Tag Archives: Hazelton

Energy, Environment

Camera footage of Canada’s first LNG terminal raises questions about invisible pollution

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

New camera footage from Canada’s first LNG export terminal is raising concerns about invisible pollution and whether current monitoring adequately detects what reaches nearby communities.

To the naked eye, the sky looks mostly clear above LNG Canada’s Kitimat facility on the northern coast of BC. But footage taken with a specialized infrared camera and presented at a media briefing Wednesday showed dark plumes around flares, stacks and processing equipment.

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Energy, Health

Climate activist calls on New Westminster council to support assessment of gas industry

By Theresa McManus, Freshet News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A climate activist is urging New Westminster city council to follow the lead of other cities and call for an independent assessment of B.C.’s gas industry.

Aggie Black, a member of the New Westminster Climate Action Hub and the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment, said she is deeply concerned about the climate crisis and its impact on people’s health and the health-care system. 

“I am here to join my voice with hundreds of other health professionals who are calling for an accumulative independent health impact assessment of B.C.’s gas industry,” she told council at its May 11 meeting. “There is a large and growing body of peer-reviewed research that links fracking and LNG production to health harms for humans.”

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

Guided by her culture, Gitxsan scientist looks to old ways for climate resilience

By Aaron Hemens, The Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Whether harvesting salmon or simply spending quality time with her grandfather and uncles, Janna Wale has no shortage of stories about being on the water with her family.

She moved around a bit growing up, but can vividly recall different memories from her early years fishing in her Gitxsan homelands — there were “tons of fish everywhere” at the unceded confluence of the Skeena, Nass and Bulkley rivers near the village of “Hazelton, B.C.”

“Our culture is totally built around salmon. We have different roles for salmon in the feast hall. It’s a large food supply for a lot of people, especially in the winter,” said Wale, who is from the Gitanmaax First Nation and is Cree-Métis on her mother’s side.

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Politics

Northwest communities sign memorandum on revenue-sharing with province

Editors note: The District of New Hazelton, District of Stewart, Fort St James, Fraser Lake, Hazelton, Houston, Kitimat, North Coast Regional District, Port Edward,  Prince Rupert, Regional District of Bulkley Nechako, Regional District of Kitimat-Smithers, Smithers, Telkwa, City of Terrace, Vanderhoof, Village of Burns Lake, Village of Granisle, Village of Masset, Village of Port Clements, and Village of Queen Charlotte (Daajing Giids) are in the Northwest BC Resource Benefits Alliance.

By Kaitlyn Bailey,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The provincial government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Northwest BC Resource Benefits Alliance (RBA) on Sept. 15, which brings them one step closer to a new revenue-sharing agreement.

The RBA, made up of 21 local governments from Masset to Vanderhoof, have been calling on B.C. for a new funding agreement since 2014.

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Environment, Forests

Delores Broten: the 1990 logging blockade, FOCI and origins of the Watershed Sentinel

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) was talked about in the past tense, when Delores Broten and Don Malcom moved to Cortes in 1987. In the first of a series of posts about the origins of FOCI, Broten talks about the 1990 logging blockade that inspired FOCI’s rebirth, and led to the award-winning environmental magazine ‘the Watershed Sentinel.’

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