DARYN CAISTER: A recently completed internal audit of the New Substances Assessment of Control Bureau shows that there are loopholes in Canada’s process for regulating and monitoring potentially harmful products. The bureau, a section within Health Canada, has a timeline by which it must respond to requests for approval for products to be sold in Canada. However the recent audit shows that if the bureau cannot respond to a submission of a chemical within 75 days, (120 days for organisms) that chemical is automatically authorized to be sold and used within Canada. It has also been shown that it is bureau policy to also add the item to a Domestic Substances List of about 23,000 chemicals that can be legally used in Canada, despite potentially never being tested due simply to a statute of limitations scenario. Earlier internal audits of Health Canada’s programs had identified some of these shortcomings, and some issues have been dealt with to varying success. One policy to deal with the shortfalls was a “triage” system where items that were suspected of being higher likelihood dangers were processed with priority status, but the recent audit found that there was no official documentation of policies about how it was to be carried out, the selection process for this policy was undocumented, and there was no conformity between testing groups. Due to the loopholes the audit found that it was certainly possible that dangerous products have been given a Health Canada label of approval, and no mechanism exists to determine how often this has occurred. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  PEI has been collecting proposals for renewable energy. The province’s main electricity provider, Maritime Electric, will take the next month to review the six proposals and decide which company will develop $200 million dollars worth of renewable energy infrastructure. Maritime Electric opened the market for alternative energy proposals in an effort to create renewable energy that is cost effective with the overall goal of making P.E.I energy independent. The company announced months ago that it would be accepting ideas for expanding the electricity capacity of the island by 130 megawatts, all from renewable sources. An estimated 30 MW will be used on PEI itself while the other 100 will be exported to other provinces for expected revenue of $1.5 million.

The vast majority of the proposals were for wind farms. One Dutch based company estimates it will be able to generate all 130 MW with 52 windmills. Currently, renewables account for 15 per cent of the Island’s energy supply. With the new projects expected by 2012, roughly a quarter of P.E.I.’s energy will be from wind. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Canadian environmental law group Environmental Defence issued an open letter to Ontario’s premier Dalton McGuinty this week calling for protection for Ontario citizens from SLAPP lawsuits. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation”. SLAPP lawsuits are characterized their asymmetrical and intimidating nature. They are designed to frighten citizens and NGOs away from protesting particular issues or companies. Environmental Defence said in its statement that SLAPP lawsuits threaten Ontario’s democracy by limiting public protest to those who can afford to fight expensive legal battles. Environmental Defence gathered a list of 60 Ontario groups willing to sign on to its petition, many of whom have been victims of SLAPP lawsuits themselves. One such group is the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment as well as many other groups who opposed development at Big Bay Point on Lake Simcoe and have been taken to court as a result of their opposition. Environmental Defence hopes to push the McGuinty government into accordance with Quebec where similar anti-SLAPP legislation was passed last year. The group’s position was bolstered when the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s Annual Report was released in October, which labelled SLAPPs a threat to public participation and voiced support for the creation of effective laws to prevent them. Currently, half of American states have anti-SLAPP laws on their books. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR: Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the provincial government will not be providing any funds to help with the operation of Toronto’s public transportation. McGuinty has cited the province’s $25 million dollar deficit as the reason for denying funding for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and says he will instead be funnelling additional spending into job creation and the economy.

When the city of Toronto released its 2010 budget at the beginning of this week it was seen that the TTC would yet again be the city’s biggest expenditure. Public transportation in Toronto operates for the price of $1.4 billion dollars annually, a price that will absorb 100% of the city’s $119 million dollar surplus from last year’s budget. While transportation fares were hiked in January from $2.75 to $3.00 per ride, the city is still struggling to make ends meet.

In the years leading up to the mid 1990′s the provincial and municipal governments used to split the cost of public transit subsidies evenly. In 1996 under the regime of Premier Mike Harris, the province cut its funding for the TTC, transferring the full cost to the municipality. Since then Toronto has had to apply for provincial bailouts every year to help with the cost and every year until now, the province has always come through with the financial help.

While the province agreed to fund the four public transportation expansion projects underway this year, the province will own the new lines and lease them to the city. There is no sense yet as to what the new lease agreement will look like. Toronto Mayor David Miller has called for a return to the 50-50 split between province and city. Others have called for improving the efficiency within the TTC and/or bringing about a congestion toll for drivers entering the city with the revenue going toward funding public transportation. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: 217 Bruce nuclear power employees may have been exposed to radiation during refurbishment of a disused reactor in late November, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Bruce nuclear power station is on the shores of Lake Huron and now may be home to Canada’s largest human radiation exposure incident. Preliminary reports by the Bruce Power station operator say that it does not look like any of the employees have sustained excessive doses of radiation, but that the company was taking the incident “very seriously”. John Peevers, a Bruce power spokesman, stresses that there did not appear to by any leaks approaching the regulatory limit that would mandate government intervention into the issue. Independent nuclear power watchdog Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission indicated however that the workers were likely exposed to alpha contamination, a very dangerous form of radiation and that they would be discussing the incident with its commissioners it a meeting this week. The CNSC also contradicted Bruce power spokespeople, saying that its calculations indicated that the exposure might indeed have crossed regulatory boundaries. The reactor where the accident occurred has been inoperative since 1997; at the time the plant would have been under the control of Ontario Hydro a provincial utility. Work has been stopped at the plant until the CNSC can complete its review and until the exact exposure to the employees can be determined. CNSC however stresses that there is no danger to the public from this accident, regardless of the outcome of their review. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  This week, members of a First Nations coalition on Vancouver Island took part in a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue of Norwegian salmon farming off the B.C. coast. The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council represents four First Nations groups whose traditional land is on the Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands.
Dozens of First Nations and environmental activists participated in the hunger strike for 29 hours to symbolize the 29 salmon farm tenures granted to Norwegian companies, which now make up 92 per cent of the fish farms on the Pacific coast.
Open-cage fish farms have proven to be one of the biggest threats facing wild salmon – because they spread infestations of sea lice. While sea lice occur naturally in the salmon population, the stocking of hundreds of thousands of salmon in small cages in the open ocean provides the ideal breeding conditions for lice. Additionally, 91 per cent of the farmed salmon in the Pacific is actually species of Atlantic salmon, which are much more susceptible to sea lice.

