Tag Archives: Pipelines

Environment, Politics

BC election 2024: where do parties stand on climate?

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The B.C. election race officially got underway this week with affordability, housing costs and healthcare already entrenched as top concerns for voters. 

Yet the climate crisis still ranks high as an election issue, right after health and pocketbook concerns — ahead of other problems like crime and the toxic drug crisis — and may be the deciding factor for undecided voters at the ballot box.

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Energy, Politics

Fossil fuel execs outlined a 7-part playbook to influence governments and media. Here’s what you need to know

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Last week, explosive claims made behind closed doors by a fossil fuel industry executive were made public. The claims — about how oil and gas giant TC Energy conducts its business — were made during an insider call at the company, which builds and operates crude oil and natural gas pipelines across North America.

The 42-minute spiel from Liam Iliffe, then a TC Energy executive, was part of a March “lunch and learn” session for 150 external relations employees across the continent. While the company said some of his claims were inaccurate and didn’t reflect how it operates, the leaked recordings have since made international headlines, sparked a probe from the B.C. government into his tactics and prompted harsh rebuke from politicians.

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Energy, Politics

Leaked TC Energy recording prompts B.C. to probe claims of outsized lobbying influence on government

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma has asked a provincial watchdog to look into a series of bold claims about how an executive at a Canadian oil and gas giant — and former BC NDP political staffer — claimed the company had leveraged political connections to persuade the provincial government to significantly weaken its environmental policies.

“We’ve been given opportunities to write entire briefing notes for ministers and premiers and prime ministers,” a TC Energy executive was recorded saying in a leaked tape from March 2024, adding that sometimes “overworked and underpaid” public servants “just want the job done for them.”

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

Tiny House Warriors found guilty of all charges related to altercations at TMX worksite

Editor’s note: While Kamloops is more than 350 km away by air, the themes running through this story (Civil disobedience, Indigenous rights, Individual responsibility and the law, Indigenous vs Canadian law, Canada’s failure to curb her emissions, Corporate influence, Colonialism, The future of Canada’s energy sector, Climate change etc.) are of vital importance to the residents of Cortes, Quadra and all British Columbia.

By Aaron Hemens, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Members of the Tiny House Warriors who have been found guilty of all of the criminal charges against them for their actions at a Trans Mountain worksite say they did not commit any crimes under Secwépemc law.

Provincial court Judge Lorianna Bennett released her verdict in the case on May 30 at the Kamloops Law Courts — condemning Isha Jules, Mayuk (Nicole) Manuel, Tricia Charlie and Sami Nasr on various counts.

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Energy

Challenge to federal law that poses ‘existential threat’ to Alberta goes to Supreme Court

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

The Supreme Court of Canada this week will examine whether the federal law that evaluates the impacts of proposed resource projects is unconstitutional.

The Impact Assessment Act (IAA) looks into the environmental, health and economic impacts of proposed resource projects — like pipelines and mines — and came into force in 2019 when the federal government passed Bill C-69.

Soon after, the Alberta government brought a legal challenge against the law and its regulations, arguing it was federal overreach encroaching on provincial jurisdiction. The Alberta Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the provincial government in May 2022, calling the IAA an “existential threat” to the provincial right to control and develop resources.

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