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Politics

Area C Director’s Report: Support Service Allocations

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Warm greetings to residents of the Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets, where the annual tree frog choir has begun its serenade.

Support Service Cost Allocations

As you may have gathered from local media reports, the February Board meeting was a little unusual. During the February 19th Board meeting we got only to agenda item four, where we stalled for the remainder of the meeting. Item four was a report titled “Support Service Cost Allocations”.

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Energy

One oil and gas site was ‘stinky,’ another was ‘gurgling.’ B.C. officials gave them a pass anyway

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By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

“Serious deficiency.” “Very stinky.” “Leakage.” “A hazard.”

Those are some of the ways BC Energy Regulator officials described oil and gas sites when they documented apparent environmental infractions during routine inspections, according to internal documents. 

The regulator, a provincial government agency, is largely funded by the oil and gas industry and charged with managing oil and gas activities across the province. 

The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation identified more than 1,000 instances when inspectors documented apparent infractions yet gave the sites in question a passing grade, according to more than 40,000 records released through freedom of information legislation. The records reveal a widespread pattern: the B.C. government is failing to ensure oil and gas companies comply with regulations designed to protect ecosystems and human health and safety. 

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

Haida Nation signs first-of-its-kind Aboriginal title agreement with Canada

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By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Haida Nation and the Government of Canada signed a historical agreement on Feb. 17, affirming Haida Aboriginal title on Haida Gwaii, including the islands’ land, beds of freshwater bodies, and foreshores to the low-tide mark. 

President of the Haida Nation Gaagwiis Jason Alsop said the milestone Chiix̲uujin/Chaaw K̲aawgaa “Big Tide (Low Water)” Agreement, which was initiated in 1913 by past Haida leaders, ushers in a new era of peaceful co-existence.

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Politics

BC Conservatives pitch a carbon tax on US coal as a trade-war measure

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By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

British Columbia Opposition Leader John Rustad floated the idea on Monday of imposing a carbon tax on American thermal coal exported through B.C. ports, in response to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber. While some climate activists fighting coal exports say this would lead to positive results by increasing the price of a dirty fuel, they argue the most effective action would be to ban exports altogether to tackle the climate crisis. 

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Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Peoples Reach Unanimous Agreement on Defining the Just Transition and Provide Principles and Protocols to Eliminate Harm from Renewable Energy and ‘Green’ Development

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Press Release from the Indigenous Summit at Geneva Switzerland, October 8-10, 2024

“For Indigenous Peoples, a just transition means exercising our own forms of territorial governance according to our traditions and ways of life.” –Indigenous Peoples Principles and Protocols for Just Transition

October 22, 2024 – Nearly 100 Indigenous leaders from the seven socio-cultural regions of the world have reached unanimous agreement on defining a Just Transition with respect to impacted or potentially impacted Indigenous Peoples.

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