Tag Archives: Bill Blair

Canada’s new climate adaptation plan puts up $1.6 billion to tackle wildfires, heatwaves, flood risk and more

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada’s much-anticipated roadmap to weather the impacts of climate change is out, and it includes $1.6 billion in new spending to fortify infrastructure, protect human health and predict future risks.

The country’s first National Adaptation Strategy lays out specific targets for its five focus areas: disaster resilience, health and well-being, nature and biodiversity, economy and workers and infrastructure.

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Conservatives will vote against implementing Emergencies Act

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Frank Caputo will vote against implementing the Emergencies Act to address weeks-long Freedom Convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates that have resulted in a vehicle-clogged downtown Ottawa and border blockades across the country.

“I will be opposing it,” Caputo told KTW, arguing implementing the act should be legislation of the last resort.

It is the stance interim Conservative Leader Candace Bergen has said her party is taking as Parliament on Thursday (Feb. 17) began debating the federal Liberal government’s temporary special measures, which were invoked Monday for the first time since the act was created in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act.

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Full text: Prime Minister Trudeau invokes Emergencies Act

The video embedded below was posted to YouTube by the Cable Public Affairs Channel

On February 14, 2022, Prime Minister Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. This is the full text transcription of what he said to reporters.

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After B.C. flooding, billion-dollar questions for Canada

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The cascading natural disasters in British Columbia have destroyed key pieces of infrastructure that experts say should trigger a nationwide risk assessment to prepare for Canada’s rapidly changing climate.

An atmospheric river dumped a month’s worth of rain on B.C., which when combined with melting snow and the mountains already scarred from a catastrophic wildfire season, led to landslides that destroyed segments of the Trans-Canada and Coquihalla highways.

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Lethal mix of cascading climate impacts hammers B.C.

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

​After a devastating wildfire season that reduced towns to ash and a heat dome that killed hundreds, climate breakdown is again threatening British Columbians, as torrential rain pummelled the province Monday, causing landslides and floods that destroyed key infrastructure and took at least one life.

Continue reading Lethal mix of cascading climate impacts hammers B.C.