Tag Archives: Gov of Canada

Rivers & Oceans

Clock is running out for Canada to help secure a global treaty to protect the ocean

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s do-or-die time for Canada and the rest of the international community to finally get a deal done to protect the world’s oceans, say global leaders, environmental groups, and celebrity activists.

International delegates are hunkering down in the back rooms at the United Nations in New York until March 3 in a last-ditch attempt to broker a legally binding deal to protect biodiversity on the high seas. 

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Jobs

Temporary Foreign Workers Hit Record Levels in BC

By  Zak Vescera, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C. businesses are hiring a record number of temporary foreign workers as they struggle to fill jobs. 

The latest federal data show there were  more than 32,200 people in B.C. under the federal government’s Temporary  Foreign Worker Program at the end of 2022, more than Ontario, which has  more than twice B.C.’s population. 

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Health, Politics

NDP-Liberal agreement prompted increased lobbying efforts from Big Pharma

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

Big Pharma has stepped up its lobbying game ever since the federal NDP struck a deal to prop up the Liberals’ minority government contingent on several big-ticket items — including progress on national pharmacare.

Announced last March, the Liberal-NDP agreement hinges on the federal government launching a dental care program for low-income Canadians and “continuing progress towards a universal national pharmacare program by passing a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023.”

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Environment, Rivers & Oceans

Canada confirms protections for marine protected areas but shipping pollution isn’t included

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada formalized its minimum protection standards for marine protected areas on Wednesday at a global ocean conservation summit in Vancouver. 

Oil and gas activity, mining, the dumping of certain waste materials and destructive bottom trawling fishing won’t be allowed in any MPAs established from April 2019 and onward, said federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray and Steven Guilbeault, minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, during a press conference at the IMPAC5 summit. 

The new protection standard is a policy blueprint based on a 2019 promise by the federal government to curb these industrial activities.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Canada, First Nations take first steps to protect massive swath of deep ocean on West Coast

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal government and coastal First Nations took a significant step towards establishing a massive marine protected area off the West Coast of Vancouver Island on Tuesday.

The proposed Tang.ɢwan — ḥačxwiqak — Tsig̱isMarine Protected Area (MPA) covers a 133,000-square-kilometre swath of open ocean 150 kilometres off the island’s west coast. The area harbours a unique concentration of hydrothermal vents, underwater sea mountains and rich deep-sea biodiversity hot spots found nowhere else in the world.

Continue reading Canada, First Nations take first steps to protect massive swath of deep ocean on West Coast →