the province."

This despite previous statements by Ms. Notley and former NDP leader Brian Mason highlighting that the province had approved five million cubic meters of water for fracking in 2011, that the number of fracking licenses had increased from 203 in 2012 to 1,516 in 2013, and that they felt - albeit before forming government - that a study was needed to understand the impact of fracking on drinking water.

The Alberta NDP government's refusal to even debate the issue of fracking stands in contrast to the Parti Québécois minority government that implemented a moratorium on fracking in 2013, the Liberal governments in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that have both now implemented a moratorium on fracking, and the Progressive Conservative government in Newfoundland and Labrador that appointed an independent panel in August 2014 to examine the issue of fracking.


Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

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Council of Canadians rejects Premier Notley's disparaging of the Leap Manifesto (See Background Info below . . . .Ed.)

[ http://canadians.org/blog/council-canad ... -manifesto ]

June 12, 2016 - 1:47 pm

Alberta premier Rachel Notley criticized the Leap Manifesto on CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition this morning.

(LISTEN: [ http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition ])

She comments, "[Leap Manifesto activists] continue to reflect a perhaps blinkered view of certain of these issues. We introduced, as you know, our Climate Leadership Plan last fall. It's a very, very ambitious plan, especially coming from an energy-producing province, but quite frankly, in relation to any jurisdiction."

Later in the interview Notley adds, "[The Leap Manifesto] is tone-deaf, and demonstrates a tremendous lack of understanding about how our economy works, and doesn't demonstrate that the authors have spent a lot of time sitting around talking to people who earn their living, who pay their mortgage, who support their families, by working in the resource sector in this country. ... A document that seems to sort of wave those off as just, 'Oh well, it's the cost of doing the right thing, that we'll not care about the future of those families that would be negated through our plan' - you know, that's insensitive, and frankly, it doesn't reflect a fulsome understanding of what this country was built on."

Naomi Klein has responded via Twitter, "@RachelNotley, can you pls find a way to disagree w/ the #LeapManifesto without disparaging its 60 authors +200 orgs that endorsed it?"

Council of Canadians staff participated in the drafting the Leap Manifesto, we have endorsed it, Maude Barlow participated in its launch in both Toronto and Paris, and our chapters from coast-to-coast-to-coast have shown the film 'This Changes Everything' and helped to promote the manifesto.

Premier Notley highlights her "very ambitious" Climate Leadership Plan, but we have expressed our concern that it allows for a massive expansion of the tar sands. Even the Globe and Mail has reported, "The tar sands currently emits 70 megatonnes of greenhouse gases a year. Under Alberta's 'climate leadership' plan, that would be allowed to rise to a cap of 100 megatonnes a year. That represents a 43 per cent increase in the carbon emissions from the tar sands. Beyond the cap, the Alberta plan allows for another 10 megatonnes of emissions a year for new upgrading and cogeneration facilities."

We have also noted that the average renewable energy investment creates four times as many jobs as the same investment in the fossil fuel economy.

The Leap Manifesto is a job creation document that demands "training and resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to participate in the clean energy economy", that recognizes the job potential in the renewable energy economy, and that acknowledges the science-based urgency for this transition.

At our upcoming annual conference this October 14-16 in St. John's, we will continue to build this argument by featuring a speaker from Iron & Earth, an initiative led by tar sands workers that seeks to "catalyze growth in the renewable energy industry, and incorporate these projects into the work scope of our variety of trades".

We have also been calling on members of the Alberta NDP meeting this weekend to pass a resolution calling for a moratorium and a comprehensive expert study on fracking. These demands reflect Notley's comments as environment critic less than four years ago. We look forward to hearing later today that this resolution has been passed.

Further reading

Council of Canadians supports the call for 1 million climate jobs (March 3, 2016)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/council-canad ... imate-jobs ]


Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

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RELATED:

LEAP Manifesto – Sign it!
[ https://leapmanifesto.org/en/sign-the-manifesto/ ]

What is the LEAP Manifesto?
[ https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-m ... to-content ]