Scientists say that fish farms are particularly detrimental to native salmon because they are typically located in sheltered inlets along migratory routes for young, vulnerable salmon offspring. The feeding activity of sea lice can cause serious fin damage, skin erosion, constant bleeding, and deep open wounds creating a pathway for other pathogens. Often just one or two sea lice on a juvenile salmon can cause death.

The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council is asking the B.C. government for a moratorium on fish farms and are calling for a public boycott on farmed salmon. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Quebec’s government website is promoting the opportunities of the Alberta tar sands to Quebec businesses, even as Quebec premier Jean Charest calls Alberta an environmental villain over the project. Quebec’s government website has been promoting a trade mission to Edmonton next month for businesses with ads found on the Department of Economic Development, Innovation and Exports. Environmental activists have decried the ad, citing the contradiction of its message with the Premiers public statements at the COP15 meetings in Copenhagen. At the meeting, Charest sought to brand himself a champion of sustainability by fighting Alberta’s dirty energy aspirations. The ad says “The launch of oil sands development projects [offers] business opportunities to seize”, as well as “This is a unique opportunity for businesses to position themselves to establish ties to the big decision-makers of Alberta’s energy sector”. The discovery of the ad was first reported by Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper and has started a wave of internal Quebec political fighting over the alleged double-speak. Opposition Parti Quebecois called the ad the latest example of Quebec’s incoherent approach to climate change as well as accusing Charest of promoting car friendly policies in Quebec while trying to identify himself as an environmental hero in Canada. The Alberta/Quebec political spat over the tar sands has been heating up in recent months. Quebec argues that Alberta should pay a larger portion of the cost of climate change due to the tar sands, while Alberta responds that Quebec should remember how much of its $8 billion dollar a year federal equalization cheque comes from tar sands development. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Progress was made this week for one of B.C.’s top natural environment priorities. A deal was signed between Premier Gordon Campbell and Montana Governor Brian Schweizter that will aim to protect the valley known as the Flathead River Basin in the far southeastern corner of B.C. and northern part of Montana. The basin is considered precious because it is the only low elevation valley in southern Canada not settled by humans and it also holds Canada’s greatest diversity of plant life, according to Sierra Club B.C.

The area has been under repeated threat by coal mine projects and oil and gas development. The new deal puts a ban on any mining in the Flathead River Basin and marks an opportunity for transnational cooperation to preserve the rare ecozone.

Environmental groups say ideally they would like to see the creation of a national park for at least part of the area. They are sceptical that anything less will leave the door ajar for future industry development. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has announced that he will resign from his post effective July 1st. De Boer will be leaving the post for a job at the global consulting firm KPMG. De Boer had served as Executive Secretary since 2006, and oversaw the Convention during the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December. In his press release, De Boer lamented that the Copenhagen conference “did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms” but expressed hope saying that “the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming.” De Boer cited he wanted to step aside to allow UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon to find a successor ahead of a climate change conference taking place in Mexico in November. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: US President Barrack Obama announced yesterday $8.3 billion in Federal loans toward the construction of new nuclear power plants. The loan would fund the construction of two new reactors in Georgia by the Southern Company. If the new projects are approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the new reactors would be the first built in the US in over thirty years. President Obama said these funds are “only the beginning” and it is expected that the US government may allocate a further $36 billion in loans for nuclear projects later in the year. The Obama administration’s investment in nuclear power is part of its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve domestic energy security. Construction of the new facilities is not likely to occur before 2011. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Reduced fog and moisture may threaten redwood forests, according to a new study released by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The moist, fog-covered forests of the American Pacific Coast are home to the famed redwood trees, among the oldest and tallest on Earth. These trees are adapted to moist, wet summers and do not tolerate prolonged droughts very well. The study investigated historical cloud cover and temperatures to determine the fogginess of the region’s summers. They calculated that fog was 33% more common a century ago than it is today. Though the researchers stated that the impact on redwood forests into the future is unclear, they speculated that their lack of tolerance to warmer, drying climates may put them at risk. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The amount of electricity generated world-wide by wind-powered sources grew by 31% in 2009 according to the Global Wind Energy Council, the industry’s trade association. The total power output increased by 37.5 gigawatts, bringing the estimated global output to 157.9 gigawatts. That accounts for about 1.5% of global power production. A significant portion of this growth came from China, which is estimated to have doubled its wind capacity in the last year. Steve Sawyer, the Secretary General of the council, was encouraged by the numbers, stating: “The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install.” [ index ]