Tag Archives: DFO

Environment, Politics

Q&A With NIPR’s Green Party On Some Key Environmental Questions

While the Canadian government likes to think of itself as a leader in environmental stewardship, there have been a number of concerns: 

  • A lack of urgency in addressing climate change
  • While the number of extreme weather events continues to increase in both size and magnitude, so does Canada’s production of the fossil fuel products that are the leading contributor to our emissions. In 2024, Canada’s oil production reached a record 5.7 million barrels per day, with  the oil sands accounting for approximately 57% of this output.
  • Weak enforcement and monitoring of environmental laws and regulations
  • According to COSEWIC, there are now 850 Canadian wildlife species at risk, but the government is very slow to respond to this growing crisis.

Cortes Currents emailed the Conservative, Green, Liberal, and NDP campaign headquarters in North Island Powell River (NIPR) a list of questions designed to get to the heart of this matter. So far only Mark de Bruijn, Campaign Manager for the Greens and a former Green candidate in 2019, has answered.  

Continue reading Q&A With NIPR’s Green Party On Some Key Environmental Questions →
Energy, Environment

Wilkinson warns Poilievre’s resource approval plan will end ‘in court on an ongoing basis’

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

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging to create a “one and done” system for resource project approvals and rapidly approve 10 projects he says are stuck in the “slow federal approval process.”

To achieve a maximum approval wait time of one year, Poilievre said he will eliminate the Impact Assessment Act and create one office and one assessment process to handle all regulatory approvals across all levels of government.

This proclamation comes a few weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his intent to streamline the approval process for big infrastructure projects in response to the trade war with the US. Carney said his plan, with a similar slogan to that of Poilievre’s — “one project, one review” — would aim to get projects approved within two years. 

Continue reading Wilkinson warns Poilievre’s resource approval plan will end ‘in court on an ongoing basis’ →
Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

‘I wish we had our territory back’: Influx of float homes in Clayoquot Sound forces Tla-o-qui-aht families to go farther for traditional foods

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

This is article is part of a series of stories on Nuu-chah-nulth clam gardens.

Clayoquot Sound, B.C. – From the captain’s seat of his fishing boat called ‘La Fortune’, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (TFN) fisherman Leo Jon Manson popped the lid off the proverbial can of worms labelled ‘float homes’. 

Float homes are encroaching cultural and harvesting sites in Tla-o-qui-aht territory, says Manson. One spot in particular, Lemmens Inlet, a protected body of water located just north of Tofino that cuts into Meares Island, has succumbed to the region’s “laidback” regulations on float homes.

“We still have some spots in our territory, but we have to travel farther away from Opitsaht or Načiks (Tofino). We have to go farther back in the inlets. Our local grounds are gone, pretty much,” Manson said.

Continue reading ‘I wish we had our territory back’: Influx of float homes in Clayoquot Sound forces Tla-o-qui-aht families to go farther for traditional foods →
Cost of Climate Change, Rivers & Oceans

Fisheries and Oceans Canada expects to flounder under mounting climate costs

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Hurricane Fiona left a trail of destruction across the Atlantic Coast in September 2022 wreaking havoc on wharves, fisheries, vessels, and gear and the federal government’s pocketbook.

In response to the climate disaster, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has had to earmark more than $563 million to deal with Fiona’s aftermath, including damage to 142 out of 184 small craft harbours on the Atlantic coast.

However, internal communications obtained by Canada’s National Observer suggest that Hurricane Fiona was just a harbinger of escalating climate-related costs and operational threats DFO expects to face in the coming years. With a shrinking budget, the department is bracing for more severe financial and logistical challenges as the climate crisis intensifies.

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Rivers & Oceans

Salmon Farms: Scientific Methodology, ‘Activist Science’ and Corporate Spin

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The Salmon Farming industry appears to be using labels like ‘activist science’ and ‘independent science’ to discredit inconvenient research without engaging its findings. 

Brian Kingzett, the Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, recently informed the city of Campbell River that: 

“ We have seen a weaponization of science where industry and government have their science, industry science is always put into conflict. Then we see ‘activist science,’ which is largely coming out of urban areas  being weaponized against us. We need that ‘independent science’ more than ever.” 

Continue reading Salmon Farms: Scientific Methodology, ‘Activist Science’ and Corporate Spin →