Tag Archives: Ministry of Environment and Climate Change

Energy, Environment

Suncor Energy accidentally released 700 kilograms of propane at Port Moody terminal, prompting compliance letter

By Patrick Penner, Tri-Cities Dispatch, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Suncor Energy’s terminal in Port Moody has been issued an advisory by the province after 700 kilograms of propane was released into the environment.

The oil company’s upper Burrard Terminal is located in the Glenayre neighbourhood and used as a product distribution facility. 

On Dec. 15, 2022, human error led to the release of the propane, but the company did not report the incident until Jan. 24.

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Indigenous Nations, Industry, Politics

Mining and conservation can go hand in hand, environment ministers say

By Matteo Cimellaro, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Mining projects and protected land can co-exist, two provincial environment ministers said at a press conference on Friday after two days of meetings with their counterparts from across the country.

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Animals

Success: The search for Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island

Up until now, there have not been any reports of Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island since 2017. That just changed a few weeks ago in the island’s more remote northern forest. 

Field biologist Sabina Leader Mense reports, “I was sitting in the skiff with my husband Dennis, under an unbelievably brilliant sky of stars. It was the last station of the night, pushing midnight, and in the 16th minute of that 17 minute call playback sequence, I heard something. I remember pivoting around in the boat. The sound was behind me and you do what owls do, you turn around.  I think your ears and the muscles and your ears cup and you’re just straining to hear something. Then I heard the call again. It was very distant, but I recognized it was an owl. I began analyzing the audio disks in my head going, ‘is it a Northern Pygmy Owl? Is it a Northern Saw-Whet Owl?’ As I was doing this, it called the third time and I recognized it was a Western Screech Owl.”  

Continue reading Success: The search for Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island →
Energy

An invisible climate killer is lurking behind B.C.’s LNG boom

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by smell and 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide for its  short-term warming impact on the climate, methane is explosive, toxic  and can make helicopters fall out of the sky. It’s like something out of a superhero movie — or a bad dream.

About half of Canada’s reported methane emissions  are produced by the oil and gas industry, both from regular operations  and leaks. But much of the climate damage caused by the sector’s methane  pollution goes undetected due to weak regulations.

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Animals

Canada betrays its ‘Species at Risk Act’ while province wipes out mountain caribou habitat: VWS

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The nation’s Species at Risk Act is no law at all, says a local environmental group.

The Valhalla Wilderness Society contends that the Species at Risk Act (SARA) does not provide protection under the law for the endangered mountain caribou and its habitat, 30 years after Canada signed an accord — at the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Rio De Janeiro — to protect biodiversity, which spawned the enactment of SARA. 

Continue reading Canada betrays its ‘Species at Risk Act’ while province wipes out mountain caribou habitat: VWS